The Polish Connection 32

October, 1918

Dear Barbara,

Have I ever told you about Schiebung? This is one of the words most frequently heard in camp. The best literal translation of the word seems to be shoving. In camp it is applied to any transaction by which something is achieved outside the officially allowed methods. From one point of view the camp is like a great company of school-boys. Life is lived under strict rules, which we had no share in making, and which we feel challenged to break whenever it can safely be done. The more ingenious the method the more it is enjoyed. The psychology of officers and guards are closely studied and every weakness taken advantage of, though kindness isn’t abused. Things that are specially forbidden, such as socialist newspapers, are among the most certain to appear. Alcohol is prohibited, but empty bottles continually turn up in deserted corners.

It is amusing for someone like me who has the confidence of both the officers and the other prisoners, to watch the battle of wits that goes on between them. It is necessary, also, to be careful on the one hand not to betray in conversation the confidences of my fellow internees.

Love,

Peter

Dear Barbara,

One of my friends has been taken to an isolation hospital for T.B. and other infectious diseases; which is located on the hillside. For the more seriously ill patients a special ward is in use at Noble’s Hospital. Hopefully, this will be better for him than the experience I had of being here at our camp hospital.

Our artists produce water colours, postcards, and steel engravings; the proceeds from the sale of these prints are given to the sick and burial club to insure a caring response to sick and dying prisoners and to ensure (when needed) a proper burial.

Turkish prisoners with a detailed knowledge of wild life in their native land, produce a great variety of beaded snakes; the open mouth of the snake is used as a pin cushion and the body of the reptile is slung over the shoulder so enabling the sewer to work freely with both hands. So realistic these snakes are in execution and colouring that I have seen people back away from them as if they were alive.

One day recently the guards arrested two men who were chatting together rather loudly as they walked along. The soldiers, no doubt new arrivals from England, marched the two men at gun-point to the main guard-room. There to their dismay they found out that the conversation they had overheard was Manx not German as they had thought.

Another incident happened when a farmer’s cart wheels sank into a tunnel on the Knockaloe Beg Lane, which runs along the North perimeter of the camp. Some of our group used to crawl through it of an evening and go to a public house in Peel; returning again to the camp after closing time.

One of the plays that we will be having at our theatre is called Dynamit, and it was written by an internee, William Karn, and directed by E. Hameister, who also plays the lead, with another 11 men in the cast. It is set in a villa in Berlin. Of course the language used is German, so not everyone will be able to understand the dialogue, but they will go anyway, as it is a diversion. It is a long play, starting at 7.45 and going on until 9.30.

Love to you all,

Peter  

All the talk around here is now about the Spanish flu, a global outbreak of influenza that is said to be the worst the world has ever known. There are many locally who are suffering from it. Most of the schools have closed.

The origin of the outbreak isn’t known but its popular name of Spanish Flu points to the most likely location. It started out in June-July this year but the more deadly wave hit in October. Some however are suggesting that it started when the Americans joined the war, so are blaming them.

Public opinion blames a variety of circumstances such as the lice ridden trenches, unsanitary conditions at the front and even that it was divine intervention for the terrible atrocities occurring throughout the war zones. No treatment has been discovered which has any real effect.

Dear Barbara,

I expect you read about the man shot by terrorists in Cyprus recently. He was an Englishman employed by the police for interrogation. So I don’t expect he was very much liked. The only result was that the army had to search the village where it happened and found a store of bombs in the cinema. The bomb expert said they were too dangerous to move, and they blew up the lot, cinema and all. It was the latest idea of saying that all bombs found on civil property are too dangerous to move and must be blown upon the spot and it seems rather a good way of dealing with such people. No compensation is paid, and insurance companies refuse to pay as well, which adds to the effectiveness.

I expect you have also heard about a Major who was court martialled for driving into a crowd in the Cyprus riots. He was acquitted which was a very good thing as it would have put everyone in very great difficulties and probably danger. The only thing to do when involved in a riot is to get out as soon as possible and on no account to stop or the crowd will grab the gun and probably shoot all the people in the vicinity. In the street in question there was no alternative but to drive on the street which is very narrow. I have driven down it quite often to get to the police HQ where there is a telephone extension and it would be very tricky to get caught in a riot just there. I shall just have to hope I don’t get caught in a riot as it seems whatever one does someone is going to say it was wrong.

I never carry a gun if I can possibly help it just for that very reason. Still no need to worry – there are no riots at present.

Love from John

I wonder if Peter has heard the news about Poland. They have declared their independence from Russia, and a new Polish government is proclaimed in Lublin. The new commander in chief is going to be Jozef Pilsudski.

And now it is November 11th, and the war is over. As soon as the news was announced, all the church bells began to ring, and every house around put a flag out of the window. I can hardly believe that it is true, that our prayers have been answered and that the war is truly over.

There have been many local street parties organised in the area, for this first weekend of peace, with everyone coming together and contributing what food they could.

I cannot begin to say how relieved we all are. An armistice agreement was signed in a railway car outside of Compiegne in France. John says he will not be home quite straight away, but by early next month hopefully. But I have not heard from Peter about how soon he will be released. The Belgian royal family will be returning to Brussels by the end of the month, and I am sure most of the Belgians who have been living here will also be soon returning to their own country. There were 250,000 of them here and another 100,000 wounded Belgian soldiers.

The German government of Max von Baden asked President Woodrow Wilson for a ceasefire awhile ago. After talks had taken place, Baden accepted Wilson’s Fourteen Points Peace Programme. Wilson had more difficulty persuading the French and the British to accept this programme.

After Wilson agreed to accept changes concerning reparations, the Armistice was signed. All territorial conquests achieved by the Central Powers had to be abandoned. The German Army also surrendered 30,000 machine-guns, 2,000 aircraft, 5,000 locomotives, 5,000 lorries and all its submarines.

The papers are of course full of references to the end of the war. I will put in some of the more interesting ones from my point of view.

This is from Percival Philips of the Daily Express (12th November, 1918)

Just at eleven I came into the little town of Leuze, which had been one of the headquarters nearest the uncertain front. From the windows of all the houses round about, and even from the roofs, the inhabitants looked down on the troops and heard uncomprehendingly the words of the Colonel as he read from a sheet of paper the order that ended hostilities. A trumpeter sounded the 'stand fast.’ In the narrow high-street at one end of the little square were other troops moving slowly forward, and as the notes of the bugle rose clear and crisp above the rumble of the gun-carriages these men turned with smiles of wonder and delight and shouted to each other ‘The war’s over’.

The band played ‘God save the King’. None heard it without a quiver of emotion. The mud-stained troops paused in the crowded street, the hum of traffic was stilled. A rippling cheer was drowned in the first notes of the Belgian hymn; the ‘Marseillaise’ succeeded it, and the army of each ally was thus saluted in turn. I do not think that any one heard the few choked words of the old mayor when he tried to voice the thanks of Belgium for this day of happiness.

From Philip Gibbs, Daily Chronicle, (12th November 1918)

Our troops knew this morning that the Armistice had been signed. I stopped on my way to Mons outside brigade headquarters, and an officer said, ‘Hostilities will cease at eleven o'clock’. All the way to Mons there were columns of troops on the march, and their bands played ahead of them, and almost every man had a flag on his rifle, the red, white, and blue of France, the red, yellow, and black of Belgium. They wore flowers in their caps and in their tunics, red and white chrysanthemums given them by the crowds of people who cheered them on their way, people who in many of these villages had been only one day liberated from the German yoke. Our men marched singing, with a smiling light in the eyes. They had done their job, and it was finished with the greatest victory in the world.

Sergeant T. Grady, USA Army, (11th November, 1918)

Cold and raining. Runner in at 10.30 with order to cease firing at 11.00 am. Firing continued and we stood by. 306th Machine-Gun Company on my right lost twelve men at 10.55, when a high explosive landed in their position. At 11.00 sharp the shelling ceased on both sides and we don’t know what to say. Captain came up and told us the war was over. We were dumbfounded and finally came to and cheered - and it went down the line like wildfire. I reported Jones’ death and marked his grave. Captain conducted a prayer and cried like a baby.

And what do the Germans think of it all? Here is one point of view mentioned in the papers.

Herbert Sulzbach, German soldier (13th November, 1918)

We now keep meeting small or large parties of British or French prisoners moving west on their way home. What a splendid mood they must be in compared with us. In spite of it all, we can be proud of the performance we put up, and we shall always be proud of it. Never before has a nation, a single army, had the whole world against it and stood its ground against such overwhelming odds; had it been the other way round, this heroic performance could never have been achieved by any other nation. We protected our homeland from her enemies - they never pushed as far as German territory.