Roll Call
Roll Call |
|
The following pages contain the names of those men who I know passed through Stalag 18A. As time goes on I will try to add to the list. They all deserve to be remembered.
To search for a particular Surname, click on the appropriate letter below.
MOC = Man of Confidence (Vertrauensmann) Every Work Camp had a POW who was elected or chosen to act as liaison between the POWs and the Camp Authorities. He was often the senior rank in the camp but not always. The ability to speak passable German was often a greater asset. The Man of Confidence would pass on complaints from the POWs and often negotiate work schedules. He would be interviewed by the Red Cross Delegate when the camp was inspected.
Names
Most of the POW names and details come from two reference
books published by J.B. Hayward & Son. These are:
Prisoners of War British Army 1939 - 1945 ISBN 0903754614
Prisoners of War Armies and Other Land Forces of The British Empire 1939 - 1945
ISBN 0903754630
The books list the Name, Rank, Unit, Army Number, POW Number and Stalag of every
Army POW held in German hands as of March 1945.
Another useful source of information on Australian POWs is the
Melbourne University Archive.
(http://gallery.its.unimelb.edu.au/umblumaic/imu.php?request=search)
The other sources of names are those people who have contacted me, usually with
information about a relative. This has led to some POWs appearing in the Roll
Call at least twice. For instance C.F. Jones, Tpr, RAC may also be in the Roll
Call as Charlie Jones. (He isn't.)
Rank and Unit On each page of the Roll Call are buttons which lead you to pages where my abbreviations for Rank and Unit are usually explained. Some of the Units can be very large groups. For instance, the Royal Armoured Corps includes several regiments, each with a number of battalions, e.g. 3 RTR = 3rd Battalion, Royal Tank Regiment.
POW = Prisoner of War Number The POW numbers are those numbers
given to individual POWs by the German authorities as they entered a Stalag. In
Stalag 18A, they fall into two main groups. The first group mainly includes
those POWs taken prisoner in Greece and Crete in 1941. These are 4-figure
numbers. (Obviously the numbers below 1000 are 2 or 3-figure.) I say mainly,
because a lot of these numbers are duplicated, i.e. two different POWs have the
same number. For example, A.G. Bell and K.A. Johnson are both number 3796. As
yet, I have not discovered the reason for this duplication, but the most likely
explanation is that the POWs separated between Stalag 18A and Stalag 18D in 1941
were issued with the same set of POW numbers. There is some
evidence to suggest that when a POW was transferred to another Stalag, his
number was re-issued.
The other group of numbers are 5-figure numbers which usually start with 39---.
These numbers seem to have been allocated to POWs transferred from Italy but,
again, I can't be certain about this.
Capt'd = Captured Wherever possible, I have indicated where a soldier was taken prisoner. The most likely location was Greece or Crete in 1941. The other locations included North Africa, Sicily and Italy. These POWs would have been held in Italian POW Camps until late 1943 when the Italians ceased hostilities. At this point the Germans took over control of these camps and transferred the POWs to Stalags in Austria and Germany.
Transf'd = Transferred Many POWs were transferred to other Stalags for a variety of reasons. For example, about 400 NCOs held in Stalag 18A refused to work (as was their right under the Geneva Convention). They were eventually transferred to Stalag 18A/Z at Spittal an der Drau and then to Stalag 383 at Hohenfels.
Repat'd = Repatriated Any POW suffering from wounds or serious illness was eligible for repatriation back to his home country. The repatriation process was long and arduous involving several interviews and medical examinations and many POWs were turned down.
Esc'd = Escaped Escapes became more frequent and successful in late 1944 and early 1945. Most successful escapes were via Yugoslavia and involved the help of the Yugoslav Partisans.
Stalag This stands for Stammlager and indicates a POW camp for enlisted men (not officers). Other camp designations were Oflag (Officers), Marlag (Naval), Stalag Luft (Airmen).
18A, 18A/Z, 18B, 18D, 18C These are all Stalags in Military
District (Wehrkreis) 18 which included most of Austria. They were at the
following locations:
Stalag 18A: Wolfsberg
Stalag 18A/Z: Spittal an der Drau (This was originally designated Stalag 18B.
The Z stands for Zweilager or No. 2 Camp.)
Stalag 18B: There was a camp with this designation at Spittal an der Drau and at
Wagna.
Stalag 18C: Markt Pongau (now called St Johann im Pongau)
Stalag 18D: Marburg (now called Maribor in Slovenia)
