Australian POW camps

[Lang]

I thought I would start a new thread so not to interfere with the interesting Canadian POW thread.

Maybe the administrators could bring the Australian comments across here.

The main Australian POW (for German and Italian prisoners) camps were in the Shepparton area of Victoria. This is the centre of a prosperous agricultural district with many nice small towns.

Of course the only Japanese POW camp at Cowra a few hundred miles north was famous for the big breakout and large loss of life.

There is a good book written about the POW camps and it is worthy of a Monty Python movie. Although it is a serious history, I found myself laughing out loud at the incompetence of the camp management.

The main camp was split in two with the tough Afrika Corps blokes on one side divided by a 50 foot roadway to the second camp holding the more relaxed Lufwaffe and mechant marine and naval personnel.

They all went out in work parties to fell trees and help in agricultural pursuits but still got bored. Stories of them stealing rifles from the guards causing great alarm, roll calls and minute searches end with the rifles being found in the roof of the guards' own hut.

A serious problem started to emerge when roll calls found 5 people missing from Camp 1 and five extra people in Camp 2 or vice-versa. After much teeth gnashing, extra guards, multiple roll calls etc failed to find the cause of the movement they stumbled on a tunnel between the camps.

Now this was not just any tunnel but a full walkway with electric lighting and steps at both ends!

A standard ploy was just to hide, under a building or in the roof, for no other reason than to create amusement for the boys. Probably would not have gone down too well in an allied POW camp in Germany but the Australians were not going to shoot someone for playing silly games.

I don't think Australians are naturally cut out to be jail warders. It all worked OK with no prisoners being physically mistreated and no record of escapees involving themselves in any form of sabotage or spying.

Lang