24. WW1 – Prisoners of War
WW1- Prisoners of War
Saluting their Service - Grahame Old
The First World War 1914-1918
The First World War, also known as the Great War, was to be a terrible experience for the newly federated nation of Australia. The Western Front was the Killing Field of the First World War. Australian soldiers underwent their baptism of fire at Fromelles in July 1916 in a battle of unspeakable horror Australia experienced its worst day in history with 5,533 casualties (including 2000 dead) in just 24 hours. Just days later Australia suffered a further 23,000 casualties (7,000 killed) at Pozieres. Worse was to come, in April 1917 at Bullecourt the loss of lives was unbearable, 10,000 Australians killed in two major battles.
From a population of just 4.9 million 416,809 Australians volunteered, more than 60,000 died, 152,000 were wounded and around 4,100 were taken prisoner in the so called ‘War to end all Wars’. Included in these numbers were 563 Collie Boys, 133 were killed in action and 17 were taken prisoner.
Prisoners of War (POWs)
Around 4100 Australian servicemen were captured as prisoners of war (POWs) by German or Ottoman forces during the war. The Hague Convention of 1907 protected the officers, but servicemen of other ranks could be used as labour by their captors. The way Allied POWs were treated varied over time and depending on where they were imprisoned. Of the 397 Australians who died in captivity, around 288 died from wounds they had received during action.
Prisoners of the Ottoman Turks
Around 230 Australians became prisoners of the Ottoman Turks in the Middle East. Soldiers were captured on Gallipoli and in Sinai-Palestine. Sailors from the submarine AE2 were captured in the Sea of Marmara. Australian airmen, members of the “Half-Flight” of the Australian Flying Corps, were captured in Mesopotamia (now Iraq). The POWs suffered more from neglect than deliberate ill-treatment. Food was poor, medical care primitive, and all experienced casual brutality. Many were put to work on the Taurus Mountains railway in southern Turkey. Around one in four died in captivity.
The first four Australians captured in World War I were taken when they landed on the Gallipoli peninsula on 25 April 1915. By the time the AIF was evacuated from Gallipoli in December 1915, the Turks had captured a further 70 Australians, and around 120 soldiers were taken prisoner before the war ended in Palestine.
The Australian Submarine, AE2, was sunk in the Sea of Marmara on 30 April 1915. The 32 man crew, (including one Collie Boy) were forced to abandon ship, and all were taken prisoner. The crew of the AE2 were put to work on building the railway in the Taurus Mountains, Turkey. Suffering from disease and starvation, four died in captivity.
When most Australians were engaged on Gallipoli, the Australian Flying Corps, Mesopotamia Half Flight, helped the British and Indian forces capture Ottoman territory in modern-day Iraq. After the fall of Kut-al-Amara, around 13,000 Allied troops were captured on 29 April 1916, including nine Australian air mechanics from the Half Flight. The Turks marched their prisoners over 1200km across desert country to Aleppo in modern-day Syria, many died on the march. The POWs then also worked on the railway in the Taurus Mountains. Only two of the nine Australian mechanics from the Half Flight survived their captivity.
Prisoners of the Germans
The Germans captured 3853 Australians in the fighting on the Western Front. The largest numbers were captured at Fromelles in July 1916 (470), Bullecourt in April 1917 (1170) and Dernancourt in April 1918 (400 prisoners). The Germans also captured 21 pilots from the Australian Flying Corps when planes crashed behind enemy lines. Although these Australian prisoners survived in proportionally higher numbers than fellow Australian POWs in Ottoman camps, their experience was still a difficult one. Conditions were crowded (the Germans held over five million Allied POWs during the war), and food supplies were often disrupted, particularly during the Allied blockade of 1917-1918, hunger was a never ending problem for the POWs. Although Officers were protected many other rank servicemen were made to work for the Germans in war-related capacities.
The Red Cross
The nature of War on the Western Front left many soldiers missing after battle. Some were killed in action and their bodies never found (no known grave), some wounded laying in ‘No Man’s Land’, some wounded carried by stretcher bearers to the Regimental Aid Post and many others taken prisoner by the Germans. In the aftermath of battle, confusion reigned supreme. Battalions would conduct a roll call and then an investigation to determine the fate of missing soldiers. Evidence from fellow soldiers fighting alongside their missing mates would be taken and the missing soldiers would then be listed as either killed in action, or missing in action.
All countries holding POWs would provide lists of servicemen held to the International Red Cross, a file was then raised on each POW and information shared to all Red Cross agencies, both in enemy and allied countries. The Prisoner of War Department of the Australian Red Cross Society was established in July 1916 a primary role being to trace POWs, missing and wounded soldiers and to provide information to their families. The Red Cross also provided food and comfort packages to prisoners in POW camps. It is estimated that around 8 million people, both servicemen and civilians were held in POW camps during WW1.
Collie Boys – Prisoners of War
There were 17 Collie Boys held as POWs during WW1. 16 were captured by the Germans on the Western Front and one sailor, Stoker Charles George Suckling, taken prisoner when the crew of the Australian Submarine AE2 surrendered to the Turks off the coast of Turkey. One Collie Boy was killed whilst being held as a POW of the Germans.
1. 2865 Albert BRAY (Bullecourt).
2. 1230 Peter CAHILL (Fromelles).
3. 2478 Frederick Mitchell CULVERWELL (Bullecourt).
4. 4547 Vernon Daniel FALLON (Bullecourt).
5. 615 George GALE (Pozieres).
6. 3477 Arthur HICKS (Bullecourt).
7. 3248 Richard Henry HICKSON (Fromelles).
8. 781 Tom JENKINS (Bullecourt).
9. 6284 James Ernest Daniel KERR (Bullecourt).
10. 5138 Alexander Chrystal MALCOLM (Moquet Farm).
11. 3518 Thomas Cecil MARSH (Bullecourt).
12. 6297 Joseph MILLER (Bullecourt).
13. 2910 Roy Francis MITCHELL (Pozieres).
14. 5168 Stephen Charles Leonard NOELL (Moquet Farm).
15. 2148 Charles George SUCKLING (Turkey).
16. 539 Ernest Allen TRIGWELL (Bullecourt).
17. 2247 Stuart Allan WEBB (Cambrai).
Example Red Cross Reports (File Extracts) on Collie Boys
Examples of the Red Cross reports on some of the Collie Boys are shown below;
GALE: 11/12/1916- ” Prisoner of War- Transferred to England. Admitted Millbank Military Hospital 8/12/1916. Gassed- progressing splendidly. Gained 2 Stone 6 lbs in 2 Months since receiving Red Cross Parcels “.
HICKS: 22/06/1917- London- Statement by Witness Pte Stewart 6214 16th Battalion. (Escaped Prisoner of War)- ” Missing- 11/04/1817- I am certain he is a Prisoner of War. Yorkie Hicks was well and with the working party when we left Marquion. We called him Yorkie because he originally came from Yorkshire though he had been some time in Collie W. Australia “.
JENKINS: 22/06/1917- Statement from Witness Pte STEWART 6214 16th Battalion (Escaped Prisoner of War) – ”Missing 11/04/1917- Chick Jenkins is a Prisoner of War. He comes from Collie where he lived with people called Anderson. I know his number 781. We left him well at Lille“.
MILLER: Joseph MILLER was born in County Wexford Ireland in 1884. Married with two young children he was working as a Farm Hand on ‘Huntley Farm’ Collie when he enlisted in 1915. He was reported as missing in action 11 April 1917 Bullecourt France, later changed to POW. Joseph Miller was killed whilst a Prisoner of War of Germany on 07 July 1917 age 30 yrs. The official German report dated 09/10/17 states; shot and killed whilst attempting to escape. An extract from the German Court of Enquiry follows; ‘The English Prisoner of War No. 6297, Joseph Miller escaped from the prison Camp at Saint Saulve in the night from 6-7 July 1917, and was shot by the guard in his flight because he did not obey the command to halt’. Red Cross reports dispute the German report of attempting to escape. There is no doubt that Miller was returning into the camp after searching for food on the outside of the wall due to his starved condition. The following extract from a statement by 2370 L/CPL TOMLEY 16th Battalion A.I.F is believed to be the most accurate description of MILLER’S death-”He was in a starved condition and broke out of the camp to get potatoes from a neighboring garden. It was on his return to camp that he was shot through the heart by a sentry from a distance of a few yards at 11.00 pm”
SUCKLING: Collie Boy Charles George Suckling, age 19, enlisted into the Royal Australian Navy in 1912 for a five year service period. In February 1915, Charles found himself in the Australian Submarine AE2 off the coast of Gallipoli. On the 30th of April the AE2 was struck by a torpedo and was unable to dive, this spelt the end. The crew were forced to abandon ship which was then scuttled by her officers to prevent the submarine falling into enemy hands. The crew spent the remainder of the war as prisoners of the Turks. The last of the AE2 men, Stoker Charles Suckling, who died in 1983, recalled: “I don’t think if we had known what was ahead of us, that one of us would have left the boat.”
Read the full story of the AE2 and Charles Suckling at Short Stories WW1 part 3-14 (HMA Submarine AE2)
Footnote: A Mothers Search
David Curran, an Irish-born Melbourne carpenter, was an air mechanic in the Australian Flying Corps. Captured at Kut in April 1916, he survived the nightmare desert march into Turkey but died what his mates described as “a horrible death” as a prisoner in June 1917. His mother in Ireland had desperately but vainly written to the Red Cross in search of him. At last told that he was dead, she sent this card to friends and family to remember her son, “in a grave we may never see”.