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GERMAN/ITALIAN POWs IN BIRMINGHAM

anthea

anthea

master brummie
I can remember a 'road gang' of either German/Italian POWs together with their army guard working at the top of the road where I lived on the Quinton/Harborne border. :shocked: This would be about 1944 when I was at Junior School. My mother gave me strict instructions not to speak to the prisoners. I expect if the men were German, seeing a blond, blue eyed little girl may have reminded them of their own children back in Germany.
My questions are: 1. Does anyone know where these POWs were based? I think there was a POW Camp over the Great Barr area, because I remember vaguely seeing the Camp. 2. Does anyone know if there are any books relating to German/Italian POWs around the Birmingham area?

Anthea:)

 
Yes I well remember the Pow's in Birmingham during World War 11. The German's walked super smart even with their patch. I remember too the Italians were allowed to ride bicycles.

Once when I was in Sutton Park the Military police were looking in the woods for an escaped German pow. Don't know whether they ever caught him or not. . . .
 
Hi Anthea,
the German POWs were in a camp inside Sutton park
just inside banners gate entrance,which afterward was used as an American
postal base There were also some Italian POWs working in the Bromsgrove district
 
Slightly "off topic" here, but, when British Telecom put pipe laying work out to tender, one of the items they ask the contractor to tender for, is; "Trench and Lay Pipes" the reason for this is because, during WWII, all the trenching work was done by POW's, and the contractor only had to lay the pipes in the trench, the POW's then came along, and re-filled the trench.

barrie.
 
That explains Dennis, the German escapee in Sutton Park woods .. Italian Pow's also work ed at the GWR Hockley Brook .
 
There was a German PoW camp on a strip of land 'borrowed' from the3 Lucas Sports Ground in College Road, running from Moor Lane down to the canal. The prisoners were there for about a year after the war, but I don't think they were while the war was still on.
By Christmas 1946 some had been repatriated, but the Ministry of Food tried to keep them as long as they could for harvest and other farm labouring, while many of them had no home or family to go to any way. I think I have written before that the lady nextdoor invited two German prisoners home for the evening on Boxing Day 1946, and thought that as I had just started German at School the previous term, and my dad spoke a little too, it would be an idea to invite us to help with communication. I can remember everyone was a little awkward, but they must have been touched by the lady's kindness in inviting them - she was never a religious or politically minded person, but she certainly had a good heart. My parents were a bit put off by the event, and couldn't understand what she was up to. I can remember thinking they seemed like 'normal' people, they smoked and drank a little and ate the same as the other grown-ups.
Peter
 
A nice story Peter. Think the lady who took German prisoners in to spend Christmas, though as you say she was not partiulary religious or politicical for that matter, she was first and formost a caring mother. . .

The German people were just like we were they didn't really want to have to fight this 'Bloody' war . Many were forced to serve in the Hitler Youth - or parents would be threatened with inprisonment. . .
 
Methinks that there were a lot of nazi's & party member's during the years 1933 /1944
but come 1945 they seemed to have dissapeared into thin air
 
Yes I think the were some Facists in the 1930's Dennis, under the leadership of Oswald Mosley. . .
 
I remember an Italian POW sweeping the gutters on The Radleys, The Bell pub end, he did`nt have guard with him.
 
Oswald Moseley was leader of the British Facist Party?, known as the Blackshirts, he was interned during WW2, put his name into Google and you will get the info on him and his Nazi supporting Wife.
 
Peter Walker said:
There was a German PoW camp on a strip of land 'borrowed' from the3 Lucas Sports Ground in College Road, running from Moor Lane down to the canal. The prisoners were there for about a year after the war, but I don't think they were while the war was still on.
By Christmas 1946 some had been repatriated, but the Ministry of Food tried to keep them as long as they could for harvest and other farm labouring, while many of them had no home or family to go to any way. I think I have written before that the lady nextdoor invited two German prisoners home for the evening on Boxing Day 1946, and thought that as I had just started German at School the previous term, and my dad spoke a little too, it would be an idea to invite us to help with communication. I can remember everyone was a little awkward, but they must have been touched by the lady's kindness in inviting them - she was never a religious or politically minded person, but she certainly had a good heart. My parents were a bit put off by the event, and couldn't understand what she was up to. I can remember thinking they seemed like 'normal' people, they smoked and drank a little and ate the same as the other grown-ups.
Peter
Click to expand...


This is very interesting, my nans family, whose father was Italian were in touch with some of the POWs, my unlce has a photo and a postcard, sent from Italy to one of them, after the war had ened.
 
A very dear friend of mine who passed away several years ago told me of the Italian prisoners who worked on her inlaws farm in Tamworth. Her mother in law would make sandwiches for them to take into the feilds. They were caught throwing them in the pig bins.........well I suppose the food was so different. She told me a lot of the young men didn't want to go home after the war and got jobs on the land locally.
 
Did you know that POW in Britain had higher rations than civilians, that got the same rations as our Armed Forces which were bigger than the civvie ration.
 
Lencops that surprises me, it's something i didn't know. I wonder why?????
 
Beryl M, It was in the Geneva aggreement after WW1 that POW should receive the same rations as the armed forces of the country they were imprisioned in.
 
Thanks lencops for that info - I wish the U.S would abide by the Geneva Convention, at least treat their prisoners humanly, but then that's a whole other subject.
 
When my brother and l were evacuated in ww2 we ended up at Dorsington a hamlet near Bideford on Avon we had Italian pows who worked in the fields etc...they lived in a nice cottage and the local copper would come every evening and lock them in but....the windows were wide open.....what peeved us was they had better accommdations than we did as we lived in a one up one down Elizabethian cottage no electricity no running water etc after living in Aston we really thought we'd stepped back... way back in time , but l would'nt have it any other way as they were happy times Brenda
 
Hi Brenda There is a thread 'British Evacuees' in which I have written. .I am glad it was a good time in your life for it was the worst time of mine. . . Think if everybody who were evacuated put their experiences together we could have written a book. . .

Italian POW's had more freedom than German POW's
 
Beryl,l remember reading about your experiences when you were evacuated...so very sad...my grandparents took us away from Aston after the Queens Rd bombing...the reason my g/father had heart trouble all due to being gassed in ww1...and the bombing made him nervous. they had a newsagents in church lane and my mother volunteered to take care of it if they would take us to the country....l loved my g/f dearly but my g/mother was evil l have no fond memories of her...she did'nt like little girls and l could do no right...l truely think she would have been up for abuse in this day and age....but my brother and g/father made up for the unhappy times l had...(oh how l cried for my mom and dad), but those days of exploring the countryside has stayed with mr forever and every time l visit Brum l always manage to go back to Dorsington it has changed so very little........Brenda
 
I recall POW's planting the trees along the road we then lived in. Some were friendly and waved at us kids but one just spat on the ground.
 
Brenda your grandfather must have really suffered being gassed in World War 1. I started a thread on Gas Warfare Take care Beryl
 
There were some German POW's on a field behind Grindleford Rd Beeches Estate. There is a post with info about this in the Childhood thread.
Cheers. Us local kids got to know them.
oldmohawk
 
In 1946 we had a holiday on a farm at Neen Sollars, and they had Italian p.o.w.'s working on the farm, I played with the farmer's daughters Ruby and Pearl, and learnt to ride a two wheeler bike there, the p.ow's were very friendly although they didn't speak much English.
 
If you click on the Wartime Quinton thread there is a reminiscence about POW on Welsh House Farm.
 
There were Italian POW's in Hamstead, they were housed in nissen huts behind a wire fence in what we called The Lane, it's later name is Hamstead Road. I can't recall them ever being in the village, but I was fascinated as a very young child, particularly because my mom told me not to go near the wire, and she always walked on the other side of the road.
 
I seem to remember m y mum telling that there were POW's in Quinton somewhere because she said that the woman who lived next door along with her sister 'used to go and see them'? I don 't know where it was though - too young.
Sheri
 
Lencops, Thanks for the Welsh House Farm information. The POWs I mentioned when I began this Thread may have been sent to dig up the pavement from Welsh House Farm which was at the other end of the road where I lived and I never knew they were based there. I was just too young :).

Anthea
 
The following are a couple of interesting sites for anyone wishing to look further into this subject. The first one contains an extensive list of the hundreds of main POW camps around the country including many in the Midlands. (There do not seem to be any specifically listed in Birmingham though, as have been mentioned in this thread - either the list is not comprehensive or there were many smaller sub-camps, perhaps near to places of work). The second deals more with what life was like for the prisoners.

https://www.english-heritage.org.uk/upload/pdf/Prisoner_of_War_Camps.pdf
https://www.fortunecity.com/campus/dixie/921/PoWs/pows.htm

Chris
 
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Thanks for that Chriis. I believe German POW's were treated much better by the Alliies than the Soviets. Germans never wanted to be taken prisoner by the Soviets. For they knew life would be miserable. . .
 
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