For the British 1st Airborne Division Operation Market Garden in
September 1944 was a disaster. The Division was eliminated as a
fighting force with around a half of its men were captured. The
Germans were faced with dealing with 6,000 prisoners in a
fortnight; many of them seriously wounded. Somehow the men were
processed and despatched to camps around Germany and German
occupied eastern Europe. Here the men experienced the reality of
the collapsing regime - little food and shrinking frontiers. Once
liberated in 1945 returning former prisoners were required to
complete liberation questionnaires. Some refused. Others returned
before 'Operation Endor' to handle released men and their
repatriation to Britain was in place. Around a third did. However
the questionnaires that do exist give an picture of every day
experience for the 2,357 of these elite troops' time in captivity
from capture to release. They show that German procedures still
operating, but that men were often treated inhumanely, when moved
to camps by closed box cars and when camps were evacuated. Although
their interrogators were interested in Allied aircraft and
airfields, their interrogators were also concerned the effect of
the new miracle weapons and with politics, how Germany would be
treated after an Allied victory? Nevertheless the airborne men's
morale remained high; carrying out sabotage at artificial oil
plants, railway repairs, factories and mines. Some overcame their
guards when being evacuated at the end of the War, in some cases
joining the Resistance. They record help received from Dutch,
French and German civilians.
General
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