Meeting the Enemy (52 page)

Lieutenant Leo Heywood and, looking away, the observer, 17-year-old Second Lieutenant Douglas Gayforth, are driven away in the back of a Mercedes. Many Royal Flying Corps officers enjoyed a visit to their opponents’ Squadron Mess, frequently staying for dinner and wine. However, such gracious hospitality often came at a price.

A British BE2c aircraft brought down over German-held ground. The Royal Flying Corps pilot seems unhurt and is talking to a German officer while, behind, a number of Germans look on intently.

Reading, March 1917: ‘The Kaiser’s Own’ or British soldiers of German heritage await transfer to the Western Front. Eight Infantry Labour Companies (ILCs), of 500 men each, served overseas but behind the lines in the British Army.

Major William Renwick (centre) with the officers of 3rd ILC. Most of the officers attached to these labour companies were no longer fit for front-line service. Renwick had been shell-shocked in March 1916.

Winter 1916: as a punishment, a British prisoner is tied to a post and left out in the snow. The photograph was taken on a secret camera owned by a sergeant in the Lincolnshire Regiment at Hesepe POW Camp.

The British employment of prisoners within twelve kilometres of the firing line caused outrage in Germany. The Germans demanded that prisoners should be no closer than 30 kilometres, a demand ignored by the British.

British prisoners labouring behind the lines in France. Although none are pictured carrying the artillery shells seen in the foreground, some POWs were employed in moving munitions, against international law.

A funeral at Doberitz camp presided over by Reverend Henry Williams. In the foreground are men of the Royal Naval Division. Many of these men were sent to work on the Russian Front in February 1917 as a German reprisal for the alleged ill-treatment of prisoners.

This postcard (the reverse of the picture above) was sent home by Able Seaman Cedric Ireland, who is probably one of the men in the foreground of the photograph. Ireland was sent to Russia where he would die in his comrades’ arms while working in atrocious sub-zero conditions.

An exceptionally rare photograph showing British POWs at work in the German support trenches on the Russian Front. These men are almost certainly among those sent to Mitau, where dozens died of cold and neglect.

German guards watch prisoners distribute Red Cross parcels. As the Allied blockade on Germany intensified, such parcels saved POWs from virtual starvation.