The War Was Barely Three Weeks Old When German Prisoners Began Arriving in Britain

The War Was Barely Three Weeks Old When German Prisoners Began Arriving in Britain

By the 21st of September 1939, less than three weeks after Britain declared war on Germany, newspapers were already reporting the arrival of German prisoners of war.

Most of the country was still waiting to discover what this new war would bring, but some German servicemen had already been captured and brought to Britain.

Among the earliest prisoners were sailors captured at sea.

On the 14th of September 1939, the German submarine U-39 attempted to attack the British aircraft carrier HMS Ark Royal in the Atlantic.

Its torpedoes exploded prematurely, failing to strike the carrier. Three British destroyers, HMS Faulknor, HMS Foxhound and HMS Firedrake, responded with depth charges.

U-39 was forced to surface and subsequently sank, but the entire crew survived and were taken prisoner.

For these sailors, the war had barely begun, but their fighting was already over.

During those first months, many of the German military prisoners held in Britain were sailors, particularly submarine crews. As the war continued, captured German airmen would join them.

Britain had not yet established the hundreds of prisoner-of-war camps that would appear later. Instead, the authorities initially relied on a small number of places adapted for holding captured servicemen.

Two of the earliest were Grizedale Hall in the Lake District and Glen Mill in Oldham, Lancashire.

Grizedale Hall was a large country house surrounded by woodland and hills. It was used to accommodate German officers, including men captured from submarines, and eventually became known as the 'U-boat Hotel'.

Glen Mill was rather different. A former cotton mill, it was converted to hold prisoners of lower rank.

Their arrival caused considerable curiosity in some communities.

A newspaper report from the 25th of September 1939 described hundreds of people gathering on the slopes overlooking Glen Mill, hoping to catch a glimpse of approximately 40 German prisoners being held there.

For many watching, it may have been their first opportunity to see the German servicemen they had heard so much about since war was declared.

Some accounts described curious exchanges between the prisoners and local people. These early encounters attracted attention, although newspaper reports cannot tell us how everyone felt about having enemy servicemen so close to home.

At this stage, the numbers were still relatively small. A government memorandum dated the 18th of December 1939 recorded that 250 German prisoners of war were being held in Britain.

But the situation changed dramatically in 1940.

Following the German advance through western Europe and the evacuation from Dunkirk, Britain faced the possibility of invasion.

The government became increasingly concerned about the security risks of holding enemy prisoners in Britain, particularly if German forces managed to land.

As a result, many prisoners were transferred overseas, including to Canada and other parts of the British Empire, where they could be held farther away from the fighting.

For the next few years, the number of German prisoners remaining in Britain was relatively small.

That would change following the Allied landings in Normandy on the 6th of June 1944, when German soldiers began arriving across the Channel in far greater numbers.

Eventually, hundreds of thousands would be held in Britain, many working on farms and helping to meet the country's labour shortages.

Long before those mass arrivals of 1944, however, German prisoners were already being held behind barbed wire in Britain, in places as different as a country house in the Lake District and an old cotton mill in Lancashire.

And for the men who arrived in September 1939, nobody could have known just how many years might pass before they saw their homes and families again.

Did your family ever mention a prisoner-of-war camp in your area, or remember German prisoners arriving during the war? I'd love to hear their stories.

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Image info:

German prisoners working on the camp's barbed-wire fence on Christmas Eve 1940.

Credit: Lt W. T. Lockeyear, War Office official photographer. Imperial War Museums, H 6292. Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons.