1526 Private John Henry
1st Battalion, Royal Guernsey Light Infantry

His home address was at Vazon in Castel parish, and he would be sent to France as one of the 149 men who were the first group of reinforcements sent to bolster the 1st Battalion, who, in late November, 1917, were engaged in the Battle of Cambrai. According to Diex Aïx, this party of reinforcements had embarked on the 24th November, disembarked in France the following day, and then had reached the Base Depot on the 27th November. It appears that the men then arrived at Masniéres on the 30th November, only to be greeted with the order to 'Fix Bayonets' to repulse the Germans who had just launched their counter-attack at Les Rues Vertes. A day later on the 1st December, 1917, John Henry was seriously wounded with shrapnel in his shoulder, and then taken prisoner by the Germans.

The following is his account of subsequent life as a Prisoner of War:

"I was taken to a hospital at Le Cateau and my wounds were dressed at once.

I was placed in a bed with a straw mattress and was supplied with two blankets. The food was quite decent and we were attended by German doctors, but I had to undergo no operation. My wounds were dressed twice a day with ordinary bandages. The orderlies here were good, and the whole time I remained in this hospital I was in bed.

On the 28th December, I was removed in an ordinary train to Celle, arriving there on the 31st December, and during the journey they gave us good food. I was moved from the train on a stretcher to a lazaret, and there were about 23 in my ward. The beds here were also good, being supplied with a straw mattress, two blankets and a sheet. A German doctor, Dr Ellerbruck, attended me. He was a good doctor and he saw that my wounds were dressed every day by an orderly, but they had to use paper bandages. I know that one of the orderlies who attended me was a Canadian and named Gamble. The sanitary arrangements in the lazaret were good and there was a bathroom.

The food here was quite eatable, but I could have done with more. Each day at 7 o'clock they gave us coffee and a slice of bread, at 9.30 they gave us another slice of bread, and at 12 some soup; at 3 o'clock we had another slice of bread and some coffee, and at 6 o'clock we had two slices of bread and sometimes soup.

During the month of January I was able to get up and walk about a bit, and before I left the camp I was able to walk quite well.

We were allowed to write two letters and four postcards a month, and I also received letters from home, and I know that the letters I wrote home were received. I received Red Cross parcels, but some had certain articles removed, usually either soap, tea, sugar, or cigarettes. I also received Red Cross bread parcels irregularly.

I was never able to do any work. I remained here until June, and on the 18th of that month I left for Soltau, travelling by ordinary train, and reached that place on the 19th. We were given no food during the journey. On arrival at Soltau I was taken to a prisoners' camp, which was composed of wooden huts. There were about 80 beds in each hut. Each bed had a mattress and two blankets. In my hut we had almost all English prisoners with one or two French and Belgians. I do not know either the name of the Commandant or Assistant Commandant. On my arrival at the camp I was examined by the doctor, who marked me off for no work and told me to put in an application for exchange, which he said he would support. The food here was very poor and we English prisoners could not have lived without the parcels we received through the Red Cross. The grocery parcels came very regularly, but the parcels of biscuits very rarely.

The sanitary condition of the camp was bad, but there were baths supplied to the prisoners. The huts were cleaned by orderlies, and in my hut there were two Englishmen as orderlies when I left. Entertainments were allowed in the camp, and several of these were got up by prisoners while I was there. We also had plenty of books supplied to us.

The treatment of prisoners I consider to have been very fair, and I never saw any cruelty by any of the German NCOs and I got my letters regularly and we were able to write letters and postcards, as at Celle.

I left Soltau on the 2nd September and travelled through, in an ordinary train, to Aachen, and after stopping there two days I was taken to Rotterdam.

While in the camp at Soltau I often heard how hard-up people were for food, and during my journey to Aachen we were often asked when stopping at the stations to give food to people on the platforms, and the people looked pretty hungry."

 

Again according to Diex Aïx, John Henry would arrive back in England on the 7th September, 1918, his application for exchange having clearly proved successful. As can be seen from above, it was standard procedure for any repatriated Prisoner of War to undergo a de-briefing session after return. In this case the interview was conducted by a solicitor, Everard G Thorne of 22 Aldermanbury in the City of London on the 20th September, 1918, and he would give his opinion that: "This man gave his report quite well".

One finds that John Henry's report is commendable as he acknowledged the decent medical treatment that he received. When compared with the conditions 'enjoyed' by Major Le Gallais, it seems that the Major fared less well, possibly because John Henry was mainly in hospital. But, it is also clear that his brief account of Germans begging for food would have contributed to the broader intelligence picture of living conditions in Germany, and thus, the morale of the civilian population which, as we now know, was very low in the latter half of 1918.