Spring offensive, 1918

sir – A hundred years ago today, the Germans launched the spring offensive on the Somme.

My father, Joseph Kol Koelkenbeck, served with the Post Office Rifles and was captured on March 22. The Allied prisoners were taken to Saint-quentin, the German HQ. There, they were visited by Crown Prince Wilhelm, who assured them – in perfect English – that Germany would win the war and that they would soon be going home.

The prisoners spent the rest of the war in the large holding camp near Merseburg. The food shortage became dire and they tried eating grass and mangel-wurzels. After the Armistice, they began the long walk to the Dutch coast to find a ship home. My father only just made it and owed much to help from a Dutch family and from a Captain Alexander. He felt that he was always treated fairly by the British Army and that having a German name was not a disadvantage. Audrey Stanley

Bournemouth, Dorset

sir – It is always interesting to read the 100-year-old articles by your First World War correspondents.

Tuesday’s article, by Philip Gibbs, describes troops facing attack by gas shells. This has particular resonance as my wife’s grandfather was gassed in the conflict described. He was left for dead and retrieved after three days.

His recuperation took 20 years. Robert Farrer

Berkhamsted, Hertfordshire