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soil in their pockets to the long-jump pit or garden plots. Others kneaded clay into balls and dropped them through a hole in a false wall they had constructed in an unused room in one of the huts. To support the tunnel roof, oak benches were stolen from the canteen and bed legs were cut down when supplies of wood were depleted. A ventilation pipeline was made from condensed milk tins; air was forced through by a hand-operated fan. The tunnel even had its own electric lights, tapped off the mains supply. Noise was concealed by chorus singing.
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POWs. Excavating the tunnels was not easy because of the heavy clay soil upon which the camp was built. Cans, meat tins, and even knives from the canteen were used as digging implements. The soil was hauled out of the tunnel on a makeshift skip and put into kit bags. At first, prisoners carried the
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After the invasion the authorities had to find suitable accommodation for large numbers of POWs captured in Europe. The prefabricated concrete huts surrounded by open fields at Island Farm were considered ideal, although the barracks had to be converted and barbed wire fences erected. This work had
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Island Farm Camp was originally built as a hostel for female workers employed at a munitions factory in
Bridgend, but conditions at the hostel were so dreary that the women preferred to travel, as much as 30 miles (48 km), from their homes each day. The camp remained empty until 1943, when it
188:
Only three weeks after the escape, on 31 March 1945, the authorities suddenly transferred all 1,600 officers out of Island Farm Camp. It was then designated
Special Camp Eleven and was prepared to receive senior German officers, many of whom had been captured in France and were awaiting trial at
118:
Island Farm was designated as Camp 198 and was to hold almost 2,000 prisoners. The first POWs were a mixture of
Italian and German troops, but the War Office soon decided that the camp was too comfortable for enlisted men and that German officers should be held there. The first officer prisoners
153:
The escapees were divided into groups, each of which was equipped with a map, homemade compass, and food. Each person in the group also had identity papers, produced in the camp. All these preparations required tremendous organization, yet it is not known who actually organized the escape. For
180:. Fourteen were captured very soon afterwards, allowing officials to announce, for propaganda reasons, that only 70 had escaped. All the escapees were eventually recaptured, although this is also disputed by Phillips, who claims that three escapees spotted in Kent were never caught.
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Soon after their arrival at Island Farm the POWs began escape efforts, with two tunnels being dug in the camp. The first was discovered in
January 1945, but the second escaped detection and on 10 March 1945, 70 prisoners escaped through a
231:, who was named commander in chief of the German army by Hitler in 1938 and who was instrumental in the planning and execution of attacks on Poland, the Netherlands, Belgium, France, Yugoslavia, Greece, and the Soviet Union.
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security purposes, each escaper’s identity was known only to the others in his small group. This anonymity protected them against betrayal and prevented discovery of the full extent of the escape.
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in 1940 (because of his status, von
Rundstedt received certain privileges at the camp, including his own private suite, consisting of a sitting room and bedroom).
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not been completed by the time the first batch of prisoners arrived, so the prisoners were put to work completing the conversion.
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Nuremberg. In all there were 160 officers holding the rank of general, admiral, or field marshal, including a number of
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dug from Hut Nine (the only hut now left standing). The tunnel was about 30 feet (9.1 m) long and breached the
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At around 10pm on March 10, the prisoners made their move; a few stole the local doctor's car and got as far as
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Some of the techniques used by the inmates were ingenious and resembled those shown in the (postwar) war film
1206:"Multi-disciplinary investigations at PoW Camp 198, Bridgend, S. Wales: site of a mass escape in March 1945"
1170:"Multi-disciplinary investigations at PoW Camp 198, Bridgend, S. Wales: site of a mass escape in March 1945"
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prisoners, mainly German, and was the scene of the largest escape attempt by German POWs in
Britain during
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investigation was undertaken of the site to look for the escape tunnel, including surface surveying using
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Island Farm Camp finally closed in 1948, when the last prisoners were returned to
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Rees-Hughes, L; Pringle, JK; Russill, N; Wisniewski, K; Doyle, P (2017).
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southwalespolicemuseum.org, Island Farm
Prisoner of War Camp, Bridgend
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975:"BRIDGEND GERMAN POW CAMP, ISLAND FARM CAMP 198 / SPECIAL CAMP XI"
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1027:"bracklaordnance.co.uk Island Farm Prisoner of war camp Bridgend"
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education.gtj.org.uk Island Farm POW camp, Bridgend, 1939-45
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1002:"Every prisoner of war camp in the UK mapped and listed"
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military leaders who were awaiting extradition to the
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BBC, Exploring the Island Farm
Prisoner of War Camp
201:, commander in chief of the German armies in the
838:Gruppenführer und Generalleutnant der Waffen-SS
596:Gruppenführer und Generalleutnant der Waffen-SS
847:Gruppenführer und Generalleutnant der Polizei
516:Gruppenführer und Generalleutnant der Polizei
304:The following list is in alphabetical order:
8:
1299:World War II prisoner-of-war camps in Wales
934:Obergruppenführer und General der Waffen-SS
670:Obergruppenführer und General der Waffen-SS
877:Brigadeführer und Generalmajor der Polizei
475:Brigadeführer und Generalmajor der Polizei
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86:. Near the end of the war it was renamed
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814:Ferdinand Maria von Senger und Etterlin
1110:, BBC Wales History, 21 September 2012
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70:camp on the outskirts of the town of
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1269:POW Camp 198 (Island Farm) on Flickr
1120:Phillips, Peter (21 February 2005).
273:whose garrison held out in Fortress
1289:Prisons in Bridgend County Borough
1148:"More security for PoWs' camp hut"
977:. 14 February 2017. Archived from
14:
1146:Bourne, Nicholas (28 June 2011).
1000:Rogers, Simon (8 November 2010).
447:General der Luftnachrichtentruppe
1240:German Officers Held in Bridgend
1122:"Greatest PoW escape from Wales"
805:Fridolin von Senger und Etterlin
1213:Journal of Conflict Archaeology
1177:Journal of Conflict Archaeology
956:List of prisoner-of-war escapes
176:; the inspiration for the film
90:and used to detain many senior
1259:Island Farm Website - aug 2021
277:until the very end of the war.
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1226:10.1080/15740773.2017.1357900
1190:10.1080/15740773.2017.1357900
401:Friedrich Freiherr von Broich
777:General der Fallschirmtruppe
735:General der Fallschirmtruppe
710:General der Fallschirmtruppe
634:Paul Ludwig Ewald von Kleist
417:und Generalmajor der Polizei
236:Paul Ludwig Ewald von Kleist
1088:www.bridgendsheritage.co.uk
1315:
1157:– via www.bbc.co.uk.
453:Alexander von Falkenhausen
238:, who was involved in the
119:arrived in November 1944.
353:General der Gebirgstruppe
123:'The German Great Escape'
109:Allied invasion of France
102:Early history of the camp
1294:Defunct prisons in Wales
909:Heinrich von Vietinghoff
886:General der Panzertruppe
882:Wilhelm Ritter von Thoma
809:General der Panzertruppe
556:General der Panzertruppe
253:Heinrich von Vietinghoff
78:. It hosted a number of
728:Hermann-Bernhard Ramcke
608:und General der Polizei
374:Walther von Brauchitsch
229:Walther von Brauchitsch
203:campaign against France
170:The German Great Escape
1084:"- Bridgends Heritage"
904:General der Infanterie
895:General der Infanterie
587:General der Artillerie
457:General der Infanterie
427:General der Artillerie
364:General der Kavallerie
342:General der Infanterie
216:, which conquered the
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900:Kurt von Tippelskirch
791:Hans-Georg von Seidel
740:Johann von Ravenstein
246:from 1942 until 1944.
242:and was in charge of
224:on the eastern front.
193:'s closest advisers:
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1264:Island Farm POW Camp
765:Generalfeldmarschall
697:Generalfeldmarschall
638:Generalfeldmarschall
379:Generalfeldmarschall
16:Prisoner of war camp
1254:Island Farm Website
981:on 14 February 2017
799:General der Flieger
571:Friedrich Hüffmeier
337:Günther Blumentritt
326:Hans-Georg Benthack
33: /
1070:2014-08-09 at the
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761:Gerd von Rundstedt
693:Erich von Manstein
625:Heinrich Kirchheim
210:Erich von Manstein
199:Gerd von Rundstedt
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37:51.4945°N 3.5855°W
843:Jakob Sporrenberg
749:Ernst-August Roth
684:Siegfried Macholz
606:Obergruppenführer
601:Jürgen von Kamptz
542:Gotthard Heinrici
480:Friedrich Frisius
442:Friedrich Fahnert
433:Walter Dornberger
385:Helmuth Brinkmann
271:Friedrich Frisius
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1006:the Guardian
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939:Rudolf Wulf
578:Vizeadmiral
487:Vizeadmiral
395:Vizeadmiral
348:Franz Böhme
321:der Polizei
286:archaeology
163:Southampton
60:Island Farm
40: /
1278:Categories
962:References
930:Karl Wolff
294:geophysics
222:Sevastopol
159:Birmingham
25:51°29′40″N
918:Hans Voss
865:Luftwaffe
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795:Luftwaffe
774:Luftwaffe
753:Luftwaffe
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720:Luftwaffe
706:Luftwaffe
617:Luftwaffe
583:Kurt Jahn
525:Luftwaffe
28:3°35′08″W
1284:Bridgend
1153:19 March
1126:BBC News
1093:19 March
1068:Archived
1050:Archived
1032:19 March
1011:19 March
985:19 March
950:See also
74:, South
72:Bridgend
66:, was a
64:Camp 198
651:Admiral
367:and SS-
275:Dunkirk
1131:1 July
218:Crimea
191:Hitler
147:Allied
145:about
130:tunnel
1209:(PDF)
1173:(PDF)
932:, SS-
875:, SS-
845:, SS-
836:, SS-
668:, SS-
603:, SS-
594:, SS-
514:, SS-
473:, SS-
412:, SS-
312:, SS-
290:lidar
76:Wales
1155:2018
1133:2007
1095:2018
1034:2018
1013:2018
987:2018
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