We have been experiencing some problems with Your Archives which we are investigating and hope to resolve the issues soon. We apologise for any inconvenience caused.

From Your Archives

Transcript of WO 161/96/42 pp 791 - 793, Report by Captain Alan Binnie, RFC, 1917-18. Images of this document can be downloaded for a fee from DocumentsOnline.

Statement of Captain Alan Binnie, M.C., R.F.C., taken at Queen Alexandra’s Military Hospital, Millbank, S.W., on Saturday, 12th January 1918.

My name is Alan Binnie. I am a captain in the Royal Flying Corps, and have been decorated with the Military Cross.

I am staying at No 40, Inverness Terrace, Bayswater. My home address is Quirindi, New South Wales.

I am 22 years of age. My occupation before the war was that of a grazier.

I was captured on the 14th April 1917, at Lens.

I was wounded in the left arm, while flying, by an explosive bullet. My arm has since been amputated.

The only case of infraction by the enemy of the laws and usages of war with which I am acquainted is the use of explosive bullets; only one instance is within my own knowledge. It happened in early February 1917 at Filis Camp Farm, Le Hameau, near Arras. It was committed by a pilot in the German Flying Corps. Both he and his observer were captured at the time; their machine came down on our aerodrome. I do not know the names.

I was not at a field dressing station. I fainted at about 3,000 feet and fell down. I did not come to for about three-quarters of an hour, and then found myself on a stretcher with my arm in splints and all my clothes on. I was not well treated. I think my arm could have been saved. I did not suffer from any direct act of cruelty, except that I had nothing to eat until the seventh day after I was captured, when I arrived in Germany. I had some so-called Seltzer water to drink.

Contents 1 Douai Hospital. April 15-19, 1917 2 Journey. April 19-21, 1917 3 Jülich, Res.Laz. April 21 – Sept. 26, 1917 4 Holzminden. Sept. 26-30, 1917 5 Heidelberg. Sept. 30-Dec. 20, 1917

[edit] Douai Hospital. April 15-19, 1917

I was detained six days in France, before I was sent to Germany – at St Clothilde Hospital, Douai. I was allowed to write one special postcard something like our field card. I filled up this card. It was not received. It was written to my mother, Mrs. Binnie, and addressed to 18, Birchin Lane, London.

I had my arm amputated at Douai under an anaesthetic, either ether or chloroform.

The medical treatment was unsatisfactory. The surgeons were dilatory in their attendance; if I had been promptly treated, I think my arm could have been saved. It was amputated there. The only medicines I saw were in pill form; aspirin and lead pills were the chief. There was no nursing in this hospital. The lodging was very bad. I was thrown into a ward with a number of soldiers, with a Russian prisoner as attendant. I did not have any food there. What was brought to me I could not eat. It was a rough stew. I was very ill. As far as I saw, there were practically no sanitary arrangements outside the operating theatre – there was a commode placed in the ward but no disinfectants. I saw only one English in this hospital. I do not know how many there were.

[edit] Journey. April 19-21, 1917

The journey to Germany occupied 34 hours – from 4 p.m. 19th April 1917, to 2 a.m. 21st April 1917. There was a German orderly in the carriage as military guard; he treated me very well indeed. I did not see any other German soldiers or civilians to speak to on the journey.

I was conveyed by train from Douai to Jülich (Rhineland), and from the station to the hospital I was carried on a stretcher by two young boys; they stopped every 20 yards as they could not carry me further without doing so. I think the distance was about two miles: they took about three-quarters of an hour. I did not se any members of the German Red Cross Society – except one corporal at a later date. He was a Pole, efficient but rough.

[edit] Jülich, Res.Laz. April 21 – Sept. 26, 1917

I was in the Reserve Lazarette, Jülich (Rhineland). It is the only prisoners’ hospital here; it is a small town. I was there for 24 weeks, that is from the 21st April 1917 until the 26th September 1917.

There was accommodation for about 400 prisoners in the hospital; the number actually there varied. There were on average 40 to 60 British; the remainder were mostly Russian, about 40 French and some old men of other nationalities.

The name of the doctor at Jülich was Unterartz Hopmann and a captain Stockmann. Hopmann was really a medical student; the captain was efficient and generally humane in his treatment.

I do not think there was much difference in the treatment of nationalities, except that the Russians were rather more roughly treated.

The regulation German hospital clothing was supplied to me at Jülich, that is, a shirt (a special one on account of the loss of my arm), a pair of light trousers, and a long coat and one pair of socks. I asked for more, but was told the hospital staff had not got more and could not supply them.

At both hospitals I had sufficient bedclothing. It consisted of sheets and blankets; it was changed about once a fortnight.

The medical treatment was better. The doctors were civilian with temporary commissions in the Army. They were, on the whole, efficient, but the patients had to run after them to get them to attend to them. The supply of medicines was the same as at Douai, as far as I could see, but there was some liquorice medicine (cold). I did not want medicine. There was no German nursing. The only nursing I had was from an Australian private, who was wounded and volunteered to nurse me. His name was Private R.C. Bracken; I do not remember his battalion. It was a Queensland one, I think the 15th. The lodging was fair; I was in a small room for about the first six weeks with two other officers, for about three months in a room alone, and for the rest of the time with two other prisoners.

The food was good for German food. The sanitary arrangements were nil outside the common accommodation. There were water latrines, which were bad; the water ran all round them; when it was turned on once a day the smell was awful.

At Jülich letters and parcels were received very irregularly; both were opened by a German censor without my presence. Things were very often taken out. I do not know of anything that was prohibited except whisky; wine was allowed. We were allowed to send a postcard every Monday and a letter every other Monday.

[edit] Holzminden. Sept. 26-30, 1917

There were 500 prisoners in this camp, all British.

The name of the commandant at Holzminden was Neumeyer (as nearly as I can spell it). I do not know the name of the second in command. The commandant was a “strafer”; it was a “strafe” camp, that is, very rough. I was at Holzminden such a short time that I cannot give a detailed account of the arrangement there.

[edit] Heidelberg. Sept. 30-Dec. 20, 1917

On the 30th September 1917 I was sent to the camp at Heidelberg. This is an officers’ camp. I remained there until the 20th December 1917 pending arrangements for my exchange.

I do not know the name of the commandant there. The prisoners were treated very well there.

There were 500 to 600 prisoners in this camp, of whom about 180 were British.

The lodging at Heidelberg was partly in barracks and partly in huts; the huts were very bad, not even weather-proof. The heating was insufficient in the cold weather. The washing facilities were good in the barracks and fair in the huts. The sanitary arrangements were good on the whole.

There was no definite employment set by the Germans. We were left to employ ourselves in our own way. There was no payment. The employment which took up most of our time was cooking our food.

No attempt was made to force me or other prisoners to make munitions.

As to the food supplied by the Germans, the bread was good and sufficient; the remainder of the food was of poor quality and just enough to subsist on. It consisted of coffee in the morning; midday, dinner of soup and hash of vegetables; supper in the evening, practically a repetition of dinner. Meat was never served. A loaf of bread was given to each prisoner once in three days, and about half a pound of sugar every fourteen days. In the canteen we could buy occasionally vegetables and fruit and white wine, which I heard was made of potato spirit; it was very bitter. I cannot give details of the prices; they were about twice as much as civilians paid in the town.

Food arrived from England and abroad generally in good condition, but the bread was often mouldy.

No clothing was supplied by the Germans; we had to depend on what was sent to us. I did not ask for any; I knew from what I was told by other prisoners it was useless to do so.

There were good facilities for exercise. There was a fair walk round the camp out of doors, and we were usually allowed two walks a week in the country outside. We went in batches under charge of an escort. There were also games, tennis and hockey, outside. Indoors there was one English billiard table and three French ones; we were permitted to supply such games as we liked and amuse ourselves as we pleased. There was a cinema as well as theatricals and concerts. Smoking was permitted; it was not stopped while I was there.

There was no epidemic while I was there.

I was never in a camp hospital.

There were religious services every Sunday, conducted by the senior British officer. They were not supervised or interfered with by the Germans, and there was no English chaplain.

The postal arrangements were as follows:- Letters and parcels were not received regularly; letters were opened by a German censor not in my presence; parcels were opened in my presence by a camp orderly. Nothing was taken out. I do not know that anything was prohibited except whisky. We were allowed to send a postcard on the 5th, 10th, 20th and 25th of each month and a letter on the 1st and 15th. The length of the letter was limited to six sides of small quarto paper. An additional postcard might be sent instead of two pages of letter.

I have no complaint to make of the general treatment other than what I have said about neglect. I met no cases of cruelty to prisoners, but I heard all sorts of rumours go round the camps of cruelty in other camps, but none of cruelty in mine.

We were informed of the regulations in camp and hospital. The following were offences:- (i) escaping; (ii) destroying German property; (iii) having in your possession German money, compasses, maps, plain clothes, wire cutters or any weapon; (iv) failing to salute a German officer, even of lower rank, or a “Feldwebel,” that is, a staff sergeant or warrant officer.

The punishment for all was solitary confinements for varying periods. I do not know of any ill-effects from it.

There was no firsthand knowledge of any camp in Germany where prisoners are not allowed to write or receive letters. I have heard that in the working camps in the danger zone at the front prisoners were neither allowed to write or receive letters. I am told these camps have now been done away with.

I do not think there is anything I can usefully add. I was not detained at Aachen waiting to be repatriated. I was detained at Heidelberg. I was passed for England on the 6th October, but did not leave until the 28th December. On the Journey to Aachen, over 20 hours, we travelled in an ordinary train and were given no food. At Aachen we were treated quite well in the hospital, and travelled from there to Rotterdam in a German hospital train. During this part of the journey the treatment was good and we were given some food, but not of good quality; it consisted of black war bread and hash.

John White

28, Budge Row, Cannon Street, E.C.4, 14th January 1918.