Grizedale Hall, Grizedale, Cumberland - Base camp

Ex stately home + about 30 huts, opened 1940 as POW camp for officers. In 1942, 50 French officers who had surrendered at the invasion of Madagascar were temporarily settled here. At the end of the war held many high ranking officers including Generalfeldmarschall Rundstedt - nicknamed 'Hush Hush Hotel'. Now demolished. Mentioned in 'The One That Got Away' and 'Thresholds of Peace'.

Translation of International Red Cross Inspection Report, 1942

International Red Cross visit - 16 November 1943, 30 June 1944

78 huts in parkland. Opened 1942, closed 1948. Very brief mention in 'Thresholds of Peace'.

Originally Camp 198 - redesignated as Special Camp 11 after an escape during 1944. Many officers transferred to Carburton, Camp 181.

German officers were held here from 6 January 1946, and later other ranks. The camp held some very high ranking German officers including Generalfeldmarschalls: Rundstedt, Manstein, Kleist & Brauchitsch. The camp was closed in May 1948.

International Red Cross inspection - 1 June 1943; 11 August 1944 - 19 senior officers.

Very extensive history on - http://www.islandfarm.fsnet.co.uk/ Mentioned in 'Thresholds of Peace'. 

Owned by the Earl of Lonsdale, the hotel was requisitioned and turned into a POW Camp in February 1941. It housed up to 250 mainly senior Luftwaffe and German naval officers on the top two floors of the hotel, these often waiting to be sent to Glasgow and then off to Canada. The camp leader was at one point a German Prince (Fürst von Urach) who was reportedly related to Queen Mary. It is recorded that the hotel linen and crockery were used for the prisoners, hence its nickname ‘U-Boat Hotel’. There were up to 80 orderlies. Towards the end of the war the POWs held here were all 'white' category prisoners.

The camp was protected with two rings of barbed wire and searchlights; guards lived in Nissen huts in the adjoining gardens. Two Luftwaffe officers made an escape attempt in November, 1941 - later officers giving their word of honour not to escape were allowed to go out and walk on the fells. Closed 1947.

Mentioned in 'Thresholds of Peace'.

Translation of IRC Report 18 March 1942 - many complaints about mail and parcels.

Large camp with huts and tents.   

In the grounds of Gosford Castle    

International Red Cross inspection - 24 May 1943 - Italian prisoners, capacity 3000+.

Huts and tents. Mentioned in 'Thresholds of Peace' and very brief in 'Prisoners of England'.

Large camp - reportedly up to 7000 prisoners. Huts and tents; hostels for up to 200 at Catton, Colwell and Rayless. First built for US troops before D-Day, then used to hold Italian POWs, then German POWs - during 1945 it became a camp for over 3000 German officers and 580 orderlies. Mentioned in 'Prisoners of England' and 'Thresholds of Peace'.

International Red Cross visit - 10 May 1944, Italian prisoners, states capacity is 5000;

*5 August 1943, POW postcard from Italian to Sicily.

Built 1941 as maximum security camp for ‘Black patched’ Nazis. Five compounds + additional officers compound. Held up to 4000 POWs. Closed as a POW camp in 1947.

International Red Cross visit - 13 May 1944 - German prisoners; 15 June 1944 states capacity is 4500.

POW (Wolfgang Rosterg) from Le Marchant Camp [no.23] was suspected of being a British spy and murdered - 8 Germans were tried, 5 were executed and a sixth sentenced to penal servitude for life. The camp was taken over by the army in 1949. A good deal of the site still exists. For further history see - 'For Fuhrer and Fatherland', by R De Normann.

Note - there are accounts that Rudolph Hess was held at this camp for 1 night when he crash landed in Scotland. However, the following email from Peter R McNaughton would refute that:

"You may be interested in knowing that Rudolph Hess never stayed at Camp 21 in Comrie. He did, however, stay at Buchanan Castle some 40 miles away, near Buchlyvie. The father of a friend of mine was the one who captured him. The story goes that Mr. Clark was at a soiree in the evening and heard the crash. On looking out he saw flames coming from a crashed aircraft on the hillside.

He was dressed in a tuxedo and strapped on his Sam Brown belt with revolver over it and went to investigate. He came across this figure moaning and staggering around. He drew his revolver and then took the man to the house where the soiree was being held. There the prisoner was handed over to the military police. It was only later that he realized that his revolver was not loaded! And only much later that he found out that his prisoner was, in fact, Hess.

The following day, much to his embarrassment the Duke of Hamilton, a Spitfire pilot in Edinburgh, was asked to go and identify him. Apparently Hess had met him in Berlin in or around 1936. Hess thought that by naming him and suggesting he knew him, that the Duke could identify him and would lead him to Churchill. Hess, of course, was a lunatic. He had apparently hoped to come to an arrangement of stopping the War. The following day he was sent to London where he was incarcerated in the Tower of London until he was flown to Nuremberg.

The article that everyone quotes was in either the Daily Mail or the Daily Mirror. As with many rags the reporter jazzed up the article with this comment. [That he was held at the POW camp]. Rudolph Hess was never in Comrie Camp (Camp 21) but was in Scotland for only two nights. The first when he was captured (or gave himself up) and the second at Buchanan castle in Bucklyvie near Kippen and Loch Lomond in Stirlingshire.

The first group of prisoners in Comrie camp were Italians from the Western desert campaign. They were given pinkish/mauve togs to wear. They eventually were shipped to other camps. The very first prisoner in the camp in late 1939/early 1940 was a sergeant from the Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders. He had gone AWOL from Stirling Castle as he was concerned about the health of his pregnant wife. He was marched under escort right up Dalginross in Comrie. Much to the amazement of the local people!

You may be interested in knowing that I was born in Drummond Street in Comrie in February 1944. I have just completed a rather extensive article on the life of the late Helmut Stenger who was a POW in Comrie Camp from late 1943 to late 1946."

Located next to army barracks. At first used as a transit camp, became a permanent camp for up to 7500 POWs in November 1944. Closed April, 1946 - and became 410 German PW Working Camp, closing in February, 1947.

December 1944 plot by some POWs to escape, supposedly to commandeer vehicles and tanks from the nearby army depot then to release prisoners from other camps. The plot was detected and suspects sent to Comrie [Camp 21], where the story continues. For further history see - 'For Fuhrer and Fatherland', by R De Normann.