t
passageway, the row of men on the floor against the other wall and the
usual shelf full above them. The vermin were bad and presented a
problem until we arranged with the Russians to take one end to
themselves, the French and Belgians the middle and we the other end.
By this means we British were able to institute precautionary measures
amongst ourselves so that after feasting on the Russians and finishing
up upon the French, our annoying friends usually turned about and went
home again.

The swamp water was filthy, full of peat and only to be drunk in
minute quantities at the bidding of an intolerable thirst. There was
no other water to be had and we simply could not drink this. The
Russians did, which meant another fatigue party to bury them. The only
doctor was an old German, called so by courtesy; but he knew nothing
of medicine. As a corporal, I was held responsible for twenty men.
That implied mostly keeping track of the sick and I have seen nineteen
of my twenty thus. But that made no difference. It was "Raus!" and out
they came, sick or well.

Every morning an officer stood at the gate as we marched out to the
moor, to take "Eyes right" and a salute, for no useful purpose that we
could see except to belittle a British soldier's pride. As corporal I
was supposed to give that command to my squad but rather than do so I
took my stripes down, although that ended my immunity as a "non-com"
from the labour of cutting peat. Others, I am sorry to say, were glad
to put the stripes up and at times went beyond the necessities of the
situation in enforcing their rule on their comrades. It was one of
these who was found to be trading in and selling his packages to his
less fortunate comrades and who was ostracized in consequence.

There were here at Vehnmoor, as there had been at Giessen, a certain
few of our own men who traded on the misfortunes of their own
comrades. This man was the worst of them all. He was a sergeant-major
in a certain famous regiment of the line in the British Army. He was a
fair sample of that worst type which the army system so often
delegates authority to--and complains because that authority does not
meet with the respect it should on the part of its victims.

He excelled in all the arts of the sycophant: The pleasure of the
guards was his delight, their displeasure, his poignant grief. He
assumed the authority of his rank with us, he reported the slightest
of misdemeanours amongst us to the