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By: 21st May 2015 at 08:53 Permalink - Edited 1st January 1970 at 01:00
-By: 21st May 2015 at 09:10 Permalink - Edited 1st January 1970 at 01:00
-Thanks for the link Chas. I take it, as it's not quite clear to me, that the 13.000 POWs were in fact RAF Pilots who had been captured by the Germans, hence they were ex POWs that passed through Cosford during their re patriation?.And NOT German POWs.
Jim.
Lincoln .7
By: 21st May 2015 at 09:22 Permalink - Edited 1st January 1970 at 01:00
-That's how it reads to me, too. But you can understand your friend's misunderstanding.
By: 21st May 2015 at 10:18 Permalink - Edited 1st January 1970 at 01:00
-I am just re-reading the book by 'Great Escaper' the late Ken 'Shagg' Rees and one interesting thing, given his later exploits within Stalag Luft III, is that when he was promoted to the (lowly) rank of Pilot Officer in Egypt he was given, with his roommate (tent-mate), their own batman...
...who was an Italian POW!
This seems quite surprising to me, given the wartime obsession with security, that this Italian POW would have had quite a lot of freedom on an operational RAF base; in fact the POW had so much freedom that Ken Rees actually had to ask him why didn't he escape?
By: 21st May 2015 at 10:52 Permalink - Edited 1st January 1970 at 01:00
-That's how it reads to me, too. But you can understand your friend's misunderstanding.
I suppose the question is Chas, is that was Cosford a POW camp for German prisoners or not?.
Jim.
Lincoln .7
By: 21st May 2015 at 10:57 Permalink - Edited 1st January 1970 at 01:00
-Warren, many yrs ago, Peterborough was my home town, and right in the centre was an Italian POW camp. I used to visit them, as it was allowed at the time, and many were oft seen to be carving very intricate items from wood, to pass the time of day.which they then sold to buy food and ciggies.
Jim.
Lincoln .7
By: 21st May 2015 at 12:02 Permalink - Edited 1st January 1970 at 01:00
-Warren, many yrs ago, Peterborough was my home town, and right in the centre was an Italian POW camp. I used to visit them, as it was allowed at the time, and many were oft seen to be carving very intricate items from wood, to pass the time of day.which they then sold to buy food and ciggies.
Jim.
Lincoln .7
You must have seen some of the lovely examples of bone carving in Peterborough Museum then ?
Dating back to the French POW's from the Napoleonic wars
By: 21st May 2015 at 12:36 Permalink - Edited 1st January 1970 at 01:00
-Alan, Now you come to mention it, I will make a point of visiting the Mseum and have a "Look See" . Thanks for jogging my addled grey matter..:D
Jim.
Lincoln .7
By: 21st May 2015 at 13:53 Permalink - Edited 1st January 1970 at 01:00
-If you Google pow camps in the U.K., you'll find Sheriffhales, Whitchurch and Shrewsbury as the only named locations in Shropshire.
By: 21st May 2015 at 14:18 Permalink - Edited 1st January 1970 at 01:00
-But maybe it was not a 'POW Camp' as such; mostly when people talk about POW camps they mean 'high-security' camps for POW officers.
I have read an account of a young German POW living in the tool-shed of a small-holding in a village near where I used to live; it seems incredible now but tens of thousands of POW 'other ranks' lived and worked on farms all over the country, without guards or barbed-wire, during the war.
By: 21st May 2015 at 21:37 Permalink - Edited 1st January 1970 at 01:00
-Warren. You may well be right. as the place where they were, was on the site of a large demolished building, ATBH I cannot remember seeing any guards, however, it was more years ago than I can remember in detail.
Thanks for your input though.
Jim
Lincoln .7
By: 21st May 2015 at 21:50 Permalink - Edited 1st January 1970 at 01:00
-
I have read an account of a young German POW living in the tool-shed of a small-holding in a village near where I used to live; it seems incredible now but tens of thousands of POW 'other ranks' lived and worked on farms all over the country, without guards or barbed-wire, during the war.
They knew when they were well off.
Posts: 8,306
By: Lincoln 7 - 21st May 2015 at 08:49
I was recently asked by a friend in Aus, if the aformentioned base was, during the last War, a P.O.W. Camp. anyone shed any light on this, or is it just a rumour?.
Jim.
Lincoln .7