Tag: World War One

1 June 1918

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.

31 May 1918

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.

30 May 1918

Thursday May 30th.  Stopped in bed until 10.am.  Got up.  Washed under the tap (without soap) – sat in the sun in my bare pelt for half an hour, a practice of ours which used to amuse our guards; who have since become used to any eccentricities of ours.  They frequently have on their greatcoats on sunny mornings.  Played bridge all the afternoon until dinner for 1d per hundred.  Lost 2d: Horrors!

28 May 1918

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.

14 May 1918

Tuesday. May 14th.  Detrained at Uln at 5. am on border of Wurtemberg and Bavaria, leaving our belongings in the carriage.  Marched through Uln a fair sized town, with a most beautiful cathedral. The intricacy of the sort of skeleton work on the outside of the building was simply marvellous.  Marched about 2 miles to the next station, and there found a German officers resthouse and restaurant by the railway.  Knocked up the girls in charge, who made us coffee with sugar, with which we had some gorgeous tinned ham, and black bread (officers).  Had to hurry our meal somewhat, and rush, running, jumping, scrambling across rails and over trains and trucks to our train which had come up to the local station.
Midday.  Had lunch at Augsberg.  Fish and sourkrout, which I did not care for, potatoes, followed by hot, sweet white bread (sort of lard cake) with apple sauce.  Very bon.  We, of course, paid for these meals from our credits with the officer.
(Here I should say that Flying Corps officers seem to get considerably better treatment than infantry officers.  Whether because they usually are sent about in small and convenient parties, or because of the ‘good feeling’ which certainly exists between the two flying services, I don’t at present know.  At the same we are subject to much more stringent searchings and cross-examinations)

Evening.  Arrived at Landshut, on Isar in Bavaria.  Met by an interpreter.  Marched in the pouring rain (when I had considerable wind-up on account of my papier-maché suit cases, and the biscuits therein) to our new camp, which proved to be on a hill overlooking Landshut.  It was nearly dark when we arrived; we passed through a very old castle, and into a room which had been a stable, and into which a number of rough beds had been put.  We had a blanket each, several biscuits and jam.

13 May 1918

Monday. May 13th.  French officers and orderlies were issued with their weekly issue of French biscuits (from the French Government).  I never saw any biscuit like these before the War: You simply soak one for a few moments in cold water, put it into a hot oven; or over a hot stove, and, in half an hour, it swells to twice the size, and you have a lump of practically new bread in place of the biscuit.  We bought large numbers of them from the French orderlies at ½ mark (6d) each.  I myself got about 45.
1.30 p.m.  Issue by a Committee of free Red Cross food from Switzerland.  Each officer got a little tea, condensed milk, cocoa, pressed beef, biscuits, cheese, and dripping.  Those of us who had been at Rastatt could scarcely believe our eyes.  Bought glass jars, and enamel plates.  We certainly shan’t stay here long.
2.0 p.m.  Twenty of us, all R.F.C., taken and carefully searched, with all our belongings; numbers of compasses and other useful articles confiscated.  My flying goggles were taken, which I had carefully cherished as a souvenir.
5.0 pm.  Took train for an unknown destination in Bavaria.  Our German officer was again a most courteous and considerate fellow.  He got us dinner on Monday night from a station restaurant during a long stop, roast beef, potato and lettuce salad.  Moreover we had all our Red Cross stuff, so we lived like kings.

11 May 1918

Saturday May 11th.
Brought out mysteriously one by one and catechised by an interpreter (It needs a nice discrimination to decide what questions to answer and what not to answer.  It is manifestly absurd to irritate the man by refusing to answer such questions as <What H.P. had your engine?> when the machine is in their hands, while equally certainly you’re not going to give away any information of real value).
2 p.m.  Sent to the main Karlsruhe camp.  French colonels and majors.  Serbian.  Italian majors.  Three of our own Brigadiers &c.  Grub still average.  Library.  This place is too good to stop in for long.

10 May 1918

Friday. May 10th. Had a short railway journey to Karlsruhe, a very jolly/country town.  Stuck in an ex-hotel there, and locked four in a room.  Usual canteen things, cigarettes, sardines &c. brought up to us.  We cashed cheques on the spot, I for £5.*  Food quite good though distinctly more-ish and largely vegetarian.  Still, after Rastatt, I’ll never grumble again – at least, not seriously.
* My Rastatt cheque has not materialised yet. May 28th

22 April-9 May 1918

Sunday. April. 21st to Friday. May. 10th     Rastatt
The camp was composed of about seven different blocks, of which two were occupied by British officers, and the remainder by French and Portuguese.  In the two British blocks when I arrived were nearly 1500 British officers!  In our block, No 2, were about 12 huts, each containing about 70 or 80 bunks in double tiers.  We 800 had about 80 yards square to walk about in, in between the huts; for the first week of my stay there I could get no book to read, and since, at first the weather was bad, and we were were forced to stay indoors, the boredom was intolerable.  Moreover, the quality of the food provided was very poor, and the only cooking appliances there would not permit of anything but boiling, so we lived entirely on soups, and meatless soup at that.  At its best, it was a thick mixture of barley, bean meal, potatoes in their skin (of which fully a half were bad) and soup extract; though the changes were rung on such things as carrots (so called, but in reality mangel-wurzels) swedes; semolina, beans, and very occasionally a few scraps of meat; at its worst it was a mixture of chopped up bad potatoes, swedes, and mangels.  We had soup twice a day, and in addition, a ration each of a fifth of a loaf of black bread.  A very fair days meal was this

8.30.      Coffee.  Sugar.  Bread.
12.30.    Soup of Barley, Carrots (sic), Potatoes, Soup Extract

3.30       Tea or Coffee
5.30       Soup of Potatoes, Carrots, Beetroot
Great competition for ‘Buckshee’ soup

About once a week at tea-time, they issued a spoonful of jam or an ounce of some sausage of, I think, pigs-blood.  We were all hungry there all of the time, and I myself used to feel very dizzy and weak at times.  We occasionally were able to buy biscuits of some kind of meal from the canteen at 3d each but there was so great a rush on them, that a canteen committee was got up to ensure equal distribution.  On a good day one might get four biscuits.  Towards the end of my stay we were able to buy tins of sardines at 1/6 each, and bags of dried fruit (but very inferior to our English) at 5/- for about ¾ lb, but my money ran out after 10 days, and it took about three weeks there to get a cheque cashed.
We were vaccinated once there, and inoculated three times.  It was difficult to avoid becoming lousy.  After ten days I got a hot shower bath, had my hair clipped short, and had a sort of green chemical paste painted over my body, which took off all the hair.  Looked, and still look, more like a convict than anything but feel rather happier.
My second day I ran into P.D. Rogers, of KRRs, who was in my section as a Cadet at Oxford.  We had some long talks of the old times at Oxford, and succeeded, without much difficulty, in making each others mouths water very freely over past feeds.  (While I am on the subject, I must say that my thoughts have so constantly harped upon food, that I am seriously thinking of editing a book – ‘Meals I have eaten’ by R.a.B.)  We arranged a great platoon dinner to take place (please God) after the war, of all the survivors of No.14. platoon, Keble College, Oxford – or, if they are many enough, a sectional dinner.  He met two of them in Captivity – Styles, of No. 5 Section and Taylor of No 7 section.  I heard from him too that Cameron has followed Bennett to the Indian Army – good luck to him.  I heard here too that poor old Battersby has gone west, gassed.  It seemed difficult to realise that just a year ago I was a Cadet at Oxford.  I little thought then, as I celebrated by 23rd birthday at the Clarendon with Brown, that I should spend my 24th here.  Still, God knows, I’ve no right to grumble, I might easily have been ‘full fathom five’ by now.
There recurred very little there to make special mention of.  What little country we could see was very fine and hilly; ranges of hills, stretching away into the distance, covered by the Black Forest, with stretches of vineyards in places.  May 1st.  Dad’s birthday.
Batches of officers were sent away to permanent camps every Monday, Wednesday and Friday, usually going to stay at the clearing camp at Karlsruhe for a few days first.  You may guess what suppressed excitement there was before each list.  On my second day at Rastatt I found out that an R.F.C. pilot named Hanna was in the other block, so I managed to get a note taken in to him.  He came see me next day for an hour (you would have thought we’d not seen each other for years) and we solemnly recited our respective adventures since we parted.  He left Rastatt on the Friday sending a note to say he thought he was going to Freiburg.
To cut a long and painful story short, after 3 weeks, feeling halfstarved, and fed up to the teeth (but not with food) 8 of us, R.F.C. officers were moved to Karlsruhe.