. The American Legion Weekly [Volume 1, No. 10 (September 5, 1919)]. At the hospital in AvesnesI was assigned to a ward in charge ofseveral Tommies who had been prison-ers for a couple of years. They were sur-prised to see a Yank and one of themeagerly asked me where I was from, say-ing he wanted the address of the firstdoughboy he had seen. Presently a German offered me a largeslice of bread and jam. I didnt feel likeeating, so I declined it. The Tommiesshowed plain disgust. It was evident tothem that I was a new prisoner. I shouldhave taken the bread and ate it when Iwas hungry* I didnt get
. The American Legion Weekly [Volume 1, No. 10 (September 5, 1919)]. At the hospital in AvesnesI was assigned to a ward in charge ofseveral Tommies who had been prison-ers for a couple of years. They were sur-prised to see a Yank and one of themeagerly asked me where I was from, say-ing he wanted the address of the firstdoughboy he had seen. Presently a German offered me a largeslice of bread and jam. I didnt feel likeeating, so I declined it. The Tommiesshowed plain disgust. It was evident tothem that I was a new prisoner. I shouldhave taken the bread and ate it when Iwas hungry* I didnt get another chanceto eat that night or the next day,and the following night we werewell into Belgium. We had beenloaded on box cars suddenlyduring the night when orderswere received to evacuate,that the Yanks were com-ing. At Maubeuge wedropped the body of aTommy who had died on thejourney. FOR five days and nights we rode the box cars and did death rode with every stopbody of some Alliedprisoner was re-moved from thetrain; no Germansdied, because only Atthe. The Germans calledRoosky—we calledRusty the Jerries with minor woundswere on the train. At Na-mur we were each given awashbowl and a spoonand these comprised& our permanent messequipment. At first thebowl was partially filledwith coffee and whenwe had drunk this wegot barley soup and ahunk of bread. In ad-dition to this ration, however,the Jerries on the train hadchow in their packs, but they gaveus none, although one Germanthrow some hardtack to a French-man, much as if he were tossing it toa dog. Our ration after the secondnight consisted of soup, a piece of breadand coffee at night. At Liege we werealso given a piece of bologna sausage,and the Germans got bologna after thatonce a day. One Jerry, however, alwaysdivided his bologna among the Allies, re-fusing to eat any of it himself. We crossed into Germany at Eupenand reached Cologne about 3 oclock onemorning. We were taken from the carsand placed on stretchers
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Keywords: ., bookauthoramerican, bookcentury1900, bookdecade1910, bookyear1919
