![John Henry](pix/henry-j-press.jpg)
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.