During WW1 the Central Powers, Germany and her Empire, with Austro-Hungary, Bulgaria and Turkey, were pitted against the Allied Powers, Britain and her Empire, with France, Belgium, Russia, and America from May 1917, both Powers imprisoning civilians and combatants from the outset.
Escapes, some successful, others resulting in re-capture, from Prisoner of War (POW) camps around the world have been described in a variety of languages by many authors. Not all accounts of escapes have been translated from original texts, rendering them less well-known than others in, for example, the Englishspeaking world. Even escapes that were reported in contemporary English-language media have clearly been overlooked by those who, unlike serious family historians delving into archives and scouring newspapers for historical data, rely on publications that for decades have been deftly advertised but poorly referenced. This article, based on my research over many years in a variety of sources, named here, identifies some escapes from POW Camps, particularly in Britain, but also dispels the myth, promulgated on Wikipedia and elsewhere [1] that during World War I only one POW escapee from a camp in Britain reached his homeland.
Who were the POWs?
To better understand who the World War I prisoner of war escapees were, and what motivated them to escape (even if, in general, quickly recaptured) from a relatively safe environment insulated from bloody conflict, it is helpful to understand the conditions, from where and to where they were planning to escape. Indeed, who were these prisoners of war anyway?
To give us a measure of the numbers involved, according to Statistical Information Regarding the Armies at Home and Abroad [2], the Allied Powers altogether in January 1919 held 507,215 POWs, 128,043 of them in camps in the British Isles. The conditions under which POWs should be accommodated, clothed and fed were regulated by the Geneva and Hague Conventions of 1906 and 1907, to which both Britain and Germany were signatories.
Civilian and Officer POWs could not be compelled to work, unlike ‘other ranks’. As a consequence, for convenient management, these three categories were mostly housed in separate camps – although officers were permitted to have a few ‘other ranks’ as orderlies. Incidentally, the international Conventions also permitted punishment of escapees. In general, both Britain and Germany adhered to the regulations though, particularly during 1914, there were some exceptions and a small number of camp commandants were outrageously brutal.