It was horrible. They trapped us completely, and very few
escaped." The German defense of these white flag incidents was given to
Trooper G. Douglas by a prisoner who declared that the men were quite
innocent of intention to deceive, but that whenever their officers saw
the white flag they hauled it down, and compelled them to fight.
Many British soldiers suffered from the treachery of the Germans
in wearing English and French uniforms, and their letters home are
full of indignation at the practises of the enemy. It was in the
fighting following such a ruse at Landrecies that the Honorable
Archer-Windsor-Clive, of the Coldstream Guards, met his death. "Another
time," an artillery officer relates, "they ran into one of our regiments
with some of their officers dressed in French uniforms. They said 'Ne
tirez-pas, nous sommes Francais,' and asked for the C.O. He came up, and
then they calmly blew his brains out!" A similar act of treachery is
recorded by Lieutenant Oswald Anne, R.A., in a letter published in the
_Leeds Mercury_: "At one place where the Berkshire Regiment was on guard
a German force arrived attired in French uniforms. To keep up the
illusion, a German called out in French from the wire entanglements that
they wanted to interview the commanding officer. A major of the
Berkshires who spoke French, went forward, and was immediately shot
down.
Pages:
73
74
75
76
77
78
79
80
81
82
83
84
85
86
87
88
89
90
91
92
93
94
95
96
97