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ENGLISH PRISONERS FROM YPRES 357
the great war roads. On the left, we leave the Fort de Bondues
—one of its towers is visible from the road. In the same direc-
tion, but far away, we see a captive balloon at a height of
150 metres. In its car sits an officer with a telephone through
which he speaks incessantly. He cannot be reached by the
enemy fire, and yet his life is in danger all the time. A little
while ago one of these balloons was hit by a bomb dropped
from a great height by a French aviator.
At Linselles we stopped a moment in the market place
whilst Captain Liibke entered a house to find out how far we
could travel in the direction of Ypres. Whilst we were waiting.
Crown Prince Rupprecht came walking along. It happened
to be his dinner-hour. We chatted a couple of minutes,
pausing a moment whilst an officer handed in an important
report. The Crown Prince was visibly pleased with the news
and hurried up to his dinner to return immediately to the fight-
ing line. We met about twenty officers during this short
pause. It was impossible to catch and note all the names in
the course of the brief introduction. But one thing I do remem-
ber, and that is that they were all cheerful, friendly and full
of youthful vivacity :
" Nun wie gefallt’s Ihnen, Herr Doktor ?
—Was denken Sie von unseren deutschen Soldaten, famöse
Kerls, nicht wahr ?—Draussen in den Gefechtslinien ist’s etwas
heiss, aber dock grossartig."^ And so on, always in the same
light-hearted and jovial tone, as if it were a question of
manceuvres ; no difficulties, no unpleasantness, simply " quick-
march and keep your eyes open !
"—Forward, that is the main
thing. Officers whose duty compels them to remain behind
the firing line always long to be where the danger is, but as
they always march at the head, the casualties amongst them
are proportionately greater than among the men.
We drove on northward to Wervicq and across the La Lys
Canal, which forms the frontier between France and Belgium.
A large part of the population has remained and makes a
curious picture in these quaint old streets where German
kitchen wagons stand steaming and smoking at quiet street
corners. We advance but slowly. The whole road is encum-
bered with infantry, horsemen and vehicles. Here comes a
party of 150 men armed with spades. " Where have you
^ " Well, Doctor, and how do you like it ? What do you think of our
German soldiers ? Fine fellows, eh ? —A trifle hot out in the firing line, but
otherwise first-rate."
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