Karlsruhe 1918
Frederick Cudmore Andrews prisoner of war
In World War 1 prisoners of war captured on the Western Front were, broadly speaking, treated humanely, at least by the standards of later wars. They were accommodated and fed more or less adequately, and subjected to little systematic cruelty.
My first cousin twice removed Frederick Cudmore Andrews (1895 – 1975) who spent fourteen months in several German prisoner of war camps, would have been able to give you an informed opinion on the subject.
A Royal Flying Corps pilot, Andrews was shot down over Menin Road on 26 September 1917 in the Battle of Polygon Wood. He reportedly fell five hundred feet and lived.
He survived the fall but not the attentions of a hastily-formed German reception committee, who packed him off to Soltau, a large P.O.W. camp, near Hanover.
Wounded soldiers were transported to a “Lazarett“, a military hospital for prisoners of war. Wounded prisoners benefited from the 1864 Geneva Convention, article 6 of which stated: “Wounded or sick combatants, to whatever nation they may belong, shall be collected and cared for.” Andrews spent two months in hospital. Not surprisingly, he seems to have suffered head injuries in his fall; German surgeons operated successfully and inserted a metal plate in his damaged cranium.
On 28 November he was transferred to Karlsruhe to a prison camp reserved for officers (Offizierslager). Red Cross cards note that on 4 December 1917 Cox and Co., 16 Charing Cross London, bankers to many Army and Royal Flying Corps officers, received the message: Address Gefangenenlager [prisoner-of-war camp] Karlsruhe Baden Cable parents completely better Cudmore Andrews RFC
The camp at Karlsruhe was in the central part of the town and consisted of wooden huts erected in the grounds of the Schloss. The camp was described by a fellow prisoner in his memoir
The camp at Karlsruhe is situated almost in the centre of the town : in pre-war days I should think it had been a playground of some kind. It was surrounded in the first place by a high barbed wire fence, then a wooden fence about ten feet high surmounted by more barbed wire, and six feet inside the wooden fence there was yet another barbed wire fence. Inside were nine wooden huts, or barracks, as the Germans called them. One of these was used by the Kommandant and various camp officials, one for a dining-room for the prisoners, and off this were two small rooms for reading and writing. Another barrack was for amusements. The remaining huts were living quarters, and were divided off into rooms, the largest accommodating eight prisoners. Each room had a stove in it, and there was an unlimited supply of coal at this camp. There was plenty of ground for exercise …
Donaldson, A., The Amazing Cruise of the German Raider “Wolf”, New Century Press, Sydney, 1918.
At Karlsruhe Andrews and six other prisoners had themselves photographed by Fritz Albrecht, an enterprising local photographer. The seven men signed their names on the back of the copy kept by Andrews. (Still extant, the photograph is in the possession of Andrews’s son.) I think it likely that the seven men shared living quarters.
Back row:
Thomas Bowker, Born 1892 in Manchester, Lancashire, England. Machine Gun Corps. Captured 22 October 1917 at Houlthourst (Paschendaele)
Thomas Haldane Wickett, Born 1896 in Crediton, Huron, Ontario, Canada. Royal Flying Corps (Canadian). Missing on offensive patrol. Captured 9 May 1917 at Douai. Had been wounded in the shoulder. Was medically repatriated in June 1918 and was returned to Canada.
Francis George Baker Born 1898 in Bristol, England. Royal Flying Corps. On 6 November 1917 Lieutenant Francis George Baker of the Royal Flying Corps was taken prisoner of war near Valenciennes near Poelcapelle. Had been wounded.
Middle row:
Philip Torrance, Born 1893 in Douglas, Isle of Man. Lancashire Fusiliers Regiment. Captured 22 October 1917 at Houthoulst.
Frederick Cudmore Andrews Born 1895 in Perth, Western Australia. Royal Flying Corps. Captured 26 September 1917 near Ypres. Wounded.
Frederick Blake Born 1893 in Doncaster, Yorkshire, England. Anson Battalion, Royal Naval Volunteer Reserve. Captured at Poelcappelle 27 November 1917.
Front: David Anderson Rogers Born 1893 in Lanarkshire, Scotland. 22nd Battalion, Northumberland Fusiliers. Captured 20 October 1917 at Poelcappelle.
Albrecht took many photographs of prisoners at Karlsruhe and general views of the camp. There are other examples where the men in the photograph signed their names on the back of the photograph.
On 12 Feb 1918 Andrews was transferred from Karlsruhe to a camp at Saarbrücken, then on 12 May 1918, from there to Holzminden, in Lower Saxony. During the Armistice he escaped German internment and was repatriated in December 1918. He was given six month's leave then demobilised in Australia on 10 July 1919.
Fritz Albrecht's photographs of the Karlsruhe Gefangenenlager and its internees were probably intended to show, at least in part, that the enemy prisoners were safe, healthy, and well cared-for, a propaganda message, but no less true for all of that.
Related posts and further reading
Heather Jones: Prisoners of War, in 1914-1918-online. International Encyclopedia of the First World War, ed. by Ute Daniel, Peter Gatrell, Oliver Janz, Heather Jones, Jennifer Keene, Alan Kramer, and Bill Nasson, issued by Freie Universität Berlin, Berlin 2014-10-08. DOI: 10.15463/ie1418.10475
Captain Alexander Donaldson was captured by SMS Wolf , an armed merchant raider of the Imperial German Navy. He was taken to Germany and among other camps was at Karlsruhe. He published a book of the voyage and his experience as a prisoner
Donaldson, A., The Amazing Cruise of the German Raider “Wolf”, New Century Press, Sydney, 1918.
Another prisoner, 2nd Lieutenant Joseph Johnstone Lee of the 10th King’s Royal Rifle Corps was also a prisoner of war in German camps including Karlsruhe and wrote a book on his experiences
Lee, J., A Captive at Carlsruhe, J. Lane, London, 1920.
Wikitree:
Frederick Cudmore Andrews (1895 – 1975)
Thomas Bowker, (1892 – )
Thomas Haldane Wickett (1896 – 1975)
Francis George Baker (1898 – 1971)
Philip Torrance (1893 – 1961)
Frederick Blake (1893 – )
David Anderson Rogers (1893 – )
John Henry Brian Armstrong (1894 – 1978)
Alexander Donaldson (1877 – 1949)
Joseph Johnston Lee (1876 – 1949)