In January 1945 the Germans evacuated allied prisoners-of-war away from the advancing Soviet army. There was not just one March route - columns of prisoners-of-war were straggling all over Poland, Czechoslovakia and Germany from January until May, being forced along by their guards, and neither prisoners nor guards knew where they were supposed to be going or where they would end up. The experiences of different groups of men varied enormously.
Scroll down to find:
The history of the Long March
Reports of the Long March by a news correspondent at the time
Individual Accounts of the Long March
Many more Long March resources
Scroll down to find:
The history of the Long March
Reports of the Long March by a news correspondent at the time
Individual Accounts of the Long March
Many more Long March resources
NEW
The Lamsdorf Series
Book 2: The Long March In Their Own Words
Available as hardback, paperback and e-book
Click HERE for more information and to buy
Taking the Long Way Home: The Long March of 1945
An interactive map, produced by Dave Lovell and Ian Bowley, of the routes taken by many of the POWs on the Long March of January to May 1945, as part of the commemorations marking 75 years since the liberation and return home of POWs.
Click HERE to view the map and associated resources
Hut 18A Long March
This spreadsheet was prepared by Rick Catt as part of the POW75 project 2020. It lists information about the Royal Australian Air Force POWs who were accommodated in Hut 18A at Stalag VIIIB/344 Lamsdorf, and their participation in the Long March of 1945, and published in the book 'The RAF POWs of Lamsdorf'.
Click HERE to see this document
The Lamsdorf Series
Book 2: The Long March In Their Own Words
Available as hardback, paperback and e-book
Click HERE for more information and to buy
Taking the Long Way Home: The Long March of 1945
An interactive map, produced by Dave Lovell and Ian Bowley, of the routes taken by many of the POWs on the Long March of January to May 1945, as part of the commemorations marking 75 years since the liberation and return home of POWs.
Click HERE to view the map and associated resources
Hut 18A Long March
This spreadsheet was prepared by Rick Catt as part of the POW75 project 2020. It lists information about the Royal Australian Air Force POWs who were accommodated in Hut 18A at Stalag VIIIB/344 Lamsdorf, and their participation in the Long March of 1945, and published in the book 'The RAF POWs of Lamsdorf'.
Click HERE to see this document
In January 1945 as the Soviet armies resumed their offensive and advanced into Germany, many of the prisoners were marched westward in groups of 200 to 300 in the so-called Long March or Death March. Many of them died from the bitter cold and exhaustion. The lucky ones got far enough to the west to be liberated by the American army. The unlucky ones got "liberated" by the Soviets, who instead of turning them over quickly to the western allies, held them as virtual hostages for several more months. Many of them were finally repatriated towards the end of 1945 though the port of Odessa on the Black Sea.
The Long March was during the final months of the Second World War in Europe. About 30,000 Allied PoWs were force-marched westward across Poland and Germany in appalling winter conditions, lasting about four months from January to April 1945. It has been called various names: "The Great March West", "The Long March", "The Long Walk", "The Long Trek", "The Black March", "The Bread March", but most survivors just called it "The March". It has also been called "The Lamsdorf Death March".
As the Soviet army was advancing on Poland, the Nazis made the decision to evacuate the PoW camps to prevent the liberation of the prisoners by the Russians. During this period, also hundreds of thousands of German civilians, most of them women and children, as well as civilians of other nationalities, were making their way westward in the snow and freezing weather and many died. January and February 1945 were among the coldest winter months of the twentieth century, with blizzards and temperatures as low as –25 °C (–13 °F), even until the middle of March temperatures were well below 0 °F (–18 °C). Most of the PoWs were ill-prepared for the evacuation, having suffered years of poor rations and wearing clothing ill-suited to the appalling winter conditions.
Each Stalag was responsible for co-ordinating the movement of POW at the outlying Arbeitkommandos as well as those at the main camp. In the case of Stalag 344 Lamsdorf they took a northerly route via Dresden whilst those at Stalag VIIIB Teschen, which lay some hundred miles to the east, took a southerly route through the German occupied Czech Protectorate (Bohemia and Moravia) to Bavaria. E702 Klimontow and other Arbeitskommando linked to Stalag VIIIB Teschen took the southerly route.
The Vojensky Ustredni Archive in Prague contains the detailed plans made by the German authorities for the movement of 6,000 British and 58,000 Soviet prisoners of war through the Czech Protectorate, commanded by the head of POW camp VIII/B Teschen, Col. Thielebein. They were to follow separate routes and march in columns of 1,500.
Provision was made for accommodation: “The BdS [commander of the security police] has ordered district captains to
cooperate with the advance detachments of the leader of the march block and provide accommodation and straw in advance. The accommodation provided should be occupied successively by subsequent march groups. They are also responsible for
the provision of warm meals and coffee. It is suggested that it will be appropriate to man each accommodation with one reliable NCO and 3 men until the last march group has passed through. Under no circumstances should any larger towns be occupied.”
And for the supply of rations, medical care and security: “It is of the utmost political importance that the march of the POWs should proceed without incidents and should not unnecessarily attract the attention of the civilian population. The garrison commanders and all official agencies participating in the provisioning of the march units should therefore support
the leaders of the groups with all means at their disposal. The civilian authorities have equally been instructed by the German Minister of State for Bohemia and Moravia to provide the same help. The garrison commander should achieve the closest cooperation with these authorities.The garrisons should actively support local police authorities for the duration of the march by providing patrols in order to prevent any traffic jams or population crowds. The commander of the patrol service shall increase the number of patrols on all march routes.”
They marched in small columns following side roads to villages where they could find accommodation in barns at the end of each day. Some published accounts (Whiteside, 1999) mention that at the end of each day’s march they would identify their billet. usually a barn, by the number of the Arbeitskommando chalked on the door, confirming that they remained in the same working party throughout the trek. Food was sparse, the guards themselves were hungry, and cooked communally. The delivery of Red Cross parcels was disrupted but remained a vital source of additional food (as well as cigarettes).
In most camps, the PoWs were actually broken up in groups of 250 to 300 men and because of the inadequate roads and the flow of battle, not all the prisoners followed the same route. The groups would march 20 to 40 kilometres a day - resting in factories, churches, barns and even in the open. Soon long columns of PoWs were wandering over the northern part of Germany with little or nothing in the way of food, clothing, shelter or medical care.
Prisoners from different camps had different experiences: sometimes the Germans provided farm wagons for those unable to walk. Seldom were horses available, so teams of PoWs pulled the wagons through the snow. Sometimes the guards and prisoners became dependent on each other, other times the guards became increasingly hostile. Passing through some villages, the residents would throw bricks and stones, and in others, the residents would share their last food. Some groups of prisoners were joined by German civilians who were also fleeing from the Russians. Some who tried to escape or could not go on were shot by guards.
With so little food they were reduced to scavenging to survive. Some were reduced to eating dogs and cats -- and even rats and grass -- anything they could lay their hands on. Already underweight from years of prison rations, some were at half their prewar body weight by the end. Because of the unsanitary conditions and a near starvation diet, hundreds of PoWs died along the way from exhaustion as well as pneumonia, diphtheria, pellagra, and other diseases. Typhus was spread by body lice. Sleeping outside on frozen ground resulted in frostbite that in many cases required the amputation of extremities. In addition to these conditions were the dangers from air attack by Allied forces mistaking the POWs for retreating columns of German troops. At a village called Gresse, 60 Allied POWs died in a "friendly-fire" situation when strafed by a flight of RAF Typhoons.
As winter drew to a close, suffering from the cold abated and some of the German guards became less harsh in their treatment of PoWs. As the columns reached the western side of Germany they ran into the advancing British and American armies. For some, this brought liberation. Others were not so lucky. They were marched towards the Baltic Sea where Nazis were said to be using PoWs as human shields and hostages. It was later estimated that a large number of PoWs had marched over five hundred miles by the time they were liberated, and some had walked nearly a thousand miles.
On 4 May 1945 RAF Bomber Command implemented Operation Exodus, and the first prisoners of war were repatriated by air in aircraft. Bomber Command flew 2,900 sorties over the next 23 days, carrying 72,500 prisoners of war.
Reports of The March by a News Correspondent
The following dispatches seem to have been sent by Reuters war correspondent Arthur Oakeshott. Apparently his reports were never published and they were classified as secret for a long time, until released by the National Archive. Click on each frame to see it larger. These are copies of the originals. There is a transcription HERE.
(Thanks to Alan Clarke for the research and to Kathie Mulvey for the transcription)
Individual Accounts
If you have an account of the March that you would like to be included here, please email to mail@lamsdorf.com
There might be more information about the POWs listed below, on the 'Names' page of this website.
*These POWs might have travelled together for all or part of their journeys.
Avoiding the March
Patients in the hospital, and most of the medical staff, did not go on the March and they were repatriated later. There is a good account of this in the book 'Doctor in Chains' by George Moreton, who worked in the hospital. Click on the link below to find this book:
Doctor in Chains
In his memoirs, Leighton Bowen wrote that about 200 Lamsdorf POWs hid instead of taking part in the march. After the German guards disappeared they thought they were free, and they awaited the Russians who would, they hoped, arrange for their transportation home. But some Germans turned up after several week and the remaining POWs were transported by train to Stalag IVC Memmingen in Bavaria. They were eventually liberated from there by American forces.
E. A. Caine also mentions this.
Leighton Bowen
E. A. Caine
John Frederick Antill - route
Ernest Ronald (‘Ron’) Bowley
J. L. Bryson - route
R. J. Burbridge
R. J. Burbridge - route
Arthur Burkett
01 02 03 04 05
route maps: 01 02
Wes Clare
Wesley Clare
Peter Tattersall
Turner McLardy
route map
Robbie N. Clark*
Arnold Walter Coombe
John Leonard (Jack) Date
1 2
Thomas Alan Dirkin
Frank Emslie
Alan Forster or this link: Forster 2
(Start at part 7 for his diary of the March)
Joseph Fusniak
Gordon Leslie Hines*
Gordon Leslie Hines - route map
Alan Hurrell
H. Kirk
Ted Lees
(his account of the march begins in chapter 8)
Henry Lund
James George Massey
William John May - route
Herbert Louis Mills
Robert Matthews
Winston Churchill Parker
James Peters
Harold Pitt
Frederick Potterton*
Cecil Albert Room
Henry Silk
Fred Somerville*
also: Sommerville 2
Walter Spencer route maps
01 02 03 04
Ernest Arthur (George) Spooner
Includes route and maps
Edward Tomsett
Vern Richardson
Robert Bennett Warren
Kenneth James West
Map with written details
Stanley John Woodman
Ronald Percy Wright
Transcription
Death March?
Some people have referred to this Long March as a 'death march'. This term is deliberately avoided on this website (as it also was by the authors of ‘The Last Escape’ and the producer of the documentary ‘The Long March to Freedom’). It was an horrific experience and it is true that many died on this march, but the vast majority did not. We do not use the term ‘death march’ out of respect for those ‘marches’ that truly were ‘death’ marches:
- On January 18, 1945, just days before the Red Army arrived at Auschwitz, 66,000 prisoners were marched to Wodzislaw, where they were put on freight trains to the Gross-Rosen, Buchenwald , Dachau , and Mauthausen concentration camps. Almost one in four died en route.
- On January 20, 7,000 Jews, 6,000 of them women, were marched from Stutthof 's satellite camps in the Danzig region. In the course of a 10-day march, 700 were murdered. Those who remained alive when the marchers reached the shores of the Baltic Sea were driven into the sea and shot. There were only 13 known survivors.
- The Sandakan Death Marches were a series of forced marches in Borneo from Sandakan to Ranau which resulted in the deaths of 2,345 Allied prisoners of war held captive by Japan. By the end of the war, of all the prisoners who had been incarcerated at Sandakan and Ranau, only six survived, all of whom had escaped.
- There are other examples of similar death marches.
The Long March to Freedom
a song by Lesley Loughlin
(from the account of Bernard Loughlin my father-in-law written for my husband Hugh with love)
It is my privilege and it is my pain to share this story here today
It started not so long ago, in a land not far away
The country’s now called Poland, ‘twas in nineteen forty-five
When my father joined the Long, cold March to Freedom.
There were thousands of those prisoners a product of the war
Confined within the stalags, working on farms were thousands more
Away from friends and family, who little knew if they’d lived or died
Till they began their Long, cold March to Freedom.
The Russians were advancing, they could set the prisoners free
So to keep his hold upon his foe, Hitler made this cruel decree
That all the POWs. who were held on Prussian lands
Should be rounded up to start a Long, cold March for Freedom.
It was January of forty-five that Hitler’s orders came
For weeks on end they trudged their way over European plain
No special clothes, no rations, half conscious and half starved
They shivered their way as they made their bid for freedom.
The winter months of forty-five, so all the records show
Brought bitter winds to freeze the bones, minus 40c or so,
They plodded some seven hundred miles, at barely eight a day
A torturous ordeal was that Long, cold March to Freedom.
And one by one, by night and day, their numbers did decrease,
As life itself had lost its charm, death would be welcome release
But for the few who made it back, no cheers of welcome came
For no-one seemed to know about this March to Freedom.
Though thousands had set out upon, that long, cold road through hell
Only twelve of father’s group remained their story for to tell
Of how they’d trudged through blinding snow with frostbite on their feet
And with courage stepped that harsh, Long March to Freedom.
Hear the song performed by Greensand Ridge:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=voiVD33rqLI
The Long March of 1945
a song by Lesley Loughlin
(inspired by the DVD the Long March to Freedom)
Our guards called it marching and driven we’d go,
But we called it trudging through blizzarding snow;
The stalags a challenge to keep our heads high,
The exodus death march our task not to die.
It’s rifle-butt driven, but Nazies or no,
We’re all there a-trudging thru’ feckering snow.
Many friends fallen, escape from frost-bite
Some carried another brother-trudger all night.
It’s hard for the young’uns, it’s worse for the old;
You try a-trudging with feet raw and cold.
It’s rifle-butt driven, but Nazies or no,
We’re all there a-trudging thru’ feckering snow.
No boots to speak of, no great coats nor gloves,
Like worn rags on stick men, they’d laugh our dear loves
At home girls are waiting, and mothers with babes
The home fires are burning, from Hitler to save
It’s rifle-butt driven, but Nazies or no,
We’re all there a-trudging thru’ feckering snow.
One faded photo, one faded smile,
We ditched other baggage after many a long mile
Hog’s food was a banquet, pig’s heat kept us live,
A shrunken potato divided by five.
It’s rifle-butt driven, but Nazies or no,
We’re all there a-trudging thru’ feckering snow.
Night’s cold will freeze you, we sleep in our clothes,
We huddle together like penguins in rows,
When morning light dawns, we awaken in hell,
Some others in heaven, we bid them farewell
It’s rifle-butt driven, but Nazies or no,
We’re all there a-trudging thru’ feckering snow.
Some small acts of kindness from farmer or friend
But skeleton scarecrows return in the end
They don’t know our story, starved, frozen and driven
They feed us with donuts, the first food we’re given.
It’s rifle-butt driven, but Nazies or no,
We’re all there a-trudging thru’ feckering snow.
The swastika’s fallen, his madness is done
We say we are lucky our trudging has won,
Our land’s worth the fighting, a land for the free
Sometimes in the night though, a trudging I’ll be.
It’s rifle-butt driven, but Nazies or no,
We’re all there a-trudging thru’ feckering snow.
Hear the song performed by Greensand Ridge:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lpzaT7aWJVY