Category: diary

Tuesday.  June 4th.  Visit of Camp Inspector.  No news; that is to say, no news of Red Cross parcels.  A whisper of biscuits stirs us more than the account of the latest offensive.

Sunday. June 2nd.   Nothing of interest.  Some people have devoured already half their bread.  I.e. five days ration.  I foresee some lean days.
Without a teacher the acquiring of the correct pronunciation of Spanish is likely to prove difficult.  For the rest I think it will be easy, as it seems a cross between French and Latin.

Friday [Saturday] June 1st.  The glorious first of June.
If a nations decadency be proportional to the amount the individuals thereof wash themselves, we must be the most rotten branch of a very decadent nation, for lately we have not even been able to get the German substitute for soap; so that washing nowadays is a long and painful business, and we have to be always doing it to keep anything like clean.
Substitutes
On account of their being cut off from many parts of the world, the Germans are short of a good many important things, and have invented many clever substitutes to take their place
Tea.   I’ve head of as much as 25/- being paid to a Russian orderly for a lb. of tea.  The tea commonly used here is made from the dried leaves of a type of mint.
Tobacco.   Is only obtained in small quantity and is very dear.  All sorts of poor Dutch Tobacco is smoked and cost 2/6 for a couple of ounces.  Dried mint, and dandelion leaves is smoked, and various blends of all sorts.
Coffee.   is a brew made from either some product of acorns, or from burnt barley.
Soap.   The best costs 5/- an ounce and lathers poorly.  Various cheap substitutes consist of fine whiting, coloured and perfumed.  Today we got (June 1) a tablet of brown substitute marked 93 KA. SEIFE which looks like a soap, can be cut, lathers well, and looks to me rather like palm oil soap.
Leather   is very scarce.  A good pair of field boots costs £10-£12.  We could sell a pair of Tommy’s ankle boots for £5.  Most goods made previously from leather are now made from papier maché (e.g. my suitcase).  Poor boots are made of the same thing, usually with wooden soles.  You can hear the children when they come out of school with their hundreds of wooden soled boots on the asphalt.
White Bread   Is not unobtainable, since white flour is used in white lard cakes, in soup, and in pancakes.  Rye is largely grown in preference to wheat, since they say that rye bread (black bread) is more nutritious than white bread, and all classes eat it.  There are various types of black bread, all of which I have had at times.  The darkest, and coarsest is the kind eaten by the arm, and, to an English palate, quite the worst, and most sour tasting.  It is said to be the most nutritious, and probably is so.
The Officers’ bread is equally dark, but better baked, of finer flour, and the crust has a fine glossy brown crust on it.
The Civilians bread is not quite so nutritious I believe.  It is lighter in colour, due to an admixture of potato I believe; and is better tasting to our palates.  We eat this now.
Wheaten bread, I have seen but not eaten.  It is supplied in some hospitals to patients on light diet.
The amount of bread a man gets here depends on what he does.  The army get all they want.  A working man gets a certain amount.  We get a little less than ½lb. a day.
Sugar: is rationed here to ½lb. a month.
Considerably more is grown I believe, but exported  in exchange for certain scarce imports.
In 1916, when everything else was so short here, sugar was very plentiful.  Since then beet growing has given place somewhat to other things.
Fat   is used entirely for food, which is why soap is unobtainable.
Cocoa.   Is unobtainable.
Cheese.   The two chief sorts I have had here are Limburger, a very strong smelling , but a good tasty cheese; and goats milk cheese, a good cheese but not so tasty.
Sardines in oil   are expensive, costing 3/6 a tin.
At Rastatt however we got tins at 1/6 each; each tin had been punctured however, the olive oil drained out, and bouillon put in and the tin re-closed.
Potatoes, here in Bavaria, at least, are very plentiful, but strictly rationed, and the balance sent to Prussia.

Given a big 2 kilo loaf each to last 10 days.  Today is the first day, but some of us have already devoured considerably more than a tenth.

Friday. May 31st   Two months since we were brought down.  Since I may be 18 months in this country, which Heaven forbid, I’ve decided to keep up my French, and to learn Spanish while in captivity.  Ordered ‘Petit Larousse Illustré (Dictionnaire francais) and intend to order French English; English French; Spanish English; English Spanish; Spanish Grammar.  I dropped Van den Broeck a p.c. today (the first I’ve written anywhere but home) asking him if he will send me some French books.
Later.  Got a Spanish Grammar which he had in stock.  Ordered the others.  Just devoured a pancake.  Feel like I used to feel after Aunt Sue’s Sunday dinner.

Tuesday.  May 28th.  Saw the Camp Inspector again.  Said he had traced Hanna to a camp in Prussia, and promised to send me there.  Took us for an hour’s walk in the grounds and public gardens on hill overlooking Landshut.  From one stand in particular we got a magnificent panorama of Landshut, and the country beyond.  It was fine to be walking out in the open again, but looking over topping scenery like this, one can’t help thinking of England, and the people at home, and feeling rather fed up.
In the evening 13 other RFC people turned up.  Since then until the moment of writing we, the other people, have been shut in our rooms lest, presumably, we get forbidden articles such as compasses from them.
Yesterday evening (May 28th) we had a small potato cake each – with jam, quite an original way of having it.  I’ll write home suggesting it.  I believe Dad would like them better that way.