By Lieut. S. E. Buckley
On the day fixed for the court-martial a large party of Allied officers, consisting of witnesses and accused,
were paraded and left the fort under a strong escort. The French contingent consisted of about eight officers,
and the British, of Medlicott, Batty Smith, and myself.
We left the fort at about 8 a.m. and arrived at the Kommandantur, to which was also attached the military
prison, at about 9.15. Here we were all shown into a room to await proceedings, and were shortly joined by
poor old Bojah, the chief accused, and Kicq, both of whom had been kept in solitary confinement since the
day of the row. They both looked awfully "low" and ill, especially Kicq, who had been short of food for some time owing to the confiscation of his parcels.
The trial started at 10 a.m., and consisted in the examination of Du Celié and Batty Smith. Unfortunately, only
the officers whose cases were being examined at the time were allowed to be present, so that we were only
able to judge of the temper of the court by the sentences imposed. Du Celié, a Frenchman, who had been
charged with complicity and who conducted his own defense, was acquitted. As a matter of fact all he had
done was to translate a letter written by Batty Smith to the Commandant, at the former's request, in which
Batty Smith was alleged to have slandered the Commandant. Batty Smith was awarded one and a half year's
imprisonment, and appealed against his sentence.
Bojah himself and Kicq were next examined, and as far as I can remember they were still before the court
when the luncheon interval arrived.
We had brought lunch with us, and we had made it as sumptuous as possible in order to impress the Germans
with the lack of success of their submarine campaign. After lunch Medlicott and I had a little quiet amusement
to ourselves. We had both made fairly elaborate preparations for an escape, should an opportunity arise during the proceedings. We had a large quantity of food in our pockets, and portions of civilian clothing, including
mufti hats, concealed on our persons. During lunch the sentries had been withdrawn from the waiting-room
and only one remained standing in the doorway.
The room was on the ground floor and looked out on to the courtyard of the military prison; it seemed but a
simple matter to jump out of the window into the courtyard, whence, by turning a corner round the building, a
clear exit could be made on to the main road. We got some French officers to start an animated conversation
in the doorway in order to hide us from the sentry, and we had previously arranged with Kicq (who had
returned to his cell during lunch and whose window overlooked the room in which we were collected) to give
us the signal when all was clear.
At the given signal from Kicq, Medlicott jumped on to the window-sill, and was just about to drop into the
courtyard below, when to my amazement I saw him scramble back into the room again and burst into fits of
laughter. On looking out of the window I discovered the cause. There, leaning up against the wall,
immediately below, was "Fritz," the canteen man from the fort--"Fritz," fat and forty, with an ugly leer on his
face and brandishing a fearsome looking revolver in his hand. He had apparently been stationed round the
corner, where Kicq could not see him, and had only just arrived below the window as Medlicott was about to
jump out.
I might remark that this was the only occasion during my whole stay in Germany that I ever came across a
really intelligently posted guard.
The examination of Bojah, Kicq, and later De Robiere, continued till late in the afternoon. Kicq received a
sentence of two years, De Robiere one year, and Bojah nine months. As an instance of the gross injustice of
the whole affair, during De Robiere's trial the public prosecutor stated that Kicq's action did not receive the
support of his brother officers, either British or French. This, of course, was quite untrue, and De Robiere,
who tried to protest, was immediately "sat upon" by the president of the court. De Robiere made frantic efforts
to get a hearing, and failing in his attempt endeavored to waylay the public prosecutor on his way out of court.
This brave functionary was unfortunately able to elude De Robiere's wrath by escaping from a side door.
Medlicott and I entered the court-room and stood side by side facing the officers who composed the court and
who were seated on a raised platform at the far end of the room. The court consisted of about eight officers
presided over by an old colonel covered with a multitude of parti-colored ribbons. Our two cases were taken
together. We were accused of insulting the Commandant, escaping from arrest, disobedience to orders, and a
few other minor offenses; Medlicott, in addition, was accused of having broken the ventilator over the door of
his cell.
The proceedings opened in a lively manner by Medlicott, who was in his usual truculent mood, refusing to
answer any questions. This immediately brought down the wrath of the president upon him, and he was told
that if he persisted in his attitude he would be put in solitary confinement for contempt of court. As this didn't
suit Medlicott's book at all (he was at the time planning a fresh escape), I took it upon myself to accuse the
interpreter of having falsely interpreted what Medlicott had said. I explained that Medlicott wished to ask if he
had the right to refuse to answer questions. This luckily satisfied everybody (except the interpreter, who didn't
count).
After the Commandant and Feldwebel had given their evidence, the former with some anger and more
excitement, I got up and read a long speech in German in Medlicott's and my own defense. It is my greatest
regret to-day that I have no copy of this classic document, which had been carefully prepared for me by an
Alsatian officer. In it I "let myself go" and accused both the Commandant and the Feldwebel of cowardice and
of shirking going to the front. In fact, I thoroughly enjoyed myself at their expense; so also, I think, did
Medlicott, who turned round during my speech and grinned openly in the faces of the Commandant and the
Feldwebel, who were sitting directly behind us. After I had read our defense, the public prosecutor summed up the case against us, and, if I remember rightly, asked that we might be sentenced to two years' solitary
confinement each. I think he was rather annoyed at the time because we had been able to get hold of a German
military law book in the fort in which I found that we had been accused under the wrong paragraph, and this
mistake I had enlarged upon in our defense.
We were then marched out of court, and returned a few minutes later to hear the verdict of six weeks' solitary
confinement for Medlicott and six and a half months for myself. Against these findings we both naturally
appealed.
The whole affair had been unjust in the extreme. In the first place, the proceedings had been conducted in
German, of which Medlicott understood next to nothing. We were allowed no defending lawyer; and, finally,
our request to call witnesses in our defense was disallowed.
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