British POW how many lost their lives while in captivity.

[John84]

Do any 'Pal's have approximate figures for how many British POW lost their lives while in captivity.

Thanks

John

[Doug Johnson]

Far too many!

There were four places the graves were concentrated, Berlin South Western, Cologne South, Hamburg and Niederzwehren. In addtion, there are still some not concentrated such as those at Tingleff. There are also those who died from wounds buried elsewhere and an untold number who died whilst employed behind the lines who were not listed as PoWs and are not buried with the others prisoners. The numbers in the four main places need to be looked at carefully as there may be some non-PoWs buried there ie from the army of occupation.

Doug

[Anthony Bagshaw]

I don't think anyone will ever know the answer to this question.

There are of course, the cemeteries in Germany, but don't forget that soldiers were often wounded in an attack, taken prisoner and buried in cemeteries in France or Belgium behind their lines.

[Clive Maier]

These were the War Office figures.

[Coldstreamer]

then there are the ones that died after being released

[Arthur J]

Can anyone help? Where is TINGLEFF?

I refer to Doug Johnson's post. There is a reference made to "TINGLEFF" but I have been unsucessful in Googling it.

[John84]

Thanks for everyone's help and suggestions. I was just about to do the look ups at the relevant CWGC cemeteries. But thanks to Clive's War Office figures, this gives a good indication to what I was after. Thanks all again.

John

[Doug Johnson]

For Tingleff try Tinglev which is an alternative spelling. It is on the border between Germany and Denmark and was the burial place for PoWs who died at Baistrup.

Doug

[Arthur J]

Thanks Doug thats great

Arthur J

[Doug Johnson]

For information, the number reported by William Doegen in "Kriegsgefange Volker" is 5, 525. This is made up of 124 officers and 5,401 other ranks and is 2.98% of the total number of prisoners. The information in broken down in some detail including various diseases and includes "Selbstmord" which I presume means suicide (5 officers and 12 other ranks). The figures from Doegens work are also quoted by Uta Hinz in "Gefangen in Grossen Krieg - Kriegsgefangenschaft in Deutschland 1914-1921" (2006) This is quite a serious study so I presume that no better figures were available. I would guess that the British figures include those who were taken prisoner but died of wounds fairly quickly whereas the German figures included only those who made it to a camp. However, I have not been able to establish the true basis of these figures.

Doug

[John84]

Doug, thanks mate that is all very helpful, very much appreciated.

John