Liberation
Liberation
From the moment of their capture, POWs had expected their liberation to
take place imminently. By the start of 1945, it was clear, even to the most
cautious prisoner of war, that Germany would be defeated at some point
that year.1 This chapter first explores how POWs represented in their
personal narratives those final few months in captivity, before going on to
look at their reactions to their eventual liberation. These men had diffi-
culty in articulating their feelings towards their release; instead, the for-
mat of their diary entries conveys their excitement. This chapter then
looks at how, and when, these men ended their diaries, and so brought to
completion their narrative representations of their captive lives.
In Germany, life and conditions in POW camps tended to be largely
stable until D-Day, after which Europe, and so POWs’ lives, were
plunged into chaos.2 For example, between September 1944
and February 1945, only 210,000 food parcels a month were received
in camps for British prisoners and internees on the continent, as com-
pared with 640,000 a month for the preceding year.3 Local food supplies
were also strained and there was a severe fuel shortage.4 The flow of
letters between prison camps and home dwindled: January 1945 was
the last month when most prisoners’ letters were delivered.5 Camps
became even more overcrowded with the capture of more than 21,000
American troops during the Battle of the Bulge, the last major offensive of
the Germans against the Allies, in December 1944.6 In the spring of
1945, material conditions in camps, such as accommodation, food, cloth-
ing, general disciplinary issues, mail or recreation, were deemed in the
ICRC and Protecting Power reports to be dangerously inadequate in
more than one-third of cases, poor in another third, and satisfactory in
just under one-third of reports. By comparison, more than 70 per cent of
1
MacKenzie, The Colditz Myth, p. 358. 2 MacKenzie, The Colditz Myth, p. 97.
3
Mason, Prisoners of War, p. 442. 4 MacKenzie, The Colditz Myth, p. 177.
5
See, for example, Bloss, letter to his wife, 8 January 1945; Parker, letter to his sweetheart,
17 January 1945; Wild, letter to his wife, 1 January 1945.
6
Kochavi, Confronting Captivity, p. 97.
185
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186 Liberation
7
Vourkoutiotis, Prisoners of War and the German High Command, pp. 165–7.
8 9
MacKenzie, The Colditz Myth, p. 359. Rolf, Prisoners of the Reich, p. 223.
10
Hansard HC Deb., 13 February 1945, vol. 408 cols 51–2.
11
TNA ADM 116/5353, War Office file no: 0103/6753 (P.W.2), Message sent by
American Legation at Bern, 28 February 1945.
12
Rolf, Prisoners of the Reich, pp. 237–45.
13
H. Satow and M. J. Sée, The Work of the Prisoners of War Department during the Second
World War (London: Foreign Office, 1950), p. 16.
14
MacKenzie, The Colditz Myth, pp. 97, 367; Rolf, Prisoners of the Reich, pp. 235–6, 168;
Mason, Prisoners of War, pp. 459–60.
15
Bompas, diary entry, 31 August 1944.
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Liberation 187
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188 Liberation
19
Hawarden, diary entry, 22 April 1945.
20
Angove, diary entry, 29 March 1945; Mansel, letter to his mother, 28 April 1945.
21
Casdagli, diary entry, 28 March 1945 in Casdagli, Prouder Than Ever, p. 181; Beddis,
logbook, entry dated 2 March 1945; Cooper, diary entry, 23 April 1945. For similar
examples, see Johnson, logbook, entry dated 12 April 1945; McDermott-Brown, log-
book, entry dated 27 April 1945; East, diary entry, 23 April 1945; Hainsworth, diary
entry, 17 April 1945.
22
Nell, diary entry, 16 April 1945. For similar examples, see Bompas, diary entries, 11
and 12 April 1945; Laker, diary entry, 8 May 1945; Jabez-Smith, diary entry,
29 April 1945; Stewart, diary entries, ‘9pm last night’ and 29 April 1945.
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Liberation 189
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190 Liberation
system, and realised what other inmates had endured under the Third
Reich.
Many other diarists wrote their final entries after they had arrived in the
United Kingdom. Angove looked forward to the future by concluding his
diary, just after he had seen the White Cliffs of Dover, with the words,
‘England at last & freedom. It’s almost too good to be true. And there my
diary of POW life ends, nearly 3 years of captivity & starvation, over like
a bad dream. And now for the future.’28 Naylor also indicated he felt
a renewed confidence now that he was home and free, describing, in his
last entry, his reclaimed manhood when he wrote how he and others
caught a train to London ‘no longer PoWs, but men on leave.’29
Eldridge signalled his readiness to embrace his post-captivity life by
writing in his diary, when at Beaconsfield reception camp in
Buckinghamshire, ‘31.5.45: Thursday: – ’, and nothing more.30
Others focussed their final entries on their wives, children, siblings
and parents, providing more evidence, in addition to that contained in
Chapter 4, of how POWs defined their imprisonment through their
separation from home. Hawarden’s final entry indicates his experience
of captivity would be concluded only once he was reunited with his wife
and daughter, but his use of inverted commas indicates the trepidation
he felt ahead of their meeting: ‘taxied to Victoria Station, train to
Bolton, then bus to “home”’.31 There was seemingly no anxiety from
others. From the reception centre at Beaconsfield, where Abbott had
a drink and dance in the town, he ended his diary by announcing
‘tomorrow is the day I am looking forward to when I meet my wife and
two boys.’32 Mansel’s final diary entry was written when he was back at
the centre of his family, just eighteen days after he had been freed. He
concluded his diary on the anniversary of his younger brother’s death
with the words ‘Clare [his sister] and I played to Mummy and stayed at
home.’33
White was the last to close his diary. On 16 May 1945, he wrote his final
entry, consisting of the words: ‘Sit in garden to write this up.’ White’s
entry is interesting. Whilst the other diarists demonstrate their willingness
to look away from captivity and towards the rest of their lives, White’s
words and his action demonstrate his difficulty in moving on from the
28
Angove, diary entry, 4 April 1945.
29
Naylor, diary entry, 9 May 1945. For other POWs who concluded their diaries upon
arrival in the United Kingdom, see Quarrie, diary, p. 149; Stirling, diary entry,
11 May 1945; East, diary entry, 13 May 1945; Brooke, diary entry, 10 May 1945.
30
Eldridge, diary entry, 31 May 1945. 31 Hawarden, diary entry, 10 May 1945.
32
Abbott, diary entry, 9 May 1945. For similar examples, see Hall, diary entry,
12 May 1945; Hainsworth, diary entry, 26 April 1945.
33
Mansel, diary entry, 13 May 1945.
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Liberation 191
experience.34 Now back at home, he was still working on his captive diary
by writing it up. By writing about this act in his diary, he indicates his
desire to continue writing entries into his diary, even if he no longer had
any suitable experiences to include in it.
Whilst White is the only one to allude to it, few, if any, POWs were able
to move on from their experience of captivity as simply as shutting these
books. The next chapter charts how these men continued to make sense
of their wartime experiences in the post-war world. Before moving on to
this, the final word should go to those who did not make it back to
England. Just under 6 per cent of British army POWs died in captivity
or 7,047 men, 2 per cent or 111 men from the Royal Navy and
1.5 per cent or 152 men from the RAF (including the fifty POWs shot
in The Great Escape).35 The fact that so many prisoners from the army
died reflects how junior NCOs and privates, or those of equivalent rank,
were exposed to some of the worst conditions in captivity, and experi-
enced more harassment and serious violations of the Geneva Convention
than officers or the prisoners held by the Luftwaffe and Kriegsmarine.36
Of the POWs’ diaries, letters and logbooks drawn upon in Captives of
War, one author never made it home. Campbell was killed on
12 May 1944 by a bomb at the industrial site where he was working at
Bruz in Czechoslovakia. His death is given a particular poignancy by his
final diary entry, which was written four days earlier: ‘NOTHING
TO REPORT. All quiet on the Western Front.’37
34
White, diary entry, 16 May 1945.
35
‘Table 9. Total number of prisoners of war of the armed forces of the United Kingdom
captured by the enemy as reported to 28th February 1946’, in Strength and Casualties of
the Armed Forces, p. 9. This table does not provide the figure for the number of merchant
seamen who died in captivity.
36
On the disparity of conditions, see Vourkoutiotis, Prisoners of War and the German High
Command, p. 177.
37
Campbell, diary entry, 8 May 1944.
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