Part 4: Working conditions at Latchen POW camp, Kelsien.

Private Joseph Driscoll one of the Prisoners of War describes the working conditions at Latchen camp:

National Archives WO/161/361

"I was employed to work at the camp for the first day of work. When the men came back they told horrible stories, such as falling in the snow over dead unburied Russians who must have been lying out for weeks and months. Some men were working in the trenches under light gunfire and very often heard the hiss of bullets in the snow. Others were working on ice at the River Aa. This was a line of communication between the German blockhouses and Mitau. Work was really ice breaking in front of the bridge over the Aa. Some of these men had no books, and only rags to wrap round their feet, kept to work from 6 a.m. to 4.30 p.m. With two rests of 20 minutes each at 10 and 1.No food supplied , or at all from 6 to 5 p.m...........

Next day I went to work in the trnches. We were taken to Kelzien, a German Pioneer depot. There we received picks and shovels and were sent to the trenches six or seven kilom. from the camp. These trenches we were making were communication trenches. We were in full view of the Russians , and aways under light Russian gunfire. One man was struck by shrapnel, Shells were bursting 20 yards from the men. Also there was no protection given us against gas. 250 men would go to these trenches each day.........

Other work was what was called the wood party, hardest of all. This was cutting down large wood, cutting up and taking away to road, Always working up to thighs in snow."

Able Seaman CS Ireland 213465 RNVR Hawke Bn, Royal Naval Division

....." by about the end of March parties of 3 to 10 daily were being moved to Mitau Hospital. About 25 percent of the remainder had to be assisted to their work in the morning, and we had to carry most of them home in the evenings. Seaman Ireland died on 26th while his comrades were carrying him home"

WO/161/100/557

Commonwealth War Grave Commission certificate

Private J Farmer 4901 1st Coldstream Guards

I found this interesting article on the Essex Police Memorial website today.

Essex Police Memorial Trust: Joseph Farmer

Joseph was one of the 2000 British Prisoners of War held by the Germans near the eastern Front in what is now Latvia.

From what I have read and understand about the treatment of 500 of these prisoners from Number 4 company, "Englaender Kommando 1" Joseph was very likely to have been on the receiving end of a premeditated policy of maltreatment and neglect carried out by German Forces as a reprisal for alleged mistreatment of their prisoners.

Another document (WO /161/ 100 557) states that Joseph was moved from the camp where he was being held to the hospital at Mitau ( Now Jelgava ) and that he died of his wounds there.

Conditions at the hospital were described by Company Sergeant Major A. Gibb in his report as "inadequate" with medical facilities non existent. I understand that the personnel consisted mostly of Russian "volunteers" made up of deserters and prisoners. Subjected to such conditions prisoners were said to have died at these temporary hospitals from starvation and exhaustion a situation which could have been relieved if there had been access to appropriate medical treatment and the food parcels sent from families and loved ones at home but which were looted and allowed to perish while the men were allowed to suffer.

Commonwealth War Graves Commission certificate

"1000 British N.C.O's and men sent to Russia in 1916, as a Reprisal for the employment of German Prisoners in France"

The following are exerpts taken from a precis of a statement by Company Sergeant-Major A. Gibb, 2nd Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders, who was the Senior 2nd Class W.O. of on party of 1000 British N.C.O's and Men sent to Russia in 1916.

"One thousand N.C.O's and men left DOEBERITZ for Russia on 8th May 1916. At FRANKFORT-AM-ODER another 1000 N.C.O's and men were collected. The 2000 left FRANKFORT for Russia on 11th May 1916. Thereafter, Company Seargent-Major Gibb's statement concerns only one of the four parties or companies into which the men were divided (each 500 strong)

No. 4 Company to which the statement refers was employed in the docks in LIBAU from 14th May 1916 to February 1917. No special complaints are brought forward concerning this period.

On 23rd February the company, strength 500 left LIBAU for MITAU, AND ON THE 25th marched along the frozen River Aa to the village of LATCHEN, NEAR KELZIEN, a distance of 25 kilometers. The escort of the party, a squadron of Uhlans, drove the party along all day in the most brutal manner possible, and only about 80 of the 500 were able to reach LATCHEN in any sort of formation. The remainder were scattered along the route for several kilometers, being thrashed along by the Uhlans by means of lances and whips.

Accomodation at the new camp was one tent, about 70 yards by 7, for all the 500 N.C.O's and men, pitched on a frozen swamp. No fuel for heating the tent, no light, no proper means of obtaining water for cooking or washing, and rations barely sufficient to keep the men alive. No parcels allowed, no smoking; this tent was under Russian shell fire, which, however, was not serious.

Orders were read, stating that the British had been brought to this place as a reprisal for the employment of Germans in France, where they were being ill-treated, starved and made to work under fire. The orders to the guard stated that no mercy was to be shown to the prisoners, every one of whom had assisted to stop the Kaiser's army from reaching Paris..........

.....The working parties were constantly under Russian shell fire, but there was litle rifle and or machine gun fire. The treatment was so brutal that the men soon became mere living seletons, too weak to move about. Nevertheless,they were kicked and beaten out to work morning after morning by the medical feld-webel; their comrades had to help them to walk out , lead them about all day and very often carry them home at night. Hospital accomodation was quite inadequate in the camp and medical comforts or attention almost non-existant. The result, in figures, was that 14 men died at the camp, and eight more in hospital at MITAU, all from exhaustion and starvation except one who was murdered. The death tookplace shortly after the party returned to LIBAU...77 N.C.O's and men lasted out the period out of the total of 500 but had it not been for an improvement in the weather about the end of April, and the receipt at the time of the first consignment of parcels it is doubtful if any would have been left at all. About 20,000 parcels of food from home were collected during this period, nd had they been allowed to be issued to the prisoners, probaby they would have saved all these 23 lives. Instead, they were stopped at MITAU,where they were stored and looted by the Germans, as well as allowed to waste by perishing.......In addition to starvation and exhaustion, frostbite and vermin ravaged the men's bodies.

The camp was broken up on the 10th June 1917, and after a months rest at LIBAU , the party was employed in light work and occupied good quarters until November 1917, when it was sent back to Germany. 276 N.C.Os and men returned of the original strengh of 500 from the front lines to LIBAU. Of the remander most had already been sent back to Germany incapacitated for any other work, some of these for the remainder of their lives"

WO/161/100/557

Sergeant C. Bennett 5374 1st East Lancashire Regiment

Commonwealth War Graves Commission certificate

" I appealed against this treatment and Sergeant Bennett was moved next day to the German military Hospital, but it was then too late, his system was absolutely ruined. I left the foodstuffs and promised to get him some change of linen, &c.

On my return to Altauz I reported the stealing of the boots, kit and foodstuffs, but could receive no satisfaction.

On the day Sergeant Bennett died I again went to Mitau. I stayed with Sergeant Bennett until 5.0 p.m.- he died at midnight the same night. One Englishman was in the hospital with him at the time of his death- Private Wriggleworth, of the Durham Light Infantry. he was cured , but volunteered to stay with Sergeant Bennett and to look after him. with the exception of Sergeant Bennett he was the only Englishman in the place.

My candid opinion is that from the day Sergeant Bennett was admitted to hospital in Mitau he never had a chance whatsoever. If he had received anything like a proper treatment, I am certain he would have recovered.

Attached is a copy of the last letter we received from Sergeant Bennett, written about three days before his death, also an extract from his diary. This was brought us by a Russian prisoner of war who was discharged from hospital. the originals were sent to Mrs Bennett on my arrival in Holland.

R Conaron, Sergeant

Ist Battalion Rifle Brigade

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