Stalag VII A

Stalag VII A
Author: Dominik Dr. Reither
Publisher: BoD – Books on Demand
Total Pages: 81
Release: 2023-08-27
Genre: History
ISBN: 3757861604

One of the largest POW camps in the German Reich during World War II, Stalag VII A, was located in Moosburg an der Isar. Built in the fall of 1939 for 10,000 prisoners, it housed some 70,000 soldiers from numerous nations on April 29, 1945, the day of liberation. The booklet covers various aspects of the prisoners' lives and the camp itself. The english edition is a translation of the German edition issued 2015. See BoD: Stalag VII A / ISBN 9783750408340.

Great Escape Forger

Great Escape Forger
Author: Susan Holmstrom Kohnowich
Publisher: Pen and Sword Military
Total Pages: 194
Release: 2022-09-21
Genre: History
ISBN: 1526768011

Carl Holmstrom’s superb artwork depicts life as a ‘kriegie’ in a unique manner. But, more than that, he spent the major part of his captivity in Stalag Luft III Prisoner of War Camp, famous for ‘The Great Escape’. The audacity of the 76 escapees was only matched by the callousness of the Nazis who murdered 50 after recapture. As well as skillfully recording camp life, Carl forged invaluable official documents. He also sketched his fellow prisoners and encouraged others to take up drawing as hobby. Remarkably he saved over 200 examples of his work by carrying them on the appallingly arduous 1945 winter march from Poland into Germany. Post war, Carl Holmstrom said, “The drawings were made during imprisonment and represent a sincere effort to portray to the American people and especially to the relatives of the prisoners, intimate glimpses of Kriegie life.” His words proved to be prophetic. An expansion of his earlier self-published Kriegie Life, this superb book honors Carl’s exceptional artistic gift. This book has strong claim to contain the finest collection of POW art to emerge from Nazi-occupied Europe.

Captured at Arnhem

Captured at Arnhem
Author: Peter Green
Publisher: Pen and Sword Military
Total Pages: 422
Release: 2022-07-20
Genre: Biography & Autobiography
ISBN: 1399088386

For the British 1st Airborne Division Operation Market Garden in September 1944 was a disaster. The Division was eliminated as a fighting force with around a half of its men were captured. The Germans were faced with dealing with 6,000 prisoners in a fortnight; many of them seriously wounded. Somehow the men were processed and despatched to camps around Germany and German occupied eastern Europe. Here the men experienced the reality of the collapsing regime – little food and shrinking frontiers. Once liberated in 1945 returning former prisoners were required to complete liberation questionnaires. Some refused. Others returned before ’Operation Endor’ to handle released men and their repatriation to Britain was in place. Around a third did. However the questionnaires that do exist give an picture of every day experience for the 2,357 of these elite troops’ time in captivity from capture to release. They show that German procedures still operating, but that men were often treated inhumanely, when moved to camps by closed box cars and when camps were evacuated. Although their interrogators were interested in Allied aircraft and airfields, their interrogators were also concerned the effect of the new miracle weapons and with politics, how Germany would be treated after an Allied victory? Nevertheless the airborne men’s morale remained high; carrying out sabotage at artificial oil plants, railway repairs, factories and mines. Some overcame their guards when being evacuated at the end of the War, in some cases joining the Resistance. They record help received from Dutch, French and German civilians.

World War 2 Is Not Over

World War 2 Is Not Over
Author: Frank Yarosh
Publisher: Xlibris Corporation
Total Pages: 255
Release: 2001-12-01
Genre: Biography & Autobiography
ISBN: 1401029302

This book is an exciting personal WW2 story which holds the reader's interest from beginning to end --- a true "page turner' of fast moving events. Written in a non-sophisticated language style, Frank shares intimate happenings, thoughts and details of some of his harsh experiences while in intense combat, cruel captivity and a frustrating afterwards. The reader will find the wartime events enlightening and somewhat entertaining in an unusual manner. After registering for the draft when 18, at Lopez, PA. Frank was called up March, 1943, and after completing three months of intense combat engineering training at Fort Lewis, WA, he was offered officer candidate training at Fort Belvoir, VA or the Army Specialized Training Program (ASTP) at Brigham Young University, BYU, Provo, Utah. Since General "Ike" needed infantrymen for the invasion of France in 1944, Frank reluctantly had to leave BYU and was assigned to Company C, 1st Battalion, 274th Regiment, 70th Division, Camp Adair, OR. As a youngster, Frank was a tough, outdoor type of kid, since his boyhood life included lots of hard work during the 1930 depression years as well as trapping, fishing and hunting. All contributed to a terrific background for the rigors of becoming a well-trained infantryman. After completing three months of rough training in the swamps of Oregon, he was selected and qualified to attend West Point. After much deliberation and consideration of West Point requirement to serve many years after graduation, Frank elect6ed to stay with Co. C as an infantry scout. Within a short time, Frank and his outfit were shipped to Marseilles, France, in December 1944. By Christmas time, Frank was on the West Bank of the Rhine River in frigid, snowy northern France. On January 4, 1945, he was assigned to lead a large scaled attack as a scout onto Phillipsbourg, France. He barely survived the horrors and ordeals of eyeball to eyeball combat until being relieved on January 19, 1945. His unit was recognized for successful tenacious combat against well-seasoned German troops. While going to another assignment on January 20th, Frank fell off an icy snow covered mountainous trail and severely sprained his left ankle. He was assigned to a snow covered large concrete pillbox on the Maginot Line with three other infantrymen to spy on nearby German troops. At midnight on January 21, during a blizzard, a white clad Waffen S.S. Troop patrol fired explosives into the isolated pillbox and Frank and his buddies became prisoners of war. Frank's recollection of his five hour interrogation by a face slapping German Intelligence officer in an isolated farm house somewhere across the Rhine in Germany was intense and of a dramatic movie scene quality that shook him to the core of his being. Transport in a crowded filthy 40 and8's boxcar for five days through Germany was the beginning of cruel treatment by his captors. Besides the train being strafed by American planes, since it was not marked, the prisoners were spat on and sworn at by civilians in train stations. Stalag XI-B at Fallingbostel in Northern Germany near Bremen was filled with thousands of POW's from the many nations that Hitler had conquered, as well as captured Allied troops. Many POW's died each day and were buried in mass trenches. Frank's barracks, filled with sad looking American GI's, was unheated and loaded with lice. Since he was not an officer, Private 1st Class Yarosh had to work digging out tree stumps without breakfast or lunch after walking about 4 miles to the proposed V2 rocket site. Supper back at the barracks consisted of one slice of dark hard bread and maybe two small cold boiled potatoes and a cup of weak cold soup. This slim diet soon produced a skeleton frame on many POW's. Since Frank had an excellent knowledge of the Russian language, he made many dangerous nighttime trips to the nearby Russian compounds to buy vegetables with American cigarettes. Th

The Prisoners of War and German High Command

The Prisoners of War and German High Command
Author: V. Vourkoutiotis
Publisher: Springer
Total Pages: 278
Release: 2003-07-08
Genre: History
ISBN: 0230598307

Based on archival research in Germany, Great Britain, the USA and Canada, this study provides the first complete examination of the relationship between the Oberkommando der Wehrmacht (German Armed Forces High Command), and Anglo-American prisoners of war. German military policy is compared with reports of almost one thousand visits by Red Cross and Protecting Power inspectors to the camps, allowing the reader to judge how well the policies were actually put into practice, and what their impact was on the lives of the captured soldiers, sailors and airmen.

The G.I. Collector's Guide: U.S. Army Service Forces Catalog, European Theater of Operations

The G.I. Collector's Guide: U.S. Army Service Forces Catalog, European Theater of Operations
Author: Henri-Paul Enjames
Publisher: Casemate
Total Pages: 274
Release: 2022-09-21
Genre: History
ISBN: 1636242049

In World War II, the U.S. Army not only supplied its soldiers with the most modern equipment and uniforms, suitable for any combat situation, but went as far as providing them with their favorite drinks or candy bars, and seemingly anything else they might require. This comprehensive reference book brings together all the equipment issued to American soldiers in the European Theater of Operations, 1943–45. Each item is presented with its catalog numbers, described in detail and fully depicted in photographs, including close-ups of the labels to aid identification of items. Graphics and diagrams offer additional information and context. This second volume of the G.I. Collector's Guide is fully revised with the addition of sections including personal equipment, trophies and souvenirs, the wartime draft and Stateside training, and the life of POWs in German camps. More than one thousand new artifacts with detailed captions are featured in this completely revised new work. Expert Henri-Paul Enjames describes all variations of uniform, insignia, badges, weapons, and equipment in detail. As a complete catalog with high-quality photographs, this book is invaluable to both family historians researching grandpa's kit found in the attic and to collectors in their quest to find authentic items among the reproductions that flood the modern market.

Confronting Captivity

Confronting Captivity
Author: Arieh J. Kochavi
Publisher: Univ of North Carolina Press
Total Pages: 393
Release: 2011-01-20
Genre: History
ISBN: 0807876402

How was it possible that almost all of the nearly 300,000 British and American troops who fell into German hands during World War II survived captivity in German POW camps and returned home almost as soon as the war ended? In Confronting Captivity, Arieh J. Kochavi offers a behind-the-scenes look at the living conditions in Nazi camps and traces the actions the British and American governments took--and didn't take--to ensure the safety of their captured soldiers. Concern in London and Washington about the safety of these POWs was mitigated by the recognition that the Nazi leadership tended to adhere to the Geneva Convention when it came to British and U.S. prisoners. Following the invasion of Normandy, however, Allied apprehension over the safety of POWs turned into anxiety for their very lives. Yet Britain and the United States took the calculated risk of counting on a swift conclusion to the war as the Soviets approached Germany from the east. Ultimately, Kochavi argues, it was more likely that the lives of British and American POWs were spared because of their race rather than any actions their governments took on their behalf.

Odyssey of a Bombardier

Odyssey of a Bombardier
Author: John J. Hurt
Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield
Total Pages: 329
Release: 2014-09-26
Genre: Biography & Autobiography
ISBN: 1611494966

Odyssey of a Bombardier is the illustrated Prisoner of War “log” that depicts the experiences of bombardier Richard M. Mason in German prison camps after his B-17 “Flying Fortress” was shot down by the Germans in France in 1944, the final year of World War II. The log follows Mason from the day his plane crashed until his liberation in April, 1945, and his return home to the United States. Included are such topics as medical treatment and rehabilitation for wounded prisoners of the Germans, life in Stalag Luft III, a difficult long march in an arctic winter to another camp, the travails of prisoners in the overcrowded, filthy camp at Moosburg, critical food shortages, and the arrival of General George Patton with the liberating forces. Mason was an amateur artist and illustrated his journal with moving depictions of prison life and comradeship. This book shows U.S. airmen demonstrating grace and courage under pressure and meeting every challenge that their imprisonment presented.

Mrs. Cordie’s Soldier Son

Mrs. Cordie’s Soldier Son
Author: Rocky R. Miracle
Publisher: Texas A&M University Press
Total Pages: 200
Release: 2008-03-25
Genre: History
ISBN: 9781603440295

The story of D.C. Caughran Jr., Mrs. Cordie’s son, could be that of almost any soldier in World War II. He left the comfort of home and family to become part of one of the defining conflicts of modern times. The letters he wrote home tell his story from the day he received his draft notice in the summer of 1942 through battle, capture, wounding, imprisonment, and his eventual return home for recuperation and discharge. Author Rocky R. Miracle, the son-in-law of D.C. Caughran, tells not only Caughran’s story, but at the same time the story of “the home folks” who anxiously watched for letters from their “soldier boy” and wrote faithfully of their love and prayers for his safety. This home-front narrative also stands as an important and deeply personal record of life in wartime. Taken prisoner during the German breakout of December 1944 that led to the Battle of the Bulge, D.C. was force-marched past corpses lining the road into Germany, loaded with other American prisoners into boxcars, and held in a prison camp during the coldest European winter of the century. He suffered starvation rations and hepatitis and was hospitalized after his liberation, though doctors were doubtful that he would recover. However, with time and care, he returned to health, was honorably discharged from the U.S. Army, and lived a long, productive life. This intimate portrait of an American family—at home and at war—during a time of world upheaval is at once heartwarming, sobering, and entertaining. Mrs. Cordie’s Soldier Son is highly recommended for readers interested in World War II, the POW experience, and home-front literature.

Prisoners of War

Prisoners of War
Author:
Publisher: Oxford University Press
Total Pages: 560
Release: 2022-05-05
Genre: World War, 1939-1945
ISBN: 019884039X

The Second World War between the Axis and Allied powers saw over 20 million soldiers taken as prisoners of war. Prisoners of War uses a series of case studies to illuminate the personal and collective histories of those who experienced captivity in Eastern and Western Europe during the war and their repatriation and reintegration afterwards.