Thursday, November 15, 2018

Lt. Oates Writes of Life as German Prisoner of War, 1918

From the French Broad Hustler, Nov. 14, 1918

Lieut. Oates Writes of German Prison Life

In a letter to his parents, Mr. and Mrs. R.M. Oates of Hendersonville, Lieut. Wm. Holt Oates, who was captured by the Germans on July 22 during the advance east of the Chateau Thierry, writes interestingly of his life and environments.

Lieut. Oates was commanding his company in their advance. Two machine gun bullets pierced his steel helmet, another his boot and he was buried by a high explosive shell during the attack and went through the barrages and a trying period without being wounded.

He has been transferred from Rastatt to Karlsruhe. He says treatment is good and that he is quite comfortably situated. As so commanding his company when captured, he writes that “it is some job handling so many men under attacking conditions. Why I was not killed is a miracle. I was entirely surrounded and ammunition exhausted before I was taken.”


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