My German Prisons

My German Prisons by Horace Gray Gilliland is about Gilliland's experiences as a prison officer. Excerpt: "A rough sketch of the circumstances which led up to my being taken prisoner of war is more or less indispensable. We were called up at a moment's notice from another part of the line, where our division was in reserve, to a position in front of a line of our trenches lost to the enemy a few hours previously in their attempted advance on Calais. These trenches had been held by Indian regiments, and small blame to them for losing them."

Excerpt from My German Prisons: The Story of My Two and a Half Years of Captivity in Germany and My Final Escape, November 14, 1914 April 8, 1917 The writer was appealed to, so constantly and so earnestly, to write his experiences, and was so weary recounting them, that at last he decided to put into print a short account of the happenings within his own personal knowledge during his two and a half years' imprisonment in Germany. He was also encouraged to do so from other and more important reasons. There are countless people throughout the world who have been so unfortunate as to have intimate friends and relatives in captivity in Germany. In the opinion of the writer, these people ought to know, from one who has had a bitter experience, to which these pages will testify, the true conditions under which the wretched prisoners existed. These pages are entirely uncensored and aim at a true record of events, in which there is no word of hearsay, or stories borrowed from others. As such they must stand. To those who may be inclined to be skeptical towards the newspaper reports of German brutality, it is hoped that this narrative will come as a revelation. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.

Being the Experiences of an Officer During Two-and-a-Half Years as a Prisoner of War. First published in 1918, with a portrait of the author and three diagrams. Captain Horace Gray Gilliland (1891-1941) was a captain in the British Army serving with the Loyal North Lancashire Regiment, 1st Battalion. After training at Felixstowe he was shipped to France on 31 October 1914 and in December was called to the front as part of the reserve troops to aid the 1st Lahore Indian Army, fighting in the Battle of Givenchy where he was wounded and captured on 22 December. He spent time in a number of camps before escaping on the way to Crefeld Camp in Spring 1917, eventually making his way back to England via Holland.

This work has been selected by scholars as being culturally important, and is part of the knowledge base of civilization as we know it. This work is in the "public domain in the United States of America, and possibly other nations. Within the United States, you may freely copy and distribute this work, as no entity (individual or corporate) has a copyright on the body of the work. Scholars believe, and we concur, that this work is important enough to be preserved, reproduced, and made generally available to the public. We appreciate your support of the preservation process, and thank you for being an important part of keeping this knowledge alive and relevant.

Unlike some other reproductions of classic texts (1) We have not used OCR(Optical Character Recognition), as this leads to bad quality books with introduced typos. (2) In books where there are images such as portraits, maps, sketches etc We have endeavoured to keep the quality of these images, so they represent accurately the original artefact. Although occasionally there may be certain imperfections with these old texts, we feel they deserve to be made available for future generations to enjoy.

The writer has been so constantly and earnestly appealed to to write his experiences, and so weary recounting them, that he has at last decided to put into print a short account of things as they really happened within his own personal knowledge during his two and a half years’ imprisonment in Germany. He is also encouraged to do so for other and more important reasons. There are so many people throughout our Empire who are unfortunate enough to have intimate friends and relations in captivity in Germany. In the opinion of the writer these people ought to know, from one who has had a bitter experience, to which these pages will testify, the true conditions under which those nearest and dearest to them exist.