Bernard,Perhaps another viewpoint. If you've checked out my thread Naval Recollections, about Major Alfred Ruston, apart from surviving the sinking of the Hythe. and avoided being torpedoed in the evacuation of Helles, he was also taken as a POW. Heres some of his own account of what happened in France.
"My first feeling was one of extreme suprise. I couldn't realise the possibility that I had been captured. I had thought that I may be wounded or knocked out, but not of being captured some distance behind the front line! It was in the big German breakthrough on 30th November 1917, when a good many of us were suprised to find a German instead of the postman, knocking at the door while having breakfast in our imagined security.
Our captors treated us pretty well, and got us back as soon as it was reasonably safe to do so.We marched into Germany- that is to say into German occupied territory along a good road without a shell hole in it and scarcely a sign of the fierce fight our fellows had put up in order to hold the line.
The trip back to Karlsruhe, the distributing centre, took several days, and what I noticed on the journey, went a long way to destroy in my mind the vision of German efficiency. Perhaps all their best men were in the trenches, but those we came in touch with seemed fussy, and anything but efficient. This impression was confirmed by my subsequent observations during a years captivity. There were a number of grouses but nothing of any real seriousness.
Captivity, for an officer at any rate, is a strange experience to one who is fortunate as to avoid ill treatment. Imagine a great boy's school during the holidays, none of the boys having been sent home, and you get some idea of the "rags" and the fun and the emnities of the friendships, and all the thousand and one incidents of a community life but with no work to do. Add to this the fact that we were not allowed out except on walks like those of a school for ladies of the last generation- en crocodile- which only occurred about once a week.
The adults we saw when we were travelling, or were out on walks, looked as a rule, puffy and unhealthy, and had very little colour. Not having been in Germany in the pre war days, I cannot say if this is normal or not. The little children in Baden looked fat and rosy, but in the Harz they looked peaky. The children between 7 and 14 seemed to show the effects of war the most, all looking pasty faced and ill nourished. I never saw any hostility in the people's demeanour: a certain amount of curiosity sometimes, but in the main sheer apathy. The little children were an exception, an occasional piece of chocolate would quite win their hearts and the appearance of our crocodile on a walk was a sign for the gathering of all the children within reach.
After the armistice there was a certain distinct attempt at friendliness observable in the people I came across, despite which I cannot say that it was with any regrets that I boarded the Danish vessell Niels Ebbsen at Warnmunde, and set sail in half a gale for Copenhagen and home on 13th December 1918"
Any thoughts? Regards Steve.
steve hes an officer,most had a comfertable time in the camps,you only have to check the descriptions of most of the officers camps,and dont forget the more than regular parcels from home,some ordinary ORs got no parcels at all,the rest, when folks back home could afford it