This is a photo of Frank Hynes, Bay L'Argent, NL, born 1897

Statement of Prisoner

1718 Pte. Frank Hynes – Bay L’Argent, F. Bay

Enlisted July 21, 1915 – Proceeded overseas Oct. 20, 1915

Company in France – D. Company

Date and place of capture: April 1917 battle of Monchy

Circumstances of capture: Wounded in left leg and surrounded.

Details of life and treatment after capture: Operated on in France. Strapped to a table and cut in left leg about three inches long. No chloroform or any other method to relieve pain and removed a piece of shell from leg. Then removed to Darmstadt Hospital spent five months there, had to dress my own wounds while there. Removed to Guesseu (?) Camp for one month, then to some place in Prussia I do not remember the name, hard labour in the mines for 16 months, without anything to eat but ½ lb black bread, and not a drink of any kind but water. While there 54 Allied prisoners were admitted but only 15 came out alive. When a prisoner would die they would strip him of all his clothes, and dump the body in a hand cart and away with him. I have seen three bodies dumped in a cart at one time. Made three attempts to escape but captured each time. Released on December 2, 1918. This is the truth of my ill treatment while a prisoner in Germany. After my recapture they would brutally beat me about the head with their rifles, and every method of brutality, and last but not least I wish to say I could meet the enemy that wounded me in fair fight on the battlefield with the handshake of friendship. I should like to meet the bowardly brutes that beat my head almost to a pummy with their rifles or any other available weapon they could lay their hands on when I was a helpless prisoner on equal fair play, I feel sure one of us would’ve left there.

1718 Pte. Frank Hynes

Declared before me
This 1st day of May 1920
J.R. Courage
Stip. Magistrate

Note from submitter:

Three pictures of two uncles and my dad (Francis) Frank. Aloysius died in 1917 after being gased and sent home. Fonce (Alphonsus) and Frank came to the US and went fishing in Boston and Gloucester, Mass, USA (Boston States). My uncle Alphonsus developed cancer of the lung where a bayonet entered in WWI. Dad was wounded and so was Fonce.

Dad was a prisoner of war after the Battle of Monchy. He played dead because the Germans went through the battlefield shooting all wounded that were left alive. He was eventually taken to a hospital and operated on without anaesthetic and carried a bullet in his leg for the rest of his life. He was in Gallipoli but his records were mixed up and never recorded right. He was released from the camp the only one left alive.

He finally arrived in Newfoundland and made it home to Bay LÂ’Argent. He did make some trips to Europe and Africa with dried fish.

He came to the US and eventually was Captain of a schoonerÂ…Dad gave his schooner up in 1951 the last of the schooner captains.

During WWI on the Banks dad saved 28 Norwegians and several others. At one point the German sub surfaced and they made him stand on deck with a machine gun turned on him. That night the sub captain did talk to him. They were scared he was going to use the ship to shore telephone. He couldnÂ’t have even if he wanted to do so because the government had sealed them.   Submitted By: NULL