The Prisoners of Mainz

This memoir, published in 1919, is a rare firsthand account of the ordinary experience of English prisoners of war in Germany in the last months of the war. It also provides an honest perspective of the widespread deprivation and malnutrition in Germany that had a devastating impact on the morale and welfare of the prisoners of war as well as the society outside the camps. The memoir includes illustrations by Captain Raphael Theodore Roussel, 3rd Battalion, Connaught Rangers, who was a fellow prisoner-of-war at the fortress of Mainz.

The author, Alec Waugh (born 8 July 1898), was the son of Arthur Waugh, a well-regarded author and literary critic. He received a commission as a lieutenant in the Dorset Regiment in May 1917. He was already a published author before he saw action on the Western Front. His semi-autobiographical novel, The Loom of Youth, based on his schooldays at Sherborne School in Dorset, was published in 1917 and sold well. At various points in The Prisoners of Mainz the author refers to a manuscript for another novel that he has been working on while a prisoner. His younger brother, Evelyn, was also drawn to a literary career and is today famous for his Brideshead Revisited and his Second World War trilogy Sword of Honour.

Alec Waugh was captured in the major retreat of late March 1918. After travelling for a fortnight, the contingent of prisoners arrived at Karlsruhe before being transferred to a new camp at Mainz. In a subsequent memoir he described his period of detention as an education: “The seven months I spent in the Citadel at Mainz were my equivalent for a university.” (Chapter 6 of My Brother Evelyn and Other Portraits). Part of that sentiment is connected to the cultural activities and conversations he enjoyed with like-minded prisoners but it also reflects a sense of coming of age through the hardships of confinement. The prisoners were always hungry:
“I honestly believe that the Germans gave us as much food as they could... but it was precious little... There was only one proper meal a day: lunch. We then got two plates of soup, three or four potatoes and a spoonful or two of beetroot or cabbage.”
In this context, he discovered his friend Milton Hayes enjoying what Waugh deemed a strange selection of books (Lorna Doone, Pickwick Papers and The Knave of Diamonds). Hayes, though, saw the connection:
“Gratification of appetite. All these accounts of big meals and luxury. That's what gets over. People don't want psychology. But they'll smack their lips over the dresses and feasts in The Knave of Diamonds; and then look at the venison pasties in Lorna Doone and the heavy dinners in Pickwick. That's what people want. They have not got these things; but they want to be told that they exist somewhere and that they are there to be found.”

On his safe return to France at the end of the war, the author savoured the opportunity of proper nourishment:
“After having lived on tinned meats for eight months, it was a thrilling experience to find a menu that comprised fried sole and grouse, Brussel sprouts and iced grapes. Over my first dinner I took three hours.”




Although “as military regulations state... it is the duty of every prisoner of war to make immediate and strenuous effort to escape”, the fortress at Mainz proved impregnable. One officer, Colonel Wright, was persistent in attempting escape and almost successful:
“He had waited till it was quite dark and had carefully watched for the moment when the beat of the outside sentry carried his warders out of earshot. He had then lowered himself from the wall; and it was here that his luck deserted him. For a couple of lovers had selected that particular part of the battlements as a shelter for their amorous dalliance. And the point at which Colonel Wright... landed was removed from them by scarcely a dozen yards...He was instantly detected.”