et my mind run out
as a tired sleeper might, which was no doubt fortunate for me. My
family were greatly in my thoughts. I wondered how my wife was making
out and if she was receiving her separation allowance all right, for
I had heard of many cases where the reverse had happened; and whether
the boys were well and going to school. I hoped that all was well with
them and that they did not worry too much over my lot.

As I was not permitted either to send or receive letters during the
period of my trial and incarceration, my wife was in fact in great
distress of mind about me as she received no word for many weeks and
imagined the worst. And when at last I could write it was only to say
that although I had been well I had been unable to write, leaving her
to draw her own conclusions.

The cell door opened promptly at five o'clock every morning. We were
allowed ten minutes in which to clean our cell, go to the lavatory and
wash up, all under guard. These were the only occasions during which
we had an opportunity of seeing one another or the other prisoners.
These rites were all performed in silence, and communication of any
description was forbidden and so keenly watched for as to be
impossible. However, Simmons and I got what small comfort we could out
of seeing one another frequently, and by this time there had grown up
between us such a mutual respect as to make us value this highly. The
other prisoners included Germans as well as our allies and there were
some civilian German prisoners. The German soldier prisoners were
mostly in for committing the various crimes of soldiering which in the
British Army would have put them under the general head of defaulters.
That classification, however, had been done away with in the German
Army. The slightest infringement of discipline was punished with
cells. Noncommissioned officers received the same punishment as the
men, without, however, losing their rank, as would have been the case
in our army.

Upon finishing the ten minutes allotted to us we were forced to
re-enter our cells and stand against the wall, at the back, so that we
could neither see nor communicate with one another until the guard got
around a few minutes later and looked in to see that all was as it
should be before slamming the door.

There was no use in trying to stretch the ration out for two meals. I
tried to and gave it up. And after that I ate the bread, filled up on
water and sat down on the cold st