An officer standing by took notice of this.
"Take your rifle back at once! Is that the way to guard your
prisoners?"
Our man was astonished.
"Lor' bless you, sir, they don't want no guarding. They're glad to be
took. They guard themselves."
"Your men are extraordinary," a German officer told me. "They asked me
whether I would care to go down at once or wait till the barrage had
passed."
He seemed amazed at that thoughtfulness for his comfort. It was in the
early days of the Somme fighting, and crowds of our men stood on the
banks above a sunken road, watching the prisoners coming down. This
officer who spoke to me had an Iron Cross, and the men wanted to see
it and handle it.
"Will they give it back again?" he asked, nervously, fumbling at the
ribbon.
"Certainly," I assured him.
He handed it to me, and I gave it to the men, who passed it from one
to the other and then back to the owner.
"Your men are extraordinary," he said. "They are wonderful."
One of the most interesting prisoners I met on the field of battle was
a tall, black-bearded man whom I saw walking away from La Boisselle
when that place was smoking with shell-bursts.
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