Prisoners Of War in Sheffield

[Guest dex]

I recently posted on another site about the Italian POW`s in and around Parson Cross during WW2. It got a good response with various interesting tales about them laying the roads in the area and making wooden toys in exchange for food amongst the replies. Has anyone got recollections of them and more importantly have your parents or yourselves got any old photos of them working in the area.

[DaveH]

I recently posted on another site about the Italian POW`s in and around Parson Cross during WW2. It got a good response with various interesting tales about them laying the roads in the area and making wooden toys in exchange for food amongst the replies. Has anyone got recollections of them and more importantly have your parents or yourselves got any old photos of them working in the area.

As I understand it most of the POW's held in the Sheffield area were Italian and as "low risk" prisoners they were detailed to undertake work in the local area. Some of them after the war doing work in 1945 - 47 before being repatriated. A few of them may even have chosen to stay in this area after their release.

In the thread on the Sheffield gale 1962 I have referred to the asbestos panel prefabricated housing which was so badly damaged in this storm. Most of these houses were built in 1946 by Italian prisoners of war based in this area. This was emergency housing after the war to provide homes for those displaced or bombed out of their previous home during the war. This housing was classed as temporary and was intended to last no more than 10 years, in the event the prefabs that survived the 1962 storm actually lasted just over 20 years. At the time of building the dangers of asbestos were not well known so it makes you wonder how many Italians taken on to do this work later suffered from the now well documented effects of handling this material as it would not just have been a job of assembling the building, someone would have to make the prefabricated panels and cut them to size. I can imagine this would have created a lot of dangerous asbestos dust.

[RichardB]

Most interesting, looking forward to hearing more.

The other site has a name I'm sure; we welcome and respect them; their data and postings mentioning their name; as we hope they reference/link to us and our findings/blatherings on. (This is a RichardB view, hopefully other Admins share this view).

I don't personally visit what is often called "The other place" but that is because I'm kept overly busy here there are only so many hours in the day, I hope we can post links to "them" and "them" to "us" - we are all on the same side, I just liked the grey background here.

[HughW]

One of the marriages we have transcribed from St Mary's, Walkley has a groom with a German name whose address is listed in the register as:

No.17 Prisoner of War Camp Lodge Moor Sheffield

This was in 1948. This man was 21 and a shoe maker by trade. (I would prefer not to give his name as he may still be around).

Hugh

[dunsbyowl1867]

I recently posted on another site about the Italian POW`s in and around Parson Cross during WW2. It got a good response with various interesting tales about them laying the roads in the area and making wooden toys in exchange for food amongst the replies. Has anyone got recollections of them and more importantly have your parents or yourselves got any old photos of them working in the area.

There are a few more from the 1st world war on picture sheffield under 'Prisoners of War'

here is a photo - the POWs had other uses

http://www.picturesheffield.com/cgi-bin/pi...ff.refno=t03510

[DaveH]

One of the marriages we have transcribed from St Mary's, Walkley has a groom with a German name whose address is listed in the register as:

No.17 Prisoner of War Camp Lodge Moor Sheffield

This was in 1948. This man was 21 and a shoe maker by trade. (I would prefer not to give his name as he may still be around).

Hugh

Although the original post did mention work in Parsons Cross I seem to remember being told that the POW camp was at Lodge Moor where it was well isolated (like the isolation hospital up there) and this would presumably discourage "escapes" by prisoners who perhaps could not be trusted out like those in the work parties who were, as stated previously mainly Italian rather than German.

Being a foreign prisoner out in the local commutity doing a useful job would bring them into contact with local people. Meeting and marrying a local girl would perhaps be one reason for not wanting to return home to Italy or Germany after the war, and of course many "displaced persons and refugees" of all nationalities were made very welcome here after the hostilities had ended.

[Guest bus man]

Although the original post did mention work in Parsons Cross I seem to remember being told that the POW camp was at Lodge Moor where it was well isolated (like the isolation hospital up there) and this would presumably discourage "escapes" by prisoners who perhaps could not be trusted out like those in the work parties who were, as stated previously mainly Italian rather than German.

Being a foreign prisoner out in the local commutity doing a useful job would bring them into contact with local people. Meeting and marrying a local girl would perhaps be one reason for not wanting to return home to Italy or Germany after the war, and of course many "displaced persons and refugees" of all nationalities were made very welcome here after the hostilities had ended.

The POW camp was indeed at Lodge Moor on what is now the gypsy camp

[Guest plain talker]

I was told by my elderly neighbour, when I had a property in Stocksbridge that a lot of the properties on my estate were built using POW labour.

[mike142sl]

The POW camp was indeed at Lodge Moor on what is now the gypsy camp

The Gypsy camp is only a small corner of the old POW camp, which was originally a regular camp belonging to something like the Yorkshire Battalion - I'm sure others can putthis right. The Sheffield Pals stayed here whilst training before being sent out to be slaughtered.

There were something like 200 huts on the site, the bases can still be found and there are remains of old baths in there which have now been deliberatley cracked to prevent people drowning in them.

It's an interesting place to go, the old wall which runs along Redmires Rd (opp Three Merry Lads) is interesting with signs of old doors and windows. And one of the huts still exists, having being the original St Luke's Church at Lodge Moor in which I was Christened, It is now a farmers store below the hairpin bend of Roper Hill not far from its original location.

[Guest Nimrod]

I did hear that Potter Hill camp at Highgreen had been used to house Italian prisoners. Prior to that it had been used to billet US servicemen prior to D Day.

[Bayleaf]

The camp at Lodge Moor housed German prisoners, some of them hardened Nazis. Most of the PoW's who worked around Sheffield were Italians.

The hut remains in the plantation are the former PoW camp, which was built on the parade ground of the WW1 camp which was towards the Redmires end of the site. (See photo below, taken from the bend on Roper Hill.).

The wall along the road opposite the Three Merry Lads dates from the earlier racecourse which was on the site. There's a similar stretch on the other side near the bottom of Roper Hill, near the site of the Racecourse farm.

[mike142sl]

That's the first I've heard the Lodge Moor camp was used for German POWs, I've always been led to believe it was used for Italians.

The picture is also very interesting, prime for a bit of Now & Then treatment.

[Bayleaf]

That's the first I've heard the Lodge Moor camp was used for German POWs, I've always been led to believe it was used for Italians.

The picture is also very interesting, prime for a bit of Now & Then treatment.

Oops! You're right Mike! My apologies. Now where did I get that from? I'll have to dig back through my books. I may be gone some time....

[Bayleaf]

I was getting quite worried there for a minute, thought perhaps I was hallucinating! It looks as if we are both right Mike. There's a list of camps which says the prisoners were Italians, but it seems there were both Italians and Germans there, though whether at the same time I don't know. Perhaps there were Italians until the Italian surrender, then they were moved and replaced by German PoW's? There are recollections on the other forum about Italians in a camp near Chapeltown, which doesn't appear on the list.

The reason I thought there were Germans there was a recollection of this story (scroll down to the 2nd paragraph)

http://www.powcamp.fsnet.co.uk/German_And_...eat_Britain.htm.

re the escapees, I read recently that they were recaptured in a barn by the local policeman from Hathersage. He and the farmer, armed with his shotgun, took them down to the police station. When the prisoners had been collected by the military, the pc then issued the farmer with a summons for not having the correct permit to own his shotgun in wartime!

[Guest stooby]

I was getting quite worried there for a minute, thought perhaps I was hallucinating! It looks as if we are both right Mike. There's a list of camps which says the prisoners were Italians, but it seems there were both Italians and Germans there, though whether at the same time I don't know. Perhaps there were Italians until the Italian surrender, then they were moved and replaced by German PoW's? There are recollections on the other forum about Italians in a camp near Chapeltown, which doesn't appear on the list.

The reason I thought there were Germans there was a recollection of this story (scroll down to the 2nd paragraph)

http://www.powcamp.fsnet.co.uk/German_And_...eat_Britain.htm.

re the escapees, I read recently that they were recaptured in a barn by the local policeman from Hathersage. He and the farmer, armed with his shotgun, took them down to the police station. When the prisoners had been collected by the military, the pc then issued the farmer with a summons for not having the correct permit to own his shotgun in wartime!

One of the England-Australia cricket 'Victory Tests' was played at Bramall Lane in 1945. Italian POWs were employed to give the ground a much-needed tidy-up including repainting railings etc in readiness for the match.

[DaveH]

That's the first I've heard the Lodge Moor camp was used for German POWs, I've always been led to believe it was used for Italians.

The picture is also very interesting, prime for a bit of Now & Then treatment.

In the Eden Camp WW2 museum near Pickering there is a lot of stuff on prisoners of war held in Britain as Eden Camp itself was a wartime POW camp and it is set out in "huts" just as it would have been at the time, much of it original.

I am sure I have read in there that Italian prisoners of war, being essentially men who had been conscripted to fight but didn't really want to, and being men who frequently had imigrant relatives living in Britain or the USA were often very sympathetic towards allied aims and were considered relatively trustworthy, enough so to be "allowed out" to work in the community doing useful jobs and filling the labour gap left by local men who were serving in the forces fighting the war.

The German prisoners though were treated totally differently. Although many of them were probably OK just like their Italian internees alot of them were hardened Nazis and could not be trusted and would certainly try to escape. They would not be "allowed out" to remove this risk and many of them would not accept being in a working party as the work would be seen by them as "conspiring with the enemy2 or "helping the enemy war effort"

I assume that for these reasons the 2 sets of prisoners were in the main kept apart and as far as possible billeted in different camps having different levels of security in place.

[mike142sl]

I had a wander up to Roper Hill this morning and took a picture from the corner.

My attempt of a then and now.

[DaveH]

I had a wander up to Roper Hill this morning and took a picture from the corner.

My attempt of a then and now.

Nice pair of pictures mike142sl

This would look good in the then and now thread

[Bayleaf]

I had a wander up to Roper Hill this morning and took a picture from the corner.

My attempt of a then and now.

Nice picture and an excellent match Mike, a great help in trying to work out just where the camp was!

[mike142sl]

I shall add it to the then and now thread as well.

I tried to get a photo of the old shed that used to be one of those in the 'then' picture, unfortunately the sun was too low and in the wrong place so I will have to wait for another day for that, although you can just see it to the bottom right of the now picture.

Sadly the hut is looking worse for wear and not a pretty sight. I shall also see if I can get some pictures of the bases in the old camp at some point.

[Bayleaf]

Apparently a field next to the camp was used between March and October 1916 as a night landing field by the RFC, more specifically by A Flight of no 33 Squadron flying BE2c aircraft in defence of South Yorkshire's industrial areas against airship attacks. The Squadron was based at Gainsborough.

[Guest dex]

My mum was Italian and I remember during a visit to Rome in 1985, I was talking to my aunties brother who was actually an Italian POW in WW2 in Norwich. He built roads there and from what I can gather he pretty much could go where he wanted around Norwich. I think he was sad when the war ended and he had to go home.

[DaveH]

My mum was Italian and I remember during a visit to Rome in 1985, I was talking to my aunties brother who was actually an Italian POW in WW2 in Norwich. He built roads there and from what I can gather he pretty much could go where he wanted around Norwich. I think he was sad when the war ended and he had to go home.

This seems a familiar story.

Many of the Italian prisoners were ordinary guys who didn't really want to be at war anyway. They were treated well as prisoners and in return did valuable work, many of them having no desire to escape or run away and proving themselves trustworthy they were granted extra priveliges, - going as far as being allowed out of the camp at certain times and to mix freely, without any animosity with our civilian population.

I think many of them were sad when they were repatriated after the war, and I am sure many of them left behind good friends they had made in Britain while they were still technically prisoners of war.

[Guest journostudent]

I had a wander up to Roper Hill this morning and took a picture from the corner.

My attempt of a then and now.

Hi!

I'm a journalism student at the University of Sheffield, and a group of us are doing a story on the Lodge Moor Camp.

If you, or anyone you know, has any stories about the camp and its POWs, please send me an e-mail at:

anisha.sharma10 @ gmail. com

Thanks so much!

Anisha Sharma.

[Bayleaf]

Hi!

I'm a journalism student at the University of Sheffield, and a group of us are doing a story on the Lodge Moor Camp.

If you, or anyone you know, has any stories about the camp and its POWs, please send me an e-mail at:

anisha.sharma10 @ gmail. com

Thanks so much!

Anisha Sharma.

Hi

I've tried your email and it's rejected. I can't contact you via our PM system as you haven't enough posts, so here's the message I tried to send.

I suggest you look at Sheffield Forum.co.uk, as well as on here, there are a number of threads on there about the camp. Look under Redmires as well as Lodge Moor.There is also a Facebook page set up by a community project about the camp with various information, pictures and links. One of the members is in touch with a surviving ex-german PoW.

There are a number of stories worth following up. The camp was used in both World Wars. Graffiti from WW1 included a young german submarine officer called Doenitz, who went on to be the head of state after Hitler's suicide in 1945.

There is also the story of 2 inmates inWW2 who wer executed for the murder of a fellow prisoner they suspected of betraying an escape attempt.

And the story of a successful escape that ended with the arrest of the escapee in hathersage. You'll find al these in the forums.

If I can be of any more help, let me know.

Good luck!

Regards

Peter