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- Zerbst POW Camp during the Great War -
Great War>Prisoners of War
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World War 1 One ww1 wwII greatwar great 1914 1918 first battalion regiment
Zerbst POW Camp
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Want to know more about Zerbst POW Camp?
There are:-1 items tagged Zerbst POW Camp available in our Library
These include information on officers, regimental histories, letters, diary entries, personal accounts and information about actions during the Great War.
Those known to have been held in
Zerbst POW Camp
during the Great War 1914-1918.
- Coxhead Edward Stuart. Pte. Bedfordshire Regiment
- Davies Robert. Pte. Loyal North Lancashire Regiment
- Holleran Robert. L/Cpl. Cheshire Regiment
- Westwood Edward James. Rflmn. London Regiment
All names on this list have been submitted by relatives, friends, neighbours and others who wish to remember them, if you have any names to add or any recollections or photos of those listed, please. Add a Name to this List
Records from Zerbst POW Camp other sources.
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Pte. Edward Stuart Coxhead 2nd Battalion, C Company Bedfordshire Regiment
Edward Coxhead enlisted on the 30th of October 1916 in Preston, Lancashire. He was assigned to the 2nd Bedfordshire Regiment. On the 22nd March 1918 he was wounded in combat (if my research is correct) there is a record of the engagement in the battalion war diary.According to my great granddad, Ted was rescued from being shot by a German soldier after they came across him on the battlefield. He had his left leg amputated at the thigh and walked using a prosthetic leg until his death in 1971. On 31th of August 1918 Edward sent a postcard to his wife in England from Zerbst POW camp. He was discharged on 28th of February 1919.
Rflmn. Edward James Westwood 1/17th Battalion London Regiment
Rifleman E.J. Westwood, my mother's father, was sent to France in October 1915, he joined his Battalion in the Loos sector. He served with the Battalion until 22nd of March 1918. The battalion was part of the 140th Infantry Brigade of the 47th (London) Division, Third Army.On the 21st of March 1918, the Battalion was serving in the front line near Villiers Plouich, a village in the Flesquieres salient first great 1918 Offensive, codenamed Operation Michael, against the British 3rd and 5th Armies. The battle began with an intense 5 hour artillery bombardment from 10,000 guns and mortars, which fired 1.2 million shells during that period using a mixture of High Explosive and Gas shells.
The weather over the sector was still and foggy, the smoke, fumes and gas from the shells combined with the fog to limit visibility to almost zero, this greatly favoured the attacking German Storm Troops, who succeeded in breaking the British lines in many areas.
The 1/17th Londons and neighbouring battalions were forced to retreat after stiff resistance, to a defensive position about 5 kilometres to the SW at Metz-en-Couture. Here they suffered a heavy gas bombardment and forced to retreat again.
The German P.O.W records show that they captured a wounded Rifleman Westwood in Metz, he was gassed and had a head wound and was taken to a German Field Hospital. He was later sent to the Zerbst P.O.W Camp in Saxony-Anhalt in NE Germany. This camp had 100000 registered prisoners but only held 15000 prisoners, those not in the camp worked in factories and on the land, my grandfather worked the rest of 1918 on a German farm. He was repatriated in early 1919 under the Danish Scheme. He lived until 1955 having experienced and survived 29 months on the western front only to lose two sons killed on active service in WW2
V. Hall
Pte. Robert Davies 1st Btn. Loyal North Lancashire Regiment
I don't know a lot about my great grandad Robert Davies's experience of war - he never spoke about it. He joined the army originally in 1896 and attested for the militia on 14th April 1896. He enlisted at Warrington Barracks and was assigned Service No. 4662 and posted to the South Lancashire Regiment. Then he signed up for the regular army and was posted to the 2nd Btn. Loyal North Lancashire Regiment with Service No. 5643.He spent the first two years on home duty in England, then in 1899 at the British Garrison in Malta. He attended an instruction course and was assigned to the 17th mounted infantry section. He was stationed around Malta, Gibraltar and Crete. In 1904 he went to South Africa. He was now married with children and living at 19 Hughes Street, Liverpool and working as a dock labourer.
He re-enlisted in 1914 at Seaforth Barracks and was given Service No. 3689 and posted to the 3rd Btn. Loyal North Lancashire Regiment (his old regiment). He was reposted to the 1st Btn. and embarked for Le Havre and went to Flanders. He then went to Ypres and Givenchy. He was reported missing in December 1914. But it was not until 1915 that his family learned that he was a prisoner of war at Wittenberg. He was transferred to Zerbst in July 1917, but I don't think it was much before 1920 that he saw home again.
He suffered from very bad shell shock and had really bad shakes. He came back very thin and the family said he wasn't the same man. He never spoke about his experiences. He never claimed his medals. I think it must have been very traumatic for him.
L/Cpl. Robert Holleran 15th Btn. Cheshire Regiment
My Grandfather Robert Holleran served in the 15th Battalion, Cheshire Regiment in World War 0ne. He was taken prisoner on 24th March 1918 at Mericourt and was imprisoned at Zerbst POW camp in Saxony Germany. He survived the war and died in 1954.Jeff Stevens
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