18 - Three Times and Out by Nellie McClung

Delve into the gripping true story of M. C. Simmons, a Canadian soldier who found himself at the mercy of the German Army during the tumultuous early days of World War I. This narrative chronicles his harrowing sixteen months as a prisoner of war, detailing his interactions with fellow captives from Allied forces, as well as his insightful observations of his captors and their homeland. Most strikingly, we follow Simmons through his daring escape attempts—each more audacious than the last—his subsequent recaptures and punishments, and the perilous journey through enemy territory that defined his relentless spirit. As McClung notes, Private Simmons is a close and accurate observer who sees clearly and talks well. He tells a straightforward, unadorned tale, every sentence of which is true, and convincing. Prepare to be captivated by a story of resilience and courage.

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:01):
Section seventeen of Three Times and Out by Nellie mc lung.
This LibriVox recording is in the public domain. Chapter nineteen,
the blackest chapter of all. When the days were at
their longest, some of the Russians who had been working

(00:21):
for the farmers came into the camp, refusing to go
back because the farmers made them work such long hours.
There is daylight saving in Germany, which made their rising
one hour earlier, and the other end of the day
was always the dark. This made about a seventeen hour day,

(00:42):
and the Russians rebelled against it. The farmers paid so
much a day, about twenty five cents, and then got
all the work out of the prisoners they could, and
some of them were worked on mercifully hard and badly treated.
Each night a few Russians, footsore, weary and heavy eyed

(01:04):
from lack of sleep, trailed into camp with sullen faces,
and we were afraid there was going to be trouble.
On the night of July third, three tired Russians came
into camp from the farms they had been working on.
After we had had our supper. The n c O
was waiting for them. The trouble had evidently been reported

(01:27):
to headquarters and the orders had come back. The commandant
was there to see that the orders were carried out.
In a few minutes, the n c O started the
Russians to run up and down the space in front
of the huts. We watched the performance in amazement. The
men ran with dragging footsteps, tired with their long tramp

(01:51):
and their long day's work. But when their speed slackened,
the n c O threatened them with his bayonet. For
an hour, they ran with never a minute's breathing spell, sweating, puffing,
lurching in their gait, and still the merciless order was
marsh marsh, and the three men went struggling on. When

(02:18):
the darkness came, they were allowed to stop, but they
were so exhausted they had to be helped to bed
by their friends. We did not realize that we had
been witnessing the first act in the most brutal punishment
that a human mind could devise, And thinking that the
trouble was over, we went to sleep, indignant at what

(02:40):
we had seen. In the morning, before any of us
were awake, and about a quarter of an hour before
the time to get up, a commotion started in our
hut German soldiers, dozens of them, came in, shouting to
everybody to get up, and dragging the Russians out of bed.

(03:01):
I was sleeping in an upper berth, but the first
shout awakened me, and when I looked down, I could
see the soldiers flourishing their bayonets and threatening everybody. The
Russians were scurrying out like scared rabbits, but the British
not so easily intimidated, where asking what's the row? One

(03:22):
of the British walter Herkum, was struck by a bayonet
in the face, cutting a deep gash across his cheek
and the lower part of his ear. Tom Morgan dodged
a bayonet thrust by jumping behind the stove and escaped
without injury. When I looked down, I caught the eyes
of one of our guards, a decent old chap of

(03:45):
much the same type as sank, and his eyes were
full of misery and humiliation, but he was powerless to
prevent the outbreak of frightfulness. I dressed myself in my berth.
The space below was too already, and I thought I
could face it better with my clothes on. When I

(04:05):
got down. The hut was nearly empty, but a Gordon
Highlander who went out of the door a few feet
ahead of me, was slashed at by one of the
NCOs and jumped out of the way just in time.
All of this was preliminary to roll call. When we
were all lined up to answer to our names. That morning,

(04:26):
the soup had lost what small resemblance it had had
to soup. It had no more nourishment in it than
dish water. We began then to see that they were
going to starve every one into a desire to work.
We had not been taking soup in the morning, for
it was even at its best, a horrible dish to

(04:47):
begin the day with. We had made tea or coffee
of our own and eaten something from our parcels. But
this morning we were lined up with the Russians and
given soup, whether we want it or not. After the soup,
the working parties were dispatched, and then the three unhappy

(05:07):
Russians were started on their endless journey again, racing up
and down, up and down, with an n c O
standing in the middle to keep them going. They looked
pale and worn from their hard experience of the night before.
But no Bengal tiger ever had less mercy than the

(05:27):
n c O, who kept them running. The distance across
the end of the yard was about seventy five feet,
and up and down the Russians ran. Their pace was
a fast trot, but before long they were showing signs
of great fatigue. They looked pitifully at us as they

(05:48):
passed us, wondering what it was all about. And so
did we. We expected every minute it would be over.
Surely they had been punished enough, but the cruel race
went on. In an hour, they were begging for mercy,
whimpering pitifully as they gasped out the only German word

(06:10):
they knew, comrade, Comrade. To the NCO who drove them on.
They begged and prayed in their own language. A thrust
of the bayonet was all the answer they got. Their
heads rolled, their tongues protruded, their lips frothed, their eyes

(06:31):
were red and scalded. One fell prostrate at the feet
of the NCAO, who, stooping over, rolled back his eyelid
to see if he were really unconscious or was feigning it.
His examination proved the latter to be the case, and
I saw the commandant motion to him to kick the
Russian to his feet. This he did with right good will,

(06:56):
and the weary race went on. But the Russian's race
was nearly ended, for in another half dozen rounds he fell,
shuddering and moaning to the ground, and no kick or
bayonet thrust could rouse him. Another one rolled over and

(07:16):
over in a fit, purple in the face and twitching horribly.
He rolled over and over until he fell into the
drain and lay there unattended. The last one, a very
wiry fellow, kept going long after the other two. His
strength a cursed to him now, for it prolonged his agony.

(07:39):
But he fell out at last and escaped their cruelty,
at least for the time, through the black door of unconsciousness.
Then they were gathered up by some of the prisoners
and carried into the reviere. Just as the three unconscious
ones were carried away, three other Russians, not knowing what

(08:02):
was in store for them, came in. We did not
see them until they walked in at the gate. They
also had been on farms and were now refusing to
work longer. They came into the hut, where their frightened
countrymen were huddled together, some praying and some in tears.
The newcomers did not know what had happened, but they

(08:25):
were not left long in doubt. And n c O
called to them to haraus, and when they came into
the yard, he started them to run. The men were
tired and hungry. They had already spent months on the farms,
working long hours. That did not save them. They had

(08:47):
dared to rebel, so their spirits must be broken. Our
hearts were torn with rage and pity. We stormed in
and out of the huts like crazy men, but there
was nothing we could do. There were so few of us,
and of course we were unarmed. There was no protest

(09:08):
or entreaty we could make that would have made any appeal.
Orders were orders. It was for the good of Germany,
to make her a greater nation, that these men should
work the longer hours, the better to help to reclaim
the bad land, to cultivate the fields, to raise more crops,

(09:30):
to feed more soldiers, to take more prisoners, to cultivate
more land, to raise more crops. It was perfectly clear
to the Teutonic mind, no link in the chain must
be broken. Deutschland uber alis at noon the Russians were

(09:51):
still running. It is astonishing what a human machine can stand.
The nc O impatiently snapped his watch and slashed at
the one who was passing him to speed them up
and so hasten the process. He was getting hungry and
wanted his dinner. Then an order came from the commandant

(10:12):
that it was to be stopped, and we hoped, again
as we had the night before, that this was the end.
We brought the three poor fellows, pale and trembling, to
our end of the hut, and gave them as good
a meal as our parcels would afford. One of them
had a bayonet wound in his neck, which the n

(10:35):
c O had given him. He had jabbed him with
the point of his bayonet to quicken his speed. In
spite of their exhaustion, they ate ravenously and fell asleep
at once, worn out with the long hours of working
as well as by the brutal treatment they had received.

(10:56):
But there was no sleep for the poor victims until
the long black sleep of unconsciousness rolled over them and
in mercy blotted out their misery. For the n c
OS came for them and dragged them away from us
and the sickening spectacle began again. There were just eleven

(11:16):
of US, British and Canadians in the camp at this time,
twelve of the British having been sent away, And it
happened that this was the day, July the fourth, that
we wrote our cards. We remembered that when the men
had written cards about the lice, it had brought results.
We had no other way of communication with the world,

(11:38):
and although this was a very poor one, still it
was all we had. We knew our cards would never
get out of Germany. Indeed, we were afraid they would
never leave the camp, but we would try. We went
to the place where the cards were kept, which was
in charge of a Polish Jew who also acted as interpreter.

(12:00):
He had been in the Russian army and had been
taken prisoner in the early days of the war. There
was a young Russian with him who did clerical work
in the camp. They were both in tears. The Jew
walked up and down, wringing his hands and calling upon
the God of Abraham and of Isaac and of Jacob.

(12:22):
Sometimes he put his hands over his ears for the
cries of his countrymen came through the window. When we
got our cards, we wrote about what had happened. Some
of the cards were written to John Bull, some to
the British War Office, some to the newspapers, some to
friends in England, imploring them to appeal to the United

(12:46):
States government at Washington to interfere for humanity's sake. We
eased our minds by saying, as far as we could
say it on a card, what we thought of the Germans.
Ecard was full of it, but the subject was hardly touched.
I never knew before the full meaning of that phrase.

(13:09):
Words are inadequate, words were no relief. We wanted to kill, kill, kill.
The running of the Russians went on for days. Every
one of them who came in from the farm got
it without mercy. Different NCOs performed the gruesome rites. We

(13:35):
had only one hope of quick results. The commandant of
the camp at Sella, that is the main, Salalaga, had
an English wife and had perhaps for that reason, been
deprived of his command as an admiral of the fleet.
We hoped he would hear of our cards, or better still,

(13:55):
that his wife might hear. The first indication we had
that our cards had taken effect was the change in
the soup. Since the first day of the trouble, it
had been absolutely worthless. Suddenly it went back to normal,
or a little better. Suddenly too, the running of the

(14:16):
Russians stopped, although others of them had come in. A
tremendous house cleaning began. They had us scrubbing everything. The
bunks were aired, the blankets hung on the fence, the
windows cleaned, the yard was polished by much sweeping. Evidently
some one was coming, and we hoped it was the Admiral.

(14:40):
At the same time, the NCOs grew very polite to us,
and one of them, who had been particularly vicious with
the Russians, actually bade me good morning, something entirely without precedent.
Every day, I think they expected the Admiral, but it
was two weeks before he came. His visit was a

(15:03):
relief to the Germans, but a distinct disappointment to us.
Apparently the having of an English wife does not change
the heart of a German. It takes more than that.
He did not forbid the running of the Russians. Only
the bayonet must not be used. The bayonet was bad form,

(15:25):
It leaves marks. Perhaps the Admiral took this stand in
order to reinstate himself again in favor with the military authorities,
and anxious to show that his English wife had not
weakened him. He had the real stuff in him, still,
blood and iron. The running of the Russians began again,

(15:48):
but behind the trees, where we could not see them,
but we could hear. There are some things that were well.
We could forget. The running of the right Rushians ceased
only when no more came in from the farms. Those
who had been put out came out of the revier
in a day or so, some in a few hours,

(16:11):
pale and spiritless, and were sent back to work again.
They had the saddest looking faces I ever saw, old
and wistful some of them, others gaping and vacant, some
wild and staring. They would never resist again. They were

(16:31):
surely broken. And while these men would not do much
for the fatherland in the way of heavy labor, they
would do very well for exchanges. End of Section seventeen.