POW diaries - Captain Percival Lowe, item 70

• June 21, 2017 02:46:52 L Brittain

   .The first three lines appear in the top margin and appear to be written in a different pen then the rest of the entry.  Through out there are corrections or additions of words made in this same pen.
  

  + this crime was not murder, but  .evcating a disturbance                 
  

  A Russian more or less mattered nothing to the Kaiser point of                             36.

  view.

  
  

  of a Russian by a fellow Russian officer. He had been

  stabbed to death with a pocket knife. The German guard had

  ultimately dashed in with fixed bayonets.  The murderer was taken

  away.  Later he was tried by Court Martial + sentenced to a 

  few months imprisonment part only of which he was compelled

  to do.  I do not think I was allotted his bed.  There were two

  other young English officers, A Belgian Captain and 7 or 8 French

  Officers. We fed in the same room. Our messing was done

  by the Germans at I think 1.50 marks per diem. It was much the same

  as the Citadel but a little inferior.  For example amongst

  the meat one came across a pigs ear or a pigs tail +bones

  which could only be those of a dog.  Our rations were shared

  out French fashion. That is to say each in turn had
  

  first go of the dish + it was etiquette to select the best
  

  piece of meat.  Of course if one was about last one got the
  

  pigs ear.  There were however plenty of vegetables.
  

  The room was old, generally dirty +heated by a stove.
  

  One had a mattress filled with straw. But a fresh supply
  

  was getting difficult to procure.
  

  There was a canteen +a douche in the place. The latter
  

  was down a long passage which was evidently under the
  

  front of the exterior slope.  It had already been used as a means of escape +was now well barred + watched.
  

  The passages were stone, cold + dark.  The place was
  

   added in second pen trivial in quality
  

  lighted with lamps.
  

  At this period we were allowed one bath a week + the
  

  inmates of Wagonhause used to come over on this day
  

  to take theirs, as there was no bath in their establishment.
  

  Later we were allowed a cold bath every morning for 1/2
  

  an hour after appel.
  

  
  

  
  

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