As families waited anxiously for their men to be demobbed, organised events were held in Embsay and Eastby to raise money for the Welcome Home Fund. On June 2nd, the Embsay Girls’ Friendly Society employed Bee’s Band to play for a dance, and a garden party was held on July 14th at Embsay Kirk, as a joint effort by St. Mary’s Church and the Embsay Kirk Knitting Party. Hosted by Mr. and Mrs. Mark Nutter, the garden party included work stalls, a bring-and-buy stall, ‘clock golf’, ‘mystery house’, bran tub, baby show and ‘various other attractions,’ followed by another dance at the village institute, with Bee’s Band.
On a more serious note, the war in the Far East was still ongoing, and it was to be several years before some significant features of wartime life would be over – in particular conscription and rationing. Indeed the ‘Craven Herald’ newspaper reminded everyone in Embsay and Eastby that new ration books were to be collected on 6th June at the Village Institute. Meanwhile, attention was already turning to the future, with campaigning for the general election, and concern over social issues such as employment for returning soldiers, and the housing shortage.
Two Embsay-with-Eastby families were no doubt most concerned with the relief they felt at the return of their boys, Sidney Waterfall (as discussed in the previous history post) and Frank Hill. These two young men had been prisoners of war but were now safely back home – although both on leave, as they would soon have to return to duty.
Frank Hill (1920-2005) was the son of William Henry and Ellen Hill of Eastby. William (1885-1960) had served during the 1st World War in the Coldstream Guards, and after the war was a farm worker at Bower House Farm. In 1919 he married Ellen Renwick (1891-1984), and they had lived at Crag View, Eastby, where Frank was born in 1920. By 1939 Frank was working as a loom fitter, and his father was at the quarry. The family then lived at Sunnybank, Eastby.
In 1940, Frank had joined the Royal Engineers as a Sapper (25 Field Company R.E. 1st infantry), and was sent in 1942 to serve in the African campaign in Tunis and Algiers. He was later sent to Italy and it was at Anzio that he was captured on 10th February, 1944.
MOOSBURG (Stalag 7A) : March-April 1944
Frank was briefly sent to a transit camp near Moosburg (Stalag 7A).
Here the newly captured were deloused and interrogated by ‘economic intelligence officers’ who were to determine the usefulness of POWs, and the extent of their knowledge about German infrastructure and other facilities such as factories. This was carried out by:
“informal conversations, the question of PW’s future work being used as cover… Both at Moosburg and at Lamsdorf things are made difficult for the economic intelligence officers by the English camp leaders, who certainly maintain excellent order and military discipline (e.g. saluting is very good) and are therefore popular with the camp commandants… the opinion was expressed that these camp leaders are trained men of the intelligence service who may perhaps even have got themselves captured on purpose.” [[1]]
Conditions were apparently satisfactory in the early years of the war, with hygienic conditions and high morale. The POWs were allowed to play sports, access a library of over 2,000 books, and put on plays and concerts. Although the food rations were inadequate, regular Red Cross parcels meant the physical condition of the men was maintained at a reasonable level. By 1944 however, conditions had deteriorated significantly due to overcrowding.
On 21st April 1944, the camp was inspected by two doctors, representatives from the German branch of the International Red Cross (their report was later translated into English by the London delegation).
They found the facilities had greatly worsened over the duration of the war. Over 4,000 British POWs were crammed into their huts which were filled to capacity. The lack of glass to replace broken windows meant many were boarded up, making the huts dark and musty. The toilet facilities were poor, and water had to be obtained from hand pumps.
Although food parcels were received from home or via the YMCA and the Red Cross, there were no facilities for the prisoners to cook in the huts. However, the camp did have a canteen which the prisoners ran themselves using rations provided by the Germans. Despite the receipt and distribution of clothes from parcels, there were not enough for everyone, and many men were in worn-out clothes. The distribution of collective parcels (i.e. those from organisations such as the Red Cross) was poorly organised, and new arrivals (about 800 by the time of this report) were often left out due to administrative delays, receiving no parcels or mail for months.[[2]]
LAMSDORF (Stalag 8B / 344) : April-May 1944
From Stalag 7A, Frank was transferred in April 1944 to Lamsdorf (Stalag 8B/344).
He would have been there at the same time as Sidney Waterfall, from Embsay.[[3]] In his letters home, and later in reminiscences shared with his family, Sidney provided a great deal of information about life at Stalag 8B. In his last months there, before being transferred to the separate hospital camp at Tost, Sidney had described an art and craft exhibition put on by other prisoners, a concert by the camp choir, theatrical performances, and playing in several football matches. In May 1944 the prisoners were able to build a new football pitch, so that teams of 11 instead of only 8-a-side could play. In June, Sidney saw boxing matches, a Naval musical revue, and a choral concert.
When the German delegation of the International Red Cross inspected this camp on 4th May 1944, they recorded well over 9,000 British POWs at Lamsdorf (of which over 2,000 were from Commonwealth countries).
Despite a large number of prisoners being sent out to nearby labour camps (238 work parties, consisting of about 14,00 men, administered from Stalag 8B/344), the inspectors found the main camp was very overcrowded, and, as at Moosburg, the scarcity of glass meant many hut windows were permanently boarded up. Although many of the men were set to heavy manual work in labour detachments, which took a heavy toll on their clothes, it was reported that clothes mostly adequate, every man having at least one change of uniform to wear. However, there was a complaint that there was not enough in the way of footwear and trousers. Collective parcels were arriving fairly regularly, and a good proportion of the contents were held in reserve to be distributed as needed, although there was a thriving black market in the camp.
The main issues were water shortages – each man could only have a ‘shower bath’ once every 15 days – and the latrines, which due to poor drainage systems, had to be emptied by the prisoners themselves into trenches just outside the camp.
The inspectors concluded :
“The discipline is good. The living conditions have improved since the arrival of the new Commandant… The British Camp Leader and the officer in charge of the distribution of Red Cross parcels are both men of admirable character. They administer their camp irreproachably. The question of the water supply, and the lack of adequate waste-conduits creates unhygienic conditions. The camp would benefit from a diminution in its strength.”[[4]]
REIGERSFELD (E711) : May-June 1944
As a Sapper in the Royal Engineers, Frank was useful to his German captors. So after only a few weeks, Frank was moved in late May to a camp near Reigersfeld, in Poland (E711), although still under the administration of Lamsdorf Stalag 8B/344. This was a newly established labour camp, where Frank was one of about 470 men divided up into 22 working parties of prisoners. Again his stay here was very brief.
This was one of over 700 forced labour camps (Arbeitskommando) attached to the Stalags (POW camps), most of them in Poland and Czechoslovakia, deploying thousands of soldiers from lower ranks (usually below Sergeant) on the railways, farms, in factories, forestry work, quarries and coal mines. In his brief report on his POW experience to the War Office after liberation in 1945, Frank simply described his work here as ‘pick and shovel.’[[5]]
PEISCHRECHEN (also known as Peiskretscham, now known as Pyskowice): June 1944-Jan 1945
As more and more prisoners arrived, the Germans had to split the overcrowded camp populations up, and so Frank soon found himself transferred again. In late May he was sent to the labour camp at Peischrechen, in Poland (E749). This labour camp was also administered from Lamsdorf, Stalag 8B/344. He was again put to manual labour ‘with pick and shovel’, and was here for six months.
The POWs at Peischrechen (mainly British and Canadian) were mostly employed in railway construction and repair, including excavation work for bridges and tunnels, laying new track and switches, unloading cement and gravel for making concrete, laying telegraph lines, and building air raid shelters. They had very little machinery, almost all the work being done manually.
They were, no doubt, aware that they were next door to another forced labour camp, where conditions were even worse – a concentration camp for Jewish men, many of whom would eventually be sent to the gas chambers of Auschwitz.
THE LONG MARCH
As the Russians advanced on eastern Germany, like Sidney Waterfall, Frank Hill also found himself on the notorious ‘Long March’ (also sometimes known as the ‘Death March’, although far more died on the separate ‘Death Marches’ endured by Jewish prisoners).
In January 1945 about 30,000 POWs from many camps across Poland, Czechoslovakia and eastern Germany, including Peiskretcham, were force-marched into western Germany, leaving the sick and disabled behind. A few of the luckier groups were sent part of the way by train. There were several different routes taken as the POWs were split into groups, each of 100 to 300 POWs. The routes were not direct, often zig-zagging or even going round in circles in places, in order to avoid Allied forces.
Already weakened by living conditions in the POW camps, and lacking medical supplies, or even adequate clothing for the severest winter recorded in the 20th Century (overnight temperatures went down to -25oC or even lower), thousands died from the cold, typhus (spread by lice), pneumonia, dysentery, exhaustion, or starvation, while survivors suffered malnutrition and frostbite (sometimes necessitating amputations in the field, despite shortage of medical supplies). In addition there was always the danger of coming under fire from Allied planes who mistook the marchers for retreating German troops.
Sometimes treated with hostility by German civilians, many accounts also record kindness from others, who threw food and clothing to them as they passed. German people sometimes even joined the marches through fear of Russian occupation of their towns and villages.
Frank Hill later told the ‘Craven Herald’ newspaper that Red Cross motor vans from Geneva supplied them with food during the march, otherwise they would all have starved to death. But care had to be taken to only eat small portions at a time, as the men’s weakened stomachs were often unable to cope with eating the food which was so much richer than what they were used to in the POW camps.[[6]]
Experiences varied according to the character of the German guards – some of whom were extremely harsh, while others were more lenient (such as allowing POWs to obtain waggons to ride on, or to forage for food). Those who could not continue were often shot, or at the very least, abandoned on the way. It was an arduous shuffling walk rather than a march, as they trudged an average of 20 to 30 miles a day through deep snow, resting in factories, churches, barns, deserted buildings, or without any shelter at all. The longest marches were over a thousand kilometres long, and took up to 4 months to complete. Those starting out from Peiskretcham (now Pyskowice) on Jan. 22, 1945, took 100 days to cover over 620 miles.
As one of 500 men taken out from Peiskretcham work camp, Canadian soldier, Vern Richardson of the Calgary Tank Regiment, later described his experience, typical of the Long March:
“Jan. 22, 1945: Death march starts … Could hear guns all the way. Russians getting closer. High road in panic with civilians and German army in white clad uniforms driving white troop carriers. Along the way prisoners saw broken carts, dead horses, discarded equipment, a Jew in his striped uniform and a dead Russian. During the first few days many German front line troops seen in the towns passed through, waiting for action.
Jan. 23, 1945: … Left at midnight in bitter cold and marched till 6 a.m. Had to pause because of large column of Russians ahead. Leather shoes were frozen stiff, many frostbitten feet that had to be amputated later in the march. … Columns of Russians pass thru, poorly shaved and unwashed faces, begging for smokes and food. Also many dead Russians along the roadside, many shot. Wasn’t clear whether more dead Russians or Jews. These dead were horrible sights, bloody and gory, most shot, some beaten to death with rifle butts. Jews had their throats slit…
Jan. 24, 1945: … in wet socks and frozen boots, passing dead horses and men…
Jan. 29, 1945: Because of horrible winter conditions, pulling a sleigh with 8 men becomes impossible so they discard sleigh and begin packing their belongings. Very hard task! …
Feb. 13, 1945: … Many dead the following morning and many more the following day on the road. Here you would also see all prisoners darting thru open doors and windows to fight over bread and cakes. Hunger was endemic. Because of this Germans decided marches would now go around large towns instead of through them…
March 19, 1945: … No bread to march on, only German coffee, a few row spuds and turnips for breakfast. At mid-morning march stopped and prisoners grouped into commandos according to race.
March 20 to 23, 1945: … Hunger drove them to pilfer many spuds and that’s all they ate for days, then 8 eggs and a hen, then 8 more hens. Some of the guys worked for local farmers in return for food while here…
April 20 to 26, 1945: .. saw many dead Jews in the ditches and many more of them in their thin, striped uniforms, sunken eyed and barefooted…
April 29/30, 1945: Yanks very close and their artillery falling on all sides of prisoners. Marched all night…” [[7]]
MOOSBURG (Stalag 7A)
At journey’s end, the POWs were distributed between several different camps within western Germany.
It is not clear from the newspaper accounts, or his POW war record, which particular camp Frank Hill was finally sent to, but it is most probable he was on the “Southern route”, from the camps at and around Stalag VIII-B, through Czechoslovakia, towards Stalag XIII-D at Nuremberg, and then onto Stalag VII-A at Moosburg, in Bavaria.
This seems highly likely as the date of his liberation by American troops (recorded by the ‘Craven Herald’ newspaper as 29th April) suggests he had indeed ended up back at Moosburg, near Munich, where he had first been sent a year previously.
This 86-acre camp had been used throughout the war as a transit camp to process newly captured POWs, and by April 1945 was one of the largest camps run by the Germans, with over 76,000 prisoners interned there, plus another 40,000 in nearby labour camps (working in factories, on repairing railways, or in agriculture). Frank was just one of many more who were force-marched there between January and April to escape the Russan advance, swelling the number at Moosburg to about 100,000.
LIBERATION
Luckily for Frank, about a fortnight after his arrival this was one of the first major POW camps to be freed by Allied forces.
On April 29, 1945, the U.S. 14th Armored Division of General George Patton’s Third Army captured the camp after a short battle with German forces. The American tanks rolled into Moosburg to find the camp severely overcrowded, with prisoners of multiple nationalities held in worsening conditions due to months of inadequate rations and medical supplies.
OPERATION EXODUS
Over April and May 1945 there was a huge operation by the Allied Air Forces, named ‘Operation Exodus’ to repatriate POWs. The RAF flew back 354,000 British ex-POWs in 443 re-purposed Lancaster bombers – each to carry 24 men plus the crew on each flight. At the height of the operation, the repatriation aircraft were arriving in Europe at a rate of 16 per hour, bringing more than 1,000 people a day into British receiving camps.
By the end of the operation Allied forces had brought home a total of over 354,000 ex-prisoners.
BACK HOME IN EMBSAY
After his release Frank took the most of the short leave granted to him by the army, to come home to his parents and marry his sweetheart, Dorothy Dowbiggin (1922-2014), of Bank Foot, Eastby. Dorothy, an auxiliary nurse, was also member of St. Mary’s Church choir, and a member of the Girls’ Friendly Society.
“The service was conducted by the Rev. A.W. Bamford Jones (Vicar). At the organ was Miss M. Earnshaw and she played the “Bridal March” from Lohengrin”, and the “Wedding March”. The hymns “Lead O Heavenly Father” and “O perfect love” were sung. Given away by her father, the bride wore a white dress with lace veil surmounted with a cornet of orange blossom. Her bouquet was of red carnations. The bridesmaids were Misses Mary and Jean Hill (sisters of the bridegroom), and they wore dresses of turquoise blue and held sprays of pink carnations. The best man was Mr. Kenneth Ellis, and the groomsmen Messrs. Allan Waite, of Embsay, and Jack [?Hoon], of Airton. There was a reception at Sunny Bank, Eastby, and the honeymoon will be spent on the West Coast. Relatives and friends were entertained in the evening to a dance in the Village Institute, music being provided by Mr. Bee’s Band, with Mr. Allen Waite as M.C.“
[Craven Herald and Pioneer – 15th June 1945]
For many years, the couple lived at 32, Barden Road, and later moved to Embsay to live at 2, Dalacres Crescent. Frank died at Embsay in 2005, and Dorothy in 2014.
Next two illustrations:
Frank Hill’s replies to questionnaire from the War office on his POW experience (National Archives – War Office POW Records, WO 416/176 / 306; POW No. 2015577)
Jane Lunnon, Embsay-with-Eastby Historical Research Group
Any further information or memories of Frank Hill would be greatly appreciated.
Sources:
AUTHOR UN-NAMED – “Taking the Long Way Home; The Lamsdorf Long March” (ArcGIS Story Maps : https://www.lamsdorflongmarch.com/ )
BAUER, Karl A. – “Alt-Moosburg Stalag” (https://www.alt-moosburg.de/ )
BRITISH NEWSPAPER ARCHIVE
“CRAVEN HERALD AND PIONEER” newspaper archives
HICKMAN, Mark – “The Pegasus Archive ; Prisoners of War in World War Two – Red Cross Reports.” (2002: https://www.pegasusarchive.org/)
IMPERIAL WAR MUSEUM – “Lawrence William Arthur Photograph Collection” (https://www.iwm.org.uk/collections/)
INTERNATIONAL BOMBER COMMAND CENTRE DIGITAL ARCHIVE – “Contents of America Red Cross parcel and rations on the Long March” (IBCC Digital Archive, accessed May 5, 2025; https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/collections/document/52725)
MOOSBURG CITIZEN NETWORK – “Moosburg Online: POW camp Stalag VII A” (https://www.moosburg.org/info/stalag/indeng.html)
NATIONAL ARCHIVES UK – “War Office POW Records” (WO 416/176 / 306; POW No. 2015577)
NATIONAL MUSEUM OF THE UNITED STATES ARMY – “The 14th Armored Division and the Liberation of Stalag VIIA” (The Army Historical Foundation: https://armyhistory.org/the-14th-armored-division-and-the-liberation-of-stalag-viia/ )
RICHARDSON, Vern – “Dieppe Stalag VIIIB/344 – Death March”
(https://www.canadianbattlefieldtours.ca/wp-content/uploads/2011/10/Dieppe-Stalag-V111B )
STALAG MOOSBURG e.V. ASSOCIATION – “Kriegsgefangenenlager Stalag VII A – Stalag Moosburg”
(https://stalag-moosburg.de/en/geschichte/kriegsgefangenenlager/ )
STALAG MOOSBURG e.V. ASSOCIATION – “Playlist of YouTube Videos relating to Moosburg Stalag VIIA”
(https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL8Kv6sMEetSnkjOG8WXeW7sh1wD21iUIB )
[1] Luftwaffenfuhrungsstab Ic HQ – “Report on Economic Intelligence of Great Britain, obtained by interrogation of Army PW, August 1944” (German report on Stalag 7A obtained by the Red Cross, 1945)
[2] Mark Hickman – “The Pegasus Archive ; Prisoners of War in World War Two (2002) : Prisoner of War Camps – Red Cross Reports, German delegation to Stalag VII A, 21st April 1944.” (Translated by the London Delegation of the International Red Cross Committee)
[3] Sidney Waterfall, of Embsay, a sapper in the Royal Engineers, was at Lamsdorf from Autumn 1941 to June 1944, before was he moved to the hospital camp at Tost to work as an orderly and surgical assistant. Whether the two men were aware of each other’s presence in the camp is unknown.
[4] Mark Hickman, op.cit. “German delegation to Stalag VIIIB, 4th May, 1944”
[5] National Archives UK – War Office POW records (WO 416/176 / 306; POW No. 2015577. [Frank Hill of Eastby is not to be confused with Private 5253649, who enlisted into Royal Engineers in 1940, transferred to Worcestershire Regt., and was captured Feb. 1944.]
[6] The ‘Craven Herald’(25th May 1945) mistakenly claimed that Frank Hill was on the forced march in November 1944, but it is clear from his POW War Office record that he was still at Peiskretcham until January 1945, which is the generally accepted start date of the Long March in histories of the War.
[7] Vern Richardson – “Dieppe Stalag VIIIB/344 – Death March” (https://www.canadianbattlefieldtours.ca/wp-content/uploads/2011/10/Dieppe-Stalag-V111B.pdf)
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