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The Kriegies of Oflag 64 September 17, 2006 The Soviets attack, the POWs are moved
Map of the Eastern Front, 1945, "Approaches to the Reich," from Time Magazine, February 1945. The red dot marks the approximate location of Oflag 64. The names to the right in black boxes identify the commanders of the five Soviet Army Groups on the march. Each Army Group had multiple armies. Presented by the University of San Diego. The Germans had invaded the Soviet Union in June 1941, employing 3.6 million soldiers organized into 153 divisions, the largest force in European military history. By January 31, 1942, almost a year before the US invaded North Africa, this German invasion already had failed and the Germans had to fight their way out of the Soviet Union. We make this point for a number of reasons, one of which is that the Germans were moving their POWs to Europe from North Africa in February 1943 knew damn well their forces were retreating from the USSR and the Soviets were in hot pursuit. While they were moving them, they also lost the North Africa campaign and knew an invasion of Italy was very likely. It did kick off in September 1943. The Soviet military had lost anywhere from 8-15 million soldiers in this war thus far and as many as 20 million civilians. The Germans treated Soviet POWs worse than dirt on the street, worse than garbage in the can, viewing them as a lower form of life. Estimates are that of five million Soviet soldiers taken prisoner by the Germans, only two million survived. As the Soviets headed toward Germany through Poland, they were in no mood to be benevolent, and the Germans knew it. By January 12, 1945, the Soviets had taken back Odessa in the Ukraine, and Minsk in Belarus; they had captured Romania, and Romania then turned about and fought against the Germans; Bulgaria had surrendered to them and declared war against Germany. The Soviets occupied Estonia, and they re-entered Poland. Indeed, the Soviets had 27 armies lined up from Lithuania in the north to Czechoslovakia in the south, ready to advance toward Berlin. By mid-February Soviet Marshal Zhukov was closing on Poznan, and Marshal Konev was closing on Silesia, ready to cross the Oder River into Germany. The red dot on the map above marks the location of Oflag 64 --- right in the line of advance. The Germans knew they were in trouble. The Germans knew what to do with themselves: high-tail it westward. But what about the POWs facing the eastern front? In the August 25-September 7, 1997 edition of The Stars and Stripes, Arthur Spiegelmann of Reuters reported the following strategy of the German leader, Hitler:
It is hard to know whether this is true or whether Goering was trying to save his neck. It is known, however, that Hitler did plan to renounce the Geneva Convention protecting POWs, and that was not a good sign for the POWs and does support the Goering rendition. For most of the non-Soviet POWs, the Germans took two approaches:
About 10 percent of the POWs were left to the Soviets or escaped the marches westward and made it to Soviet lines. The rest were marched westward to Germany.
The Germans abandoned Warsaw and in January 1945, the Red Army entered the city. But the Germans only withdrew after a nasty fight against Polish nationalists trying to take the city before the Soviets got there. The Germans put down what is known as the "Warsaw Uprising," and destroyed most of the city at the direction of Hitler. Hitler told his generals to turn the city into a lake. Legend has it that Zhukov held his forces outside the city while the Germans destroyed it and left, instead of taking them on. His argument: Berlin was more important. It is also true that the Soviets did not give a hoot about the Poles.
This is a photo of one locale in Warsaw as the Soviets marched in, completely destroyed. Presented by Polonia Today. The Red Army was in Poznan and Danzig by the end of January. Germany would surrender all together in May and WWII in Europe would end. But the intervening months were hard-fought and very destructive, on all fronts. For the moment, we are going to concentrate on the Soviet advance because initially this had the greatest impact on the Oflag 64 men. But please recall that the western Allies invaded mainland Europe at Normandy in June 1944 and were also racing toward Berlin from the west and coming up through Italy from the south. These advances were the ones to eventually liberate hundreds of thousands of POWs, our men from Oflag 64 included. The late Vic Kanners had said that "Come on, you Ruskies!" was a most familar phrase at the camp. Quite interestingly, Kanners said that Colonel Goode, the senior ranking officer, ordered his fellow prisoners to walk a certain path just inside the barbed wire enclosure for one hour every day in order to be in shape to leave. But in January 1945, the Germans still held our men at Oflag 64 and at most other camps. The Kriegies at Oflag 64 had a secret radio, known as "The Bird," and they were able to keep informed about the Russian advances. On January 21, 1945, the Germans marched most of the American POWs out of Oflag 64, just ahead of the advancing Russian Army. The word in the camp was the Russians were within 23 miles. We have seen different numbers about how many prisoners were in the camp at the time the Germans made this decision. We have seen numbers as low as 1300 to as high as 1800. The War Department in 1945 said there were 1,557. We'll talk in terms of 1,500. There are also different numbers for how many were marched out and how many remained. The War Department in 1945 said 1,471 officers and enlisted men were matched out of the camp by the Germans, while 86, mostly sick and infirmed, stayed behind, led by Col. Frederick Drury, USA. Dr. Peter Carl Graffagnino, MD was a medical officer at the camp and has written most interesting recollections of Oflag 64. He has said they were able to leave over one hundred officers in camp with five or six doctors to care for them. We've also learned from men such as William R. Cory that he and four others hid in a tunnel the POWs had built at Oflag 64 until the camp was evacuated. They then joined the others who stayed behind. We do not know how many more might have done this. Others hid and left the camp on their own toward Soviet lines. Some returned. We tell you this only so you do not spend too much time trying to make all the numbers we will present work out. Good records of our POWs were not kept, and different people remember different numbers. The numbers we use will be close enough. We'll first discuss this latter group, the group that was at the camp when the Soviets liberated them.
In the mean time, about 200 of the 1,471 POWs who were marched out toward Germany escaped from the columns, and turned east toward Soviet lines. Some of them returned to the Sczubin camp. Richard A. Parker, who had been captured at the Battle of the Bulge, and would go on to become a three-time US ambassador, to Algeria, Lebanon and Morocco, said this about what happened at the end of the first day's march:
On January 28, the Soviets transported the sick Americans, and those who had escaped and returned to Oflag 64, to Rembertow, Poland by truck. Rembertow is a district on the far northeast side of Warsaw. They arrived there on January 31. Rembertow has a sordid history, the site of a very harsh POW camp in WWI. It was also designated as one of 14 Jewish residential districts under German occupation. K. Karlsbad, a Polish underground warrior, in "Pages torn from my youth," described Rembertow as follows once the Soviets took it:
Others from the group of 200 that had escaped from the westward march made their own way to Rembertow and joined with Col. Drury's group. Others went to other cities in Poland or the Soviet Union and were repatriated.
This is a photo of a New Zealand passenger ship, the Monowai, which was converted to war time use and was used to move POWs out of Odessa. We believe this kind of ship to have been typical of the ones used to repatriate Allied POWs from that port. Presented by NZ Maritime The Soviets moved Drury's group, which numbered in the hundreds by now, to Odessa by train on February 22, they reached the Odessa port on March 1, and were taken home by ship or plane. Lt. Marvin Danielson, 407th Infantry, was one of the sick who ended up in Odessa. He has said he boarded a British ship to Cairo, where he was taken to a US hospital. From there, he went back to the US. Others have said they went by ship first to Istanbul, then to Cairo, and then to Naples. Lt. J. Frank Diggs, on the other hand, escaped, ran into the advancing Russians, hitchhiked to Warsaw, traveled by boxcar to Odessa, got tied up in the bickering between the US and Russia about repatriation, and finally made it home. He has written a book about this ordeal, Americans behind the barbed wire. Lt. Col. Tom Riggs, on the day they were to march out, hid behind a walk-in ice chest in the mess hall, walked to the outskirts of Poznan where he met up with the Polish underground, and then joined up with a Russian unit that arrived in the city. The Russian colonel said Riggs could come with them to Berlin, so Riggs went along, fought with them for 10 days, and was then put on a train in Warsaw that took him to Odessa and out. Col. Doyle R. Yardley escaped from Oflag 64 on January 23, the day the Russians arrived, but came back and remained with the Russians through March 1945, some time of which was spent at Rembertow. He has written about his experiences in a book entitled, Home was never like this. As we indicated when Col. Drury had to negotiate with the Russians at Oflag 64, nothing in life was easy when dealing with the Soviets. For starters, the USSR did not sign the Geneva Convention in 1929, so they didn't recognize any of that stuff. The Soviets also had "POW-issues" lingering on from the Bolshevik Revolution of 1917. These reared their ugly heads in one form or another as the defeat of Germany seemed assured. Patricia Louise Wadley, in 1993, produced a doctoral paper while attending Texas Christian University entitled, "An examination of the Soviet refusal to repatriate liberated American World War II Prisoners of War." We commend it to you. It is a real eye-opener.
This is a photo of an official Soviet inspection of Stalag Luft I at Barth, Germany, May 4, 1945. Left to right: Colonel Zbovanik, US Colonel Zemke, General Borisov, and Group Captain Cecil Weir, chief of staff, Provisional Wing X. The Soviets had liberated the camp on May 1, 1945. The Soviets were hesitant to release the Americans, so 91st Bomb Wing B-17s flew into the airfield near Barth and took them. The 91st sent in 41 B-17Gs on May 13, 1945. The operation, known as "Operation Revival," lasted three days. Presented by Stalag Luft I. Among other things, the Soviets insisted on having control over all POWs in their hands right up until the last minute. They also did not want to permit foreign aircraft to land at their airfields in Poland to pick up the POWs and take them home. They also insisted that American representatives to meet the POWs and take them in their charge be limited to Odessa. The western Allies wanted their people to be all over the place to pick them up. The Soviet motivation was to conceal from Allied eyes what they were doing in Poland and to the Polish people. Much of this was not a pretty sight, and simply repeated what the Soviets had done during the time they occupied eastern Poland while Germany occupied western Poland, what some have referred to as a "double reign of terror." In addition, the Soviets were not only chasing Germans; they were also chasing "enemies of the state." Many Poles fought against the Germans but were loyal to the Polish government in exile in London. The Soviets in turn viewed them as "enemies of the state," because they wanted democracy instead of communism. Regrettably, the western Allies sold them out at Yalta, essentially ceding Poland to the Soviets. The history here is horrific. The Soviets also wanted access to all US POW camps. They wanted the US and the other Allies to forcibly repatriate any Soviets in their hands. Furthermore, they wanted soldiers and civilians from countries annexed by the USSR returned to the Soviets. Allied compliance, of course, meant certain death or expulsion to Siberian Gulags for these people. On January 24, 1945, just a day after the Soviets arrived at Oflag 64, Col. Drury somehow got a note to the American embassy in Moscow informing it there were US POWs all over Poland. He told them of the 1,400 forced by the Germans to march out of Oflag 64, some 120 from that column were hospitalized near Kycnia, Poland, and 90 under his leadership were back at Oflag 64. He added that there were Americans, and others at Schoken (Oflag XXI-B) and Wollstein (Oflag XXI-CH). He asked for help to evacuate all these POWs immediately. The embassy was uneasy about this letter, because the Soviets had failed to tell it there were American POWs in Poland, and Poland was at this time under Soviet charge. The story from here on gets diplomatically complicated and, frankly, very frustrating. The Soviets were playing a distasteful game with their Allied POWs and American POWs were roaming all over Poland during the winter in various stages of health. The Soviets even refused to repatriate POWs they "liberated" in Germany, but instead moved them to their repatriation center in Odessa under Soviet guard. Odessa was the only place where American contact officers were permitted to meet POWs held by the Soviets. It was not until the war was virtually over that they finally agreed to let them cross the lines directly into American hands. In short, a big mess and a real indicator of the Cold War to come. Drury got his men from Oflag 64 out on March 1, and he was damn lucky to do so.
There are more than one Allied POW who have said they were treated better by their German captors than their Soviet liberators. Many Americans refused to go into a Soviet camp. The Soviets often treated their own returning POW soldiers badly, shooting some, perhaps many, because they had been "contaminated" by non-communist ideology while in captivity. We need to switch gears now, and return to the second group of Oflag 64 POWs, the ones who were marched out of camp by the Germans. The framework for our description of their journey comes from notes kept by John P. Sanford. We do not repeat the entire ordeal and commend his notes to your attention. We took his framework and then searched for other stories, filled in holes, tried to reconcile differences in memories, and added interesting items along the way. Two significant sets of notes we employed were those of Lt. Sparks and Dr. Graffagnino. We must also mention that we also had access to the notes of Victor Kanners, provided to us by Jerry Kimble of Powder Springs, Georgia. Why did the Germans march their POWs out instead of using trains or trucks? Clearly the march would be hard on the older German guards, the POWs in a march would slow down the German escape from Poland. The Germans needed to get away from the Soviets faster than did the Americans. The late Eric Fearnside, a British POW (born in Yorkshire) at Stalag XVIIIA at Wolfsberg, Austria, has said that there simply was not enough time to arrange for trucks or trains. We do not understand why the usually careful German planners did not account for this, especially since the German High Command prized their POWs, hoping to use them to negotiate more favorable peace terms. But for sure, the Germans were in a great hurry. The Germans had to make a quick decision:
The Germans chose the latter option. We do not have the numbers, but confidently suggest that thousands of POWs moved by the Germans died on the road, either during the march or during their escapes from the march, and many, many more were emaciated when finally liberated. Many of these suffered for the rest of their lives.
This is a photo of the Polish landscape in February 1996, part of a vacation portfolio. We have presented it here in black and white to give you a feel for the terrain and cold our POWs must have endured in their long march. Photo credit: Martijn Vermeulen Lt. Sparks said the men knew the march out was coming. They were told on January 20 they would be moving out within 48 hours, and indeed departed the next day at 10 am, carrying only their Red Cross box and a few extra clothes.
This is a photo of an interfaith pilgrimage march through winter in Poland, taken December 1994. These are not our POWs, but it is a scene with which they are likely to have been familiar. Photo credit: Skip Schiel To start the march, the POWs formed up in platoons of about 50 men each, roughly 30 platoons; Victor Kanners says 27 platoons. Medical men were distributed throughout the platoons. Sparks said there were about 1,500 officers and men; Sanford said 1,280 officers and 109 enlisted. The War Department in 1945 said there were 1,557. The POWs had to wait around outside in the cold and through a blizzard for German guards to search for hiding POWs. It is January in Poland, blistering wind and blistering cold. Indeed, there was a blizzard during the night of January 20-21. There was a light snow and the temperature was about 16 below zero when they left on January 21.
Elderly German soldiers preparing to escort a column of prisoners on their "long march." Presented by The Pegasus Archive. The German guards were, for the most part, older than the POWs and in worse physical condition. Some were as old as 70 and had to endure the same environment as the POWs, though they had more belongings and more access to food. Kanners estimated there were only about 100 guards, and lamented they didn't try to overpower them and wiat for the Russians with their German prisoners. There is evidence Colonel Goode wanted to avoid losing any of his men in a fight, though as it would turn out, many died in the long march that was to come. While Kanners lamented the lack of a mass escape plan, he went on to say Colonel good was "an able leader." Oberst (Colonel) Fritz Schneider, the camp commander, accompanied the POWs. Jack van Vliet described Schneider this way:
Dr. Graffagnino described him as "portly and officious." Graffagnino said the colonel hopped in a "small, battered car" and headed to the front of the column. There was an old truck, carrying supplies and "a dozen or so grumbling guards to serve as relief relays for those who marched beside us." Indeed Graffagnino said that at the outset at least, the POWs were excited and in good spirits while the guards were quite unhappy, "slogging along beside us." There were times some POWs fell behind, and shots were always heard. Former POWs reporting on similar marches from other camps confirm the Germans shot and killed those who straggled. As a result, the prisoners worked hard to keep everyone in formation. There were many temptations to try an escape along the way, or to hide in the farms where they remained overnight. For the most part, the POWs figured their odds were better sticking together as a large group, though some did escape. Lawrence Naab noted that the guards would jab the hay with fixed bayonets, and, when they found someone, would shoot with their machine guns. Naab said he did not know how many were killed or how many escaped, but he did note there were fewer and fewer POWs at the end of the first week than when they started.
These are French refugees fleeing the German advance in 1940. You can bet the weather was worse and refugees more frantic while fleeing the Soviet advance into Poland in 1945. We show this to reflect how easily roads could get filled by refugees Photo presented by Encarta. Throughout the trip, the roads were often clogged with POW and civilian traffic moving away from the approaching Soviets. Many Germans lived in Poland, ordered to go there to operate farms and businesses and supply German forces. Many Poles understood well life under the Soviets and wanted out.
This map shows the general route and distances involved for what would be the first of two marches for Oflag 64. The yellow arrow points to the location of Oflag 64, the red arrows the general directions of march. The final destination for this first march was Hammelburg, the site of Oflag XIII-B. After an abortive American raid on Hammelburg, they were marched out on the second segment of their journey, farther south to Moosburg, home of Stalag VII-A. The POWs had no way of knowing, but those who would finish the trip, start to finish, traveled about 450 miles. It was done in two stages, and took from January 21 to April 20 to complete, about 90 days. We're going to walk you through the trip, almost day-by-day, using contemporary maps from Mapquest and the itinerary as logged by Sandford and Sparks. The dates on the maps below show the date of arrival at that point; almost all were one day, daylight marches. You will also note that both POWs, Sandford and Sparks, use the German names of the towns; Germany had apparently renamed all the towns in Poland under its occupation. Fortunately, Sandford also used the Polish names, which helped us find these places on contemporary maps. We list the Polish names in parentheses. You will see that the route through Poland was jagged, in large part because Colonel Schneider would scout ahead to see where the Soviets were, and he concocted a route on the run that would avoid them.
On Day 2, we have two accounts we want to relate. The first, in the notes of Lt. Sparks, is that they had to leave 200 sick behind. The second, conveyed by Clarence Meltesen in his book, Roads to liberation from Oflag 64, is that a major group of POWs escaped from the column at Wegheim and made it to Warsaw, Kiev, and Odessa by March 7 for repatriation. He said this group sailed on March 8 to Istanbul, Port Said, and Naples. Sandford also commented that sick were left behind, but he also noted "others marched out," by which could have meant they escaped. Whatever the case, already on Day 2 the ranks of the POWs diminished significantly. The rest of the POWs marched about 15-17 miles to Eschfield (Eichfelde or Polanowo), arriving there January 22. Sparks said the Poles were very friendly and gave them a little bread and cheese. Sandford commented that the formation was now loose and slow-marching. Kanners said they simply could not hold a formation one mile long, four columns together given the ruts in the road. Their formation would extend 3-4 miles. Remember, it's winter in Poland. On Day 3, January 23, they woke up and found their guards gone. They thought they had been liberated, as they heard small arms and artillery fire in a distance. We do not know what the gunfire was, but we do know the first Soviets arrived at Oflag 64 on this date, just two days after the POWs were forced to march out. In any event, local Poles whipped up a ham soup over a fire after slaughtering some hogs, and brought in cherry preserves. There was singing.
The Latvian Waffen SS fought on the side of the Germans against the Red Army in World War II. Photo credit: Trey Rim. Presented by The Moscow Times. But the guards came back at about 3 - 4 pm along with SS Latvian troops. The Germans and Latvians marched them about 4 miles to Charlettenburg (Falmirowo), arriving there January 24, a short walk. During their absence, some of the POWs escaped. Snipers in white garb chased after them by truck. Kanners and two of his buddies decided to hide, wait for the column to leave, and then high-tail it east. Once it left, his two buddies decided hiding was a bad idea, Kanners could not win the debate, and together all three ran after the column and joined it in the rear It appears that Colonel Schneider tried to escape with his men back to the west, thinking the POWs were slowing him down. The SS Latvian troops, who were motorized, caught them and forced them to return to the POWs and continue the march. One SS officer went with them. The SS confiscated Schneider's car and he was now forced to walk like everyone else. Graffagnino said the temperature was about 30 degrees below zero, adding, "we were isolated in a vast expanse of winter wasteland in the middle of nowhere."
Graffagnino said that the brief taste of freedom caused some POWs to pick fights with the guards, and the feeling was they could overpower them. However, the consensus was that the end was near, they had come a long distance, and they needed to hold together. Some of the POWs would not listen, and the next day they had to leave a handful of wounded and some dead (shot) POWs behind. On Day 4, the Germans finally gave them something to eat, some pea soup. The weather remained cold and the ground was covered with snow. They marched to the town of Lobsens (Lobzenica), where Poles, ignoring a Gestapo presence, provided them bread and cheese. The SS in the town strutted around flaunting their "power," and tried to hold back the locals. The old guards from Sczubin rejoined the group and 17 POWs who had earlier tried to escape were caught and returned. Kanners mentioned that he and some others met up with Col. Schneider, who had the gall to scold them for not behaving like officers, even after he, Schneider, had tried to escape from his post as well. On Day 5, now January 25, the Germans got more generous and provided the POWs with a little bread, some margarine, cheese and a cup of hot oatmeal. That said, the Germans checked possible POW hideouts in the barns by shooting them up with their machine-guns. It was on Day 5 that they would enter Germany, as the borders were then drawn, following a march of about 13 miles to the town of Flatow (Zlotow). Gun and artillery fire could still be heard in the east. The group saw Russian and British POWs in a nearby barn. Day 6, January 26, was a day of rest, their first. The Germans informed the prisoners that the Soviets had declared war against the US and Britain. Kanners said that Schneider told them that Russia had recalled her ambassadors to London to Washington. This is worth noting. The Germans were trying to set the stage for the Americans to believe that the Soviets were their enemies. The Germans would later ask the Americans to help them fight the Soviets. Kanners said the POWs weren't much intefrested in the US-Russia-UK issue, but instead were focues on getting food. On Day 7, now January 27, they marched 12 miles to the town of Jastrow (Jastrowie). During the day they came upon large columns of English, French and Russian POWs. The Yanks slipped them some cigarettes as they passed by the resting Allied columns. For the last several days, Sandford describes the marching column better organized, perhaps because the men were finally getting some food. The weather became a major issue on Day 8, January 28. Most of the prisoners' shoes were frozen, they faced deep snow drifts and windy plains. Sandford described the land as "snow swept tundra." They covered 11-12 miles this day and slept in a schoolhouse at Zippnow (Sypniewo). Fortunately, the schoolhouse had a wood burning stove, and they found enough wood to dry out their shoes and socks. Sandford said he slept in a church. Kanners said many had to stand out in the cold for well over an hour until they found places to sleep.
Entrance sign to Oflag II-D on a nice summer day. Presented by "Rawelin" History. On Day 9, January 29, Dr. Graffagnino said the column of Americans was down to 800. They made it through weather and terrain similar to what they had faced the previous day, through Westhofen German barracks, which seemed half deserted, and stayed at Oflag II-D at Grossborn in Pomerania, also known as Camp Rederitz-Westfalenhof (Nadazyce). The Germans had just evacuated their captive Polish officers from this camp. Sandford noted this was Oflag XI-D, but we believe that to be an error. They covered only six miles this day. Once again they found coal to keep themselves warm. Sandford noted on this day that there were only 766 men left out of the nearly 1500 that started, not much different than Graffagnino's report. This means they had lost 40-50 percent by this time. Some escaped. some were left behind ill, others were dead, either from disease or German guns. Thus far, they had walked about 75 miles in terrible weather conditions with only limited rest and food.
The intent on Day 10, January 30, was to have a day of rest, but the German colonel said the Russians had just captured Jastrow and they would have to move out. This meant that the Soviets had crossed the border, as then drawn, and were now inside Germany. That was true. By month's end, the Soviets had reached the Oder (traditional border between Poland and Germany), and advance units started crossing into Germany. To some POWs, this meant that it was going to get more difficult to escape. Many wondered where the Germans would set up their defensive lines, and what would happen once they did. Sandford said the Germans were scared to death of being taken by the Russians. So many reports had reached them of life for German POWs in Soviet camps that they had good reason to fear the Soviets; plus, they knew what the Germans had done to the Soviets during their invasion of the USSR. The German colonel said fresh German forces had been brought in to thwart the Soviet advance and offered the prisoners the "opportunity" to fight against the Russians. They refused. After eating, they marched seven to nine miles, mostly at night, making it to Machlin (Machliny) on January 30. On January 31, Day 11, again after being fed, they marched toward the town of Templeburg (Czaplinek). Rumors started flying that they would catch a train there. After marching 10 miles to Templeburg (Czaplinek), that turned out to be only a rumor and they stayed in barns near the town. A German farmer fed them milk, noodles and potatoes. In Templeburg, the Kriegies were getting housed in groups of about 100, and housed all over in about a three mile area. The weather started to improve, eating conditions improved, and the men marched about the same distances each day, walking to Heinrichsdorf (Siemczyio) on February 1 and Zulshagen (Suliszewo), arriving there on February 2. Before leaving Heinrichsdorf, they had to leave a few sick behind. Sandford reported that the town was filled with Gestapo SS troops who accused the POWs of stealing food. That said, Sandford noted that the German military troops were themselves living off the land, butchering hogs, for example. Kanners said the POWs were actually trading things with the SS. He said they had cigarettes and coffee, which the SS did not have and dearly wanted. They remained here overnight, leaving on February 3. They then marched through the town of Dramburg (Drawsko) and slept outside town on February 4 in a small quadrangle of barns. By this time, billeting had become such a problem for the Germans to solve that Major Hazlett annointed himself billeting officer and would march ahead of the columns with some Germans to arrange places for the POWs to stay.
The march on February 5 they headed west through Wangerin (Wegorzyno) to Ruhnow (Runowo). At Wegorzyno, they turned to the north. There was a railway station at Ruhnow.
This is a photo showing the German boxcars used in transporting POWs. Extracted from "Berga, Soldiers of another war," presented by PBS. This is a slideshow of the Berga POW camp, where there were American POWs of the Jewish faith, who were treated differently than the others. There are some slides showing the "Death March" for these POWs that will also give you a feel for what that was like. We commend the slides to your attention. Sandford reported that about 180 officers left Ruhnow by boxcar to points unknown, leaving about 550 officers in the group. Kannrs refused to go on a train, saying that all he could hear from inside the boxcar during the eight-day train trip that brought him to Szcubin were bombs. He said, "No sir, no train rides. I'll keep walking." The remaining group marched on to Zeitlirz (Siedlice), arriving there after a 13 mile march on February 5, again marching in a northerly direction. They kept on to Regenwald (Resko) on February 6, to Lebbin (Lubinek-Lubin) on February 7.
We're not sure if the marching POWs knew they were so close to the Baltic Sea until they got there. On February 8 they made it to Stuchow (Stuchowo). During this march, Sandford said they saw Russian, British and Canadian POWs "herded along the road at fast pace, guards beating them with rifle butts, (a) forlorn sight." Following this, they marched on to Stresnow (Strzezewo) on February 9, where they passed French POWs, then Dievenow (Dziwnow) on February 10. Sandford noted this is where they crossed the Oder. Sparks said they crossed the Oder Estuary Technically, they crossed a branch of the Oder called the Dzwina River and/or the Dzwina strait, and marched to and across what is known as Wolin Island to the town of Neuendorf (Wiselka), arriving there on February 11. Sandford commented that the area around Dievenow was "scenic tourist country, neat, trim cottages, town chock full of children of the Goering Home for Children - stayed in barracks at airport for seaplanes on island - air school with many singing marching youths in attendance."
On February 12 they arrived at Swinemuende (Swinoujscie) which was home to a major German naval base. The men got to sleep on barracks floors, they had heat, and got some food. It is a city that also straddles two islands, the island of Wolin, which the men had just been on, and the island of Usedom, on which they were about to travel. It is also a present-day Polish city, right on the current border with Germany. Swinemunde at about this time was experiencing a major inflow of Polish refugees fleeing the advancing Soviet Army. The Poles were yet again in a very tough position. They had been occupied by the Germans and the Soviets, then just the Germans, and were now being overrun by the Soviets. Many chose to head to Germany rather than remain in Poland. Many who remained in Poland were murdered by the Soviets or shipped to Gulags in Siberia. The story of Swinemunde is very sad. We recommend you study it during this period. Some time during this period, February 12- 15, the Oflag 64 group had to leave about 150 men behind who could not continue. Graffagnino said it was at Stettin, which would have been February 12, while Sandford said it was at Murchin, which they left on February 15. In any event, Graffagnino, and Lt. Col. David Gold were the two doctors left with the group. Gold decided that Graffagnino should stay with the 150, as the Germans promised to move them by rail. Gold went on with the rest. We'll pause for just a moment to convey what happened to Graffagnino and the 150 POWs left behind at this point.
Berlin under Allied air attack by the US 384th Bomb Group. Photo credit: Contributed by Richard A. Alderman. Presented by 384th Bomb Group, the Alderman Collection. They were taken the day after the groups separated to a rail yard and loaded on two boxcars, one slatted for cattle, the other an open coal car. They headed for Berlin, got there in about four days, and sat in the cars in the Berlin rail-yard for three days, through persistent Allied bombing. They were then taken to Stalag VIII-C about 40 miles southeast of Berlin. While none of these POWs was hurt during this bombing, many POWs transported by unmarked trains in Germany were killed and wounded as the result of Allied bombing and strafing raids. The rest of the POWs went on to Gorze (Garz), getting there February 13. At Garz, they were separated in groups of 50. On to Stolpe on February 14, where they stayed for an extra day. Over the past days, the men had been able to get some food, mostly potatoes, and they found Germans willing to give them a few cigarettes.
On February 15, they left for Murchin. Sandford said they were told they were going to Stalag IB, but they did not; it was at Hohenstein a bit to the south. Instead they arrived at Murchin. They crossed a bridge outfitted with demolition bombs. This is the first day Sandford reported having gastrointestinal (GI) problems. On February 17 they traveled on to Jarmen, where they observed German youth engaged in glider contests, having fun while the Soviets were advancing into Germany itself. The POWs remained overnight at Jarmen. Sandford and Sparks both reported they stayed on the estate of a German countess whose son had been captured by the Americans and was in a POW camp in the States. The POWs assured her that her son was fine, so she talked German Colonel Schneider to let them have a day of rest. Sandford reported he still had the GIs. He also said there were now only 490 POWs left, about a third of the original group.
The POWs marched out of Jarmen on February 19 and arrived that same day in or around Demmin, described by Sandford as a large and colorful city. Sparks said they remained overnight in Eugenienburg. Once they stopped, German Colonel Schneider told the POWs their march was almost over, two more days at most. Schneider also announced (you will remember he was fond of making announcements) he would be catching a train out within a few days, and told the prisoners that after failing to get permission for more Red Cross supplies, he commandeered some intended for the Canadians and would give them to the Americans. The POWs did receive some Canadian boxes and even got coffee from the coffee wagon. They would march on to Dargun on February 20, and they stayed a second night, the night of February 21. By February 21 the POWs were making their own varieties of food, using the potatoes given them to make french fries, creamed potatoes, mashed and even au gratin. The POWs pressed on to Basedow on February 23. They saw American soldiers working on a damaged rail line. Again a brief pause. Major units of the Soviet First Ukrainian Army Group had by this time crossed the Oder River. Units of the First White Russian Army Group had taken Poznan and continued moving westward. The Second White Russian Army Group had crossed the Vistula farther north and were headed northward to the Baltic. East Prussia was in the hands of units from the First and Second White Russian Army Groups.
The POWs proceeded on February 24 to Cramon, and Plauerhagen, where they got another day of rest on February 26. During their march to Plauerhagen, Sandford said workers would sneak out and give the POWs food, and the guards would chase after them. The workers would duck into houses and barns, grab some more food, and sneak it back to the POWs, with the guards going in and out of doors chasing them. Sandford described it as a "Merry Go Round." Sandford called them "arbeiters", meaning "workers," so we're not sure of their nationality.
The POW march continued, maintaining a westward direction begun when they hit the Baltic Sea. On February 27 they arrived at Lutheran, where Sandford reported French workers were on a small farm, and they bartered with food and coffee. Their march to and arrival at Sieggelkow on February 28 would mark the beginning of a major turn of events. Sandford said they walked a "circuitous route across country in a long 'short cut' in sight of Parchim," a fairly large city. They heard air raid sirens from that direction. Sandford added that they were greeted by a "'Welcoming' group in top hats and tails." The owner of the land on which they stayed gave them firewood and they got huge loaves of bread from a local bakery. While conditions were never good for the Oflag 64 men, the farther they moved into Germany, the better the food and the better the hospitality of the German people. The POWs were then told they would remain at Sieggelkow until a train was ready for them. They waited nearly a week, until March 6, and were marched to Parchim where there was a train waiting that was, miraculously, marked "US POW" on the roofs. We're not sure whether the POWs knew where they were going, but they were heading south to Hammelburg, home of Oflag XIIIB.
We have zoomed out on the scale of our maps so we could show you the distance to Hammelburg, the southerly direction. The train trip took two days (March 7-8), and then by foot to their new Oflag, arriving on March 10. Life changed dramatically, and so did events on the ground.
A group of American soldiers captured by the Germans during the Battle of the Bulge. Extracted from "Berga, Soldiers of another war," presented by PBS. Oflag XIII-B was populated mostly by officers captured during the Battle of the Bulge, a battle that began on December 16, 1944 and extended through January 7, 1945. There were 23,000 American troops captured during that battle. The Germans executed many. They moved the others to various camps, Oflag XIII-B being one of them. Lt. Herndon Inge, Jr, captured at the Battle of the Bulge, said he and others from that fight arrived at Oflag XIII-B at about the same time the men from Oflag 64 arrived. He estimated there were about 1,500 American officer POWs at Oflag XIII-B once these arrivals were concluded. This long march from Oflag 64 to Oflag XIII-B at Hammelburg was over. Lt. Sparks calculated they had marched 357 miles.
The German colonel Schneider gave his prisoners a farewell talk, commending them for being good prisoners, and told them they would now be under the command of a general at Oflag XIII-B. We don't know what the POWs knew of the overall situation regarding the war in Europe, other than they knew the Germans were close to defeat. The bulk of the Soviet force that had been moving westward was now in position to advance against Berlin. This map tells the story.
This is the Eastern Front in 1945. The orange colored area reflects the advances made by the Soviets from January through March 30, 1945. The green reflects the Soviet advance thereafter through the end of the war on May 11, 1945. The red dot is the approximate location of Oflag 64. The red arrows mark their march out. Recall that they left on January 21, 1945, got to the Parchim rail-yard south of Rostok on March 6, and took the train to Hammelburg off this map on March 10, 1945. The Soviets commenced their attack on Berlin on April 16. The Germans put up a very stiff resistance. The western Allies held positions about 60 miles west of the city, ordered to leave its conquest to the Soviets, but continued advancing eastward throughout the rest of Germany below Berlin. This would turn out to be very important for the POWs. Back in Washington, there were now serious worries about the fate of American POWs at this point of the war. Washington was worried that Germany would put American POWs in a holding area in Austria and use them as some kind of bargaining chip. The Germans had five Stalags in Austria.
A 1945 U.S. Army map showing the possible extent of the National Redoubt. Presented by Wikipedia.org. Germany made Austria a German province in 1938. Now there was information to indicate Hitler's lieutenants were urging him to take what was left of his Army, go to Bavaria or Austria, into the mountains, and make a stand. This came to be known as the German National Redoubt, or "Alpenfestung," Alpine Fortress. The term "National Redoubt" is used to describe an area to which the forces of a nation can be withdrawn if the main battle has been lost, or if defeat is inevitable. Well, the men of Oflag 64, and their colleagues from the Battle of the Bulge, and the others at XIII-B, were now in northern Bavaria, at Hammelburg, northwest of the Redoubt area sketched above. Those who remained at Oflag 64 were in the hands of the Soviets and on their way to freedom.
Oflag XIII B's population included hundreds of Serbian prisoners who had been there since the war's early days. The Serbs graciously shared their highly prized Red Cross packages when none arrived for the Americans, a favor returned when the Americans liberated the camp. Extracted from "Faith was there," presented by Company, the world of Jesuits and their friends.
Oflag XIII-B had been known as Camp Hammelburg since 1935. It was a German military training area. When WWII kicked off, the Germans used parts of the camp for two POW camps, one for Serbian, the other for American officers. The POW camp was commanded by Generalmajor Günther von Goeckel, shown in this photo on the left (courtesy of Gareth Collins). The training area was commanded by a German colonel, Colonel (Oberst) Richard Hoppe, shown here on the right (courtesy of Christel Paul, his daughter). Col. Goode, the Oflag 64 commander, turned out to be the senior POW officer at XIII-B as well and took charge. Among his first orders of business was to instruct the XIII-B men to "shave and clean-up by morning." Most of the POWs there were new to the "Kriegie" business, while Goode and his men were now the veterans. They helped the new guys get organized, reinvigorate their discipline, and prepare for liberation. You might wonder about why the need for such discipline. Air Commodore Len Birchall, Royal Canadian Air Force and a POW of the Japanese for four years, in a riveting speech about leadership, has echoed the words of British Field Marshal Slim when talking about the importance of discipline:
This map, courtesy of multimap.com, shows you the location of Oflag XIII-B at Hammelburg, marked by a red dot, and the Rhine River, marked by the red arrow. US forces, led by General Patton, had advanced in this area to the east of the Rhine River, not far from XIII-B. Oflag XIII-B was in the heart of central Germany, and the Americans were cutting a swath across it while the Soviets concentrated on Berlin.
On March 26 a task force from the 4th Armored Division fought through German lines and made it to Aschaffenburg, marked by the blue dot, which was within 60 miles of Hammelburg. At this point, Hammelburg was still behind German lines, by about 50 miles. On the afternoon of March 26, orders were received at Combat Command B to organize a task force to strike at Hammelburg and free the American POWs there. It is said that the order came directly from General Patton. It turns out Lt. Col. Waters was married to one of the general's daughters, and legend in some quarters has it that Patton sent the force to free his son-in-law. Maybe so. We prefer to believe he wanted to free all the POWs there. The problem was that the attack order was not supported by a very good plan.
Up until now, the POWs at Oflag XIII-B had returned to their normal POW life. But then on the March 27, while at church, they heard tank fire in the town of Hammelburg, and small arms fire was everywhere around the camp.
Task Force Baum tank smashes through the fence at Oflag XIII-B, Hammelburg. US government photo. Presented by Free Republic. Some elements of the TF made it to the POW camp and smashed through the double barbed wire fence. What became known as the Hammelburg Raid is described very nicely by Lt. Herndon Inge, Jr., a former POW who experienced the entire event. We commend his memoir to your attention. It was also described with greater journalistic liberty by Time magazine on October 15, 1945. We would simply like to highlight a few points. First of all, the raid ultimately failed, much of TF Baum was captured, and most of the POWs who got out were returned to the camp. The Germans knew the TF was there from aerial reconnaissance, and the Germans were not about to permit Allied forces to operate within German lines. The Germans were also concerned that the 4th Infantry Division as a whole had commenced a major assault against their lines and sent a major combat force to put this fire out at Hammelburg. Second, when it became obvious the liberation effort was in serious trouble, Col. Goode gave the POWs choices: return with him to the camp and the custody of the Germans, who had re-taken the camp, try for the American lines on their own, or remain with the task force and join in its fight to survive. Most decided to go back to the camp. Col. Goode grabbed a piece of white paper and led the POWs down a dirt road back to Oflag XIII-B. On their way back to the camp, the POWs heard the sounds of major combat in the area of the TF. The Germans had been able to mount a strong attack against TF Baum and surrounded it. The TF and the POWs who chose to go with it attempted to break out; some made it, some did not, and many were captured. The best statistics we have seen said that of the 307 members of TF Baum, only 15 managed to get back to American lines, with the rest either killed or captured. Capt. Baum, of the Jewish faith, was captured. We mention his faith because we know that American Jewish POWs were treated far differently than the others, far worse. Baum survived and made it home at war's end. Those following Col. Goode returned to the camp later on February 28. It was empty. The POWs were exhausted. Soon, well equipped and well-armed German guards returned. Col. Waters went out to meet the arriving Germans to call a truce and the Germans shot him. He was moved to a field hospital, ultimately survived, and also made it home. As an aside, there is an annotated aerial photo gallery on the internet of the area of operations for TF Baum and the Hammelburg Raid taken in June 2005. Those familiar with this area will find the gallery most informative.
These New Zealand POWs are packed into a cattle truck on a train being taken from Italy to Germany in September 1943. You get the idea. Photo courtesy of Alexander Turnbull Library, Wellington, New Zealand, Reference: War History Collection DA 11319. Presented by New Zealand History. With this attempt to liberate Oflag XIII-B having failed, the Germans told the POWs they were to catch a train at Hammelburg. They boarded box cars, 37 men and two German guards in each car, and traveled southeast arriving at Stalag XIII-D, Nürnberg on April 1. This was a very large POW camp. One well documented source said that at the end of 1944, the camp had 29,550 POWs. Some 14,000 of these were Soviets, 11,000 French, and the rest filled out by Italians, Belgians, Serbs, Poles, and some few British and Americans. Of the total, about 8,680 officers were separated into Oflag 73 located at the same site. The Nürnberg Stalag-Oflag became a destination for POWs from other camps that, for example, added 6,000 US and British aircrew alone. Many men from camps in western Germany were moved to Nürnberg. Because of this enormous influx, POWs had to be marched out, and most of the marching was into the heart of southern Bavaria and toward Austria, toward the area where the Allies worried about a German National Redoubt. We hate to belabor the point, but POWs had now been marched out of Poland and out of western Germany arriving at camps in south central Germany --- to wit the worry about the Redoubt in Austria. We have found a marvelous map maintained by the Australian War Memorial that shows how POWs were moved from one camp to another.
Map of prisoner of war camps in Europe during the Second World War. Arrows indicate movement of POWs from one camp to another. Pr5resented by the Australian War Memorial. We recommend you study this map full size. But you can see how the POWs in the east were moved west, how they were moved east and north from the west, and then, in the area we have circled, how they were moved from the east and west to the south, to Moosburg, close to Austria.
The yellow arrow shows the location of Oflag 64, from where this journey began. The POWs then marched (first two red arrows) across the frozen tundra of Poland and northern Germany to Parchim. They then took a train south to Hammelburg (third red arrow). Then they marched to Nürnburg (first blue arrow) and then to Moosburg (second blue arrow). On April 4, Col. Goode and his crew from Oflag 64 began what would be their second march (blue arrows on map above) on a trip that would take them farther south, to Moosburg. By now, of course, they were marching with many other POWs from all over the European theater of war. Through a driving rain they finally reached a church at Beching after having marched 23 miles. On April 7, they continued their march for 18 miles to Sandersdorf, they would then march to Neustadt (12 miles), then to Niederumelsdorf (nine miles), then to Holzhausen (seven miles), arriving at Moosburg, the location of Stalag VII-A on April 20, about 20 miles northeast of Munich in Bavaria. Please note how close Moosburg is to Austria (colored green) and the Stalag located there. This second march, about 90 miles in all, took almost 15 days. The men were very weak and Allied bombing in this region was constant. That is in large part due to the fact that the Allies were fighting their way to Nürnberg, capturing it on April 17-20, 1945.
This is a typical train of French-type "40 and 8" box cars (40 men or 8 horses) used by the Germans to transport POWs. Presented by the US Air Force Academy. These men walked to Stalag VII-A at Moosburg. Others came by train. The photo shows the typical train used for POWs. The caption that came with it reads like this:
Stalag VII-A Sign. Presented by B-24.net, the official web site of the 392nd Bomb Group. Moosburg was tough in the sense that there was a great deal of chaos. There were POWs here from many nationalities, including British, Indians, Mongolians, Poles, Americans and others. The estimate is that on January 1, 1945, there were about 76,000 POWs here, mostly French (38,000) and Soviet (14,000). We have seen estimates that the population rose to over 100,000 as POWs were moved from other camps to this one during the final days of the war.
They put about 300 men into each barrack, some POWs have said as many as 400. This second set of marches for the Oflag 64 men made their total journey about 450 miles. |
Table of Contents Introduction to Oflag 64 in Sczubin, Poland. How the first group of Americans got there: The Tunisia campaign The Soviets attack, the POWs are moved The POWs are liberated, but it "weren't" easy Some of the men of Oflag 64 whom you have not yet seen
OFLAG 64, A P.O.W. Odyssey. The Third Reich utilized a Polish school in Sczubin, Poland, as the only camp for American ground-force officers.Learn the unique barbed wire experience of these officers, including General Patton's son-in-law, John K. Waters. (Includes a controversial liberation attempt by Patton.) We honor service and sacrifice. Please click the "Donate" button and contribute $20 or more to help keep this station alive. Thanks. We have seen two interesting maps at the Australian War Memorial web site which shows how the camps in the east moved westward, the camps in the west moved eastward, and some moved to the south, to Bavaria, many to Stalag VIIA at Moosburg, which we will discuss later. |
One of the important figures leading the Soviet advance was Marshal General Georgi Konstantinovich Zhukov, commander, First White Russian Army Group, shown here. He had six armies on the line, with four more right behind them, all headed westward into Poland south of the Vistula River, the location of Oflag 64.
The Soviets arrived at Oflag 64 on January 23, 1945, two days after the majority of POWs were marched out. Col. Drury had long discussions with Colonel General Pavel A. Belov (shown here), the Soviet 61st Army commander, to make arrangements for the repatriation of the Americans. This matter of having to have such long discussions with the Soviets will be an important point later on. Suffice to say here that the POWs were liberated by a Soviet Army intent on getting to Berlin. The war was still on. With regard to the POWs, logistics became an important question for Armies that had more important business to which to tend.
We'll stop this discussion here. There is an enormous amount of history tied up in the repatriation of Allied POWs through Odessa and elsewhere in the USSR, much of it filled with mind-boggling bureaucracy and revolting gamesmanship. There are those experts even today who believe not all Allied POWs were returned by the USSR. US Ambassador to Moscow Averill Harriman, shown here, told FDR as much, saying this in a previously classified personal message on March 8, 1945:
Col. "Pop" Goode was at the lead of the POWs when they left Sczubin on Day 1, January 21, arriving at a barn near Eskin (Exin or Kcynia) that same day. Some of the POWs had to discard clothes and heavy articles along the way. The Germans provided them nothing. We want to stress here that throughout this march, intense cold and hunger hung over the POWs every minute of every day. Victor Kanners said they passed by many open doors to homes, and thought more than once about ducking into one of them to hide. He didn't do it, but said others did. His buddy Mike didn't want to try it. Escape was always on Victor's mind.
The Germans, being squeezed by the Soviets and the western Allies, were on the run, but they had by no means lost their fight. They fought fiercely against Patton's troops and against the Soviets. In this photo, presented by 
The Task Force (TF) was commanded by Captain Abraham Baum (shown here later as a major, courtesy of Bob Thompson) from the 10th Armored Infantry Battalion and drew its forces from the 10th Armored Infantry and the 37th Tank Battalions. It became known as Task Force Baum. In retrospect, the force was too small and perhaps too hastily assembled.
