November 18, 2004

Prior Post Update (German POWs)

Jes tow days ago, in a post entitled Somethin' good landed smack dab in the middle of tonight's TV lineup I asked

By the way, did any of the Germans ever escape from our prison camps durin' the war?
A couple of commenters suggested that the question should be answered affirmatively, but provided no actual source of confirmation. I did a quick search on ixquick.com for German POW escapes Arkansas and got several good returns.
Prisoner of War Escapees

Nearly 1,600 enemy prisoners escaped from American Camps. There were 47,000 guards to watch over the 360,000 German and Italian prisoners of war. Though this escape figure seems high, it should be remembered the re-capture rate was correspondingly high - no prisoner ever succeeded in gaining his freedom. Fort Reno's only escape lasted two weeks. The escapees surrendered at the El Reno train depot. An escape was futile as there was no viable way to return to Germany. One escapee did make it all the way to France before being recaptured, but he did not escape from Oklahoma. There are 59 escapees named and 33 unnamed. from the Oklahoma Camps. [The actual names are listed at the source.]

It's always a pleasure to learn somethin' you didn't previously know, ain't it?

Posted by Tiger at November 18, 2004 10:48 AM | TrackBack
Comments

- Malkin has dropped some links over the past year+ in connection with WWII internment camps and her long standing battle with the denizens of the elite illitirati concerning her book. I recall that with the German detainee's the Army had a lot of trouble keeping the secretive "Nazi's" among them from starting riots and killing other prisoners...The non-Nazi's did a pretty good job themselves in the riot department....I seem to recall that camp murders and escapes ran neck and neck in terms of total count but I'm not sure....can't recall the links but a little searching at Malkin's site should get you there...Apparently all of this was a big deal with FDR and his sec. of war (Stimson?), so theres a great deal of historical documentation (over which everyone disagrees of course..)...

Posted by: Hunter at November 18, 2004 10:09 PM