Capture

For over three months No. 3 Squadron had been occupied daily in ranging the heavy guns which night after
night crept into their allotted positions in front of Albert. On July 1st 1916 the Somme offensive opened with
gas and smoke and a bombardment of unprecedented severity. To the pilots and observers in an artillery
squadron the beginning of this battle brought a certain relief, for we were rather tired of flying up and down,
being shot at continually by fairly accurate and remarkably well hidden anti-aircraft batteries, while we
registered endless guns on uninteresting points. On the German side of the trenches, before the battle, the
country seemed almost peaceful and deserted. Anti-aircraft shells arrived and burst in large numbers, coming
apparently from nowhere, for it was almost rare to see a flash on the German side; if one did, it was probably

Gutersloh and Clausthal

I believe the camp at Gütersloh had formerly been a lunatic asylum. It was composed of six or seven large
independent barrack-like buildings. One of these buildings was a civilian camp, and one was a quarantine,
used also as a solitary confinement or Stubenarrest prison; another was used as the quarters of the
commandant. The ground was sandy, and I should think comparatively healthy and dry even in the wettest
weather. In hot weather the heat was much accentuated, but there were patches of small pine trees in the camp
which gave a pleasant shade. The camp area could not have been less than eight acres altogether, enclosed by

The First Evasion

A brief study of the plan of the camp and its defenses will make our plan of escape quite clear. The sentries
are represented by ×, the arc lights by (·), and the dogs in kennels by "O." All round the camp was iron wire
torpedo netting, with two-inch mesh, about 12 feet high on iron poles. The gardens offered a very suitable
hiding-place close to the wire-netting. At "G" was the German guardhouse, and "K" was the kitchen, and
Germans used to pass frequently between the guardhouse and the kitchen along a footpath close to the wire.
At 6.45 an extra sentry was placed outside the wire at "S," and it was not sufficiently dark to make the attempt
till 6.30, so that we had a quarter of an hour to cut the wire and to find an opportunity to cross the path and
reach the darkness behind the glare of the arc lights.

What Happened to Kicq

We now felt pretty safe from immediate pursuit, and turning off to the right we made a semicircle round the
camp and crossed the causeway between the two lakes. There was a good chance that our absence would not
be discovered for another sixteen hours, that is, till the 11.30 roll-call next morning. We had about 16 to 20
kilometres to go to Goslar station, but as it was not yet 7 o'clock, and as our train left at 2.13 a.m., we had
heaps of time. Besides this, Kicq knew the first 6 miles or so, having been that way on a walk. The walk to
Goslar was almost without incident. We had two compasses, which had been made in the camp by a Belgian,
and we had a sketch map of the way, which was mostly through pine forests. We were really overcautious and

The Frontier

When we got to Crefeld I saw that the station was on the east side of the town, but after my experience at
Düsseldorf I thought it would be much safer to walk boldly right through the middle of the town than to skirt
round the edges. My brother was at this time interned at Crefeld, and I thought how amusing it would be if I
were to meet him in the town and wondered if he would keep a straight face when I winked at him. The walk
through the town was without incident. One fellow, in Landsturm uniform, a prison guard I should think,
turned round and looked at me in a nasty way, perhaps recognizing my likeness to my brother, but I walked
quickly on and nothing came of it. It must have been just after 2 p.m. when I got through into the open
country on the southwest side of Crefeld, and a more horrible country I have never seen; it was absolutely flat,

Paying the Piper

Next morning I was marched off with my two old guards, and during the march, by orders from the Company
H.Q., a third was added. We went by train to Gladsbach, and I was locked up in a strong room in the citadel.
There was a spy-hole in the door, and a number of people came and had a look at me through it. Several plates
of vegetable soup and a large hunk of very satisfying brown army bread were given to me later. An exhaustive
search of the cell disclosed a book hidden in the straw mattress (which was verminous, by the way) on deeds

Removal to a Strafe Camp

About this time I wrote home for the first time in code. The last time I had been home on leave from France
before being taken, I had made up, with the help of the rest of my family, a very rough sort of code depending
on the formation of the letters. I wrote a longish message, very small, on a piece of cigarette paper, and stuck
it to the flap of the envelope, and then wrote a code message in the letter saying, "Tear open flap of envelope."
The letter got through all right, but they failed at home to see that it was in code. The other letters I wrote in
code, and I wrote many from Fort 9 (and much more important ones), all got through successfully.