POW Escape from Milag and Marlag Nord april 1945

Hi
Can anyone shed any light on this please

According top my dads service record he was a POW at Milarg and Marlag Nord
and Escaped on 16th April 1945. my querie is wasn't that camp liberated before that?
only I cant find anything about an escape! and to be fair his service records don't give any info
a bit vague to say the least. so I'm wondering why it says 'Escaped. should it have read Liberated

My dad was in E Troop 45 RM Commando

any help would be appreciated

This message was edited 1 time. Last update was at 13/04/2016 23:22:34

Hi Steve

There are quite a lot of references online to the camp which, from what I can see was, split into two...one for Merchant Seaman (Milag) and the other (Marlag) for Royal Navy, RAF, and other military prisoners. There are references to the Marlag prisoners being marched away from the camp in April by their guards before liberation to Lubeck on 10 April 1945 , the column being straffed by the RAF with some casualties and escapes.

There is an IWM recording of an interview with a POW (Fred Smith RN) who describes how some of them escaped just before the Americans liberated the camp. The details are on Reel 3. Here is the link: http://www.iwm.org.uk/collections/item/object/80024559

The National Archives have records of Escaped Prisoners. More info is here British Prisoners WW2 and Korean War

and here RM Escape and Evasion Reports

There is IWM footage of the Liberation here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-4B1ZUgSDdE

Pete

I may have some information on this escape. Two Americans, Peter Ortiz and Donald Naughton, were among those that escaped from the column of prisoners when it was strafed. In their separate accounts both men mention they were with a small group, five or six if memory serves, but neither list them by name. Do you have any more information about your father's escape?

Ryan

Sorry Ryan
Don't have any more info. As you can see his Army records don't show much

Regards
Steve