Escaped German POWs in UK

[Censorious]

In response to Moonraker in Jan 2012.

The recapture of Homke and Sandhagen was reported in The Times of 6 May 1918 (nearly three weeks after getting out of Larkhill). No place of recapture was mentioned except "South Coast". The comment that someone's Grandfather in 15th Scottish Rifles had captured them puts the location on the Kent coast as that Battalion was at Deal at the relevant date.

[Moonraker]

Fuller account of Paul Scheumann's escape

here

Moonraker

[elewis]

Three German POWS escaped from Evesham, Worcs, in April 1918. A fuller report of the escape was in the Evesham Journal, (sorry but IF I made fuller notes they are not to hand), the following is the section I put in my documentation about the Stanton, (Glos, postal address Worcs!), War Dead.

About 560 German Prisoners Of War were held in the Evesham area. The bulk of these worked locally often doing agricultural jobs left vacant by men that were in the forces, including on farms at Stanton. Most of them accepted the situation and were probably happy to be away from the horrors of the front. However, there was quite a stir when 3 newly arrived “trouble makers” escaped at the end of April 1918 and were on the loose for a period in the area, after a time they were seen at Laverton and were eventually caught in a wood near Wormington. One POW camp was locate at Toddington, and this is probably where the men that worked in Stanton came from, and 3 prisoners there were fatalities of the influenza epidemic in early November 1918.

[For those who do not know the area to save you reaching for maps Evesham to Laverton is only about 8 miles and Laverton to Wormington about 1 1/2 miles]

[Guest Clin]

Thought I better give everyone an update on where this is going. I have decided to look at the thought processes of NZ PoWs. By that I mean things such as why they chose to take the routes they did once escaped and Whether or not they were prepared for escape.

As part of looking at this I was wondering if there would be Escape and Evasion reports about NZers held at Kew? or would they be held here in NZ? I ask this as I have searched our National Archives website without any success.

[Moonraker]

Hi Clin; I'm not sure where you think "this is going", but this thread's about escaped German PoWs in the UK, so it's bit of a diversion to start talking about the thought processes of NZ PoWs. And if we're going to talk about two different subjects in the same thread some of us are going to get lost. I wonder if you were thinking of another thread when you posted? If not, far better to start a brand new thread on NZ PoWs.

Moonraker