Meeting the Enemy (50 page)

Major Charles Yate surrounded by Germans after he was captured during the fighting at Le Cateau. Weeks later, he committed suicide when a bid to escape from a German POW camp was foiled.

Exhausted British soldiers sleep in temporary billets during the retreat from Mons. In two weeks, they had walked and fought over 200 miles, halting the German advance on the River Marne in early September.

The harsh reality: the first news of enemy atrocities on the Western Front brought the 55,000 German civilians in Britain to public attention and unwarranted demonisation.

Businesses similar to the Druhms’ hairdressing salon were wrecked in orgies of violence that spread across the country.

Internment of enemy aliens helped allay widespread public fears of a dangerous ‘unseen’ enemy. However, the rounding up of thousands of German men led to an acute shortage of accommodation.

The sinking of RMS
Lusitania
with the death of 1,200 civilians caused outrage in Britain. Thousands of Germans were rounded up once again, many returning to captivity while their families chose to be repatriated.

A contemporary artist’s impression of a meeting of internees and their families at an unspecified London camp. Fortnightly visits were hugely anticipated but caused immense heartache for the internees.

The Great Hall at Alexandra Palace. Several thousand Germans were held in cramped living conditions. Open-ended confinement caused serious mental health issues for men separated from their families.

In the better internment camps, men were given activities to keep them occupied. Marquetry was a favourite pursuit and exquisite gifts were made for visiting families.

British prisoners pose for the camera before beginning their tortuous journey to Germany from the Western Front. In 1914 verbal and even physical attacks on British POWs were common, although as time passed, civilian attention shifted to the chronic shortages of food and fuel in Germany.

Queuing for food. Red Cross parcels were critical to the physical well-being of internees.

British internees at Ruhleben camp, near Berlin. Only one camp was used to house all 3,500 male British internees in Germany.