Surrender Option?

[HMCS]

Originally Posted by headcase

Surrender is not an option.

Aw, horsefeathers.

Surrender is always an option for the Germans.

Worse case scenario: you get sent to Bowmanville, Ontario.

A descripton:

"When the naval prisoners arrived at Bowmanville, there were no recreational facilities. The naval officers quickly transformed the camp. Flower and vegetable gardens were planted, sports fields, tennis courts and a swimming pool were built. The quarters were expanded, giving the prisoners better living conditions. The prisoners received money from home or earned extra money by manufacturing wooden furniture. They were able to purchase beer, cigarettes and dry goods from the Eaton's mail order catalogue. It was an ideal life except that there were no women and no freedom. For some there was the urge to get back to the war and defend their country, and for others a desire to remain POWs for the duration of the war.
A daily routine of exercise, sporting events and work assignments was established. As well as English being taught, professors from the nearby University of Toronto gave lectures for university credit classes. A school was also formed, which taught midshipmen seamanship and navigation courses.
Current movies were shown each week. National and religious holidays were observed, and music concerts were given regularly. Elaborate stage plays were produced. Extraordinary puppets were designed and fabricated for puppet shows. Although the conditions were good in the Canadian POW camps, there was very little to do, and the routine was always the same."

That last sentence is a bit odd... it sounds as if there was lots to do.

Some German POW's (not sure if they could at Bowmanville) could earn day parole and they worked on farms in the Prairies. I remember a friend of my dad's telling me about the time that he saw some POW's taken in the desert get off the train at Vegreville, AB to work the farms. They were these huge, tough-looking Germans, and the new Canadian Army recruits (of which he was one) thought out loud: "Jesus Christ....they want us to fight THESE guys?"

Turned out, when he landed in Normandy, all the Germans he saw were the "old men and boys", and not the SS Hitler Youth types (he was lucky). So I guess the Russians got rid of most of the good ones.


Siegfried Freiherr Von Tiesenhausen (sank the Barham in the 'Med) liked Canada so much that he stayed. He lived out his life here in Vancouver BC; I met him once. He was a sweet old fella with quite a bit of talent as a photographer. Somehow I doubt that any Allied POW's liked the Germans so much that they stayed in Germany.

[bookworm_020]

Quite a few German and Italian POW's stayed in Australia after the war or came back shortly after. Many of the German civilans who were rounded up in the UK were sent to Australia and many of them also stayed.

[EZeemering]

Good read HMCS !

Early war POWS were treated very well by the Germans at least according to the Versailles treaty. Great respect to each other untill the pows tried something stupid like breaking out. Numorous accounts confirm that from both sides. Especially in Africa pows were treated very good by both sides. Read a book about Dutch pows "Sack with flees". The Dutch had the highest acount of pow out breakings, hence the title of the book. Still they recieved alot of respect from the Germans.
Offcours when the war ended the Germans had less and less reources to treat the pows and the respect slowly deteriated. Being a western allied pow wasnt necesarially bad, as Russian pow this was a bit different as the Germans (SS) didnt recognize the Russians as a human race.
Still you cant expext as pow to end up in a holiday camp in a total war