On the 1st April 1945 Austrian Prisoner of War Joseph Kirchdorfer, aged nineteen, and seven others escaped from Camp 18 at Featherstone Park, near Haltwhistle. The daring plot had been planned over months by the eight escapees, but would end swiftly in recapture and death.
Camp 18, Featherstone Park near Haltwhistle was opened in 1944 to house American soldiers arriving as part of the Normandy invasions and later became one of the largest POW camps in Britain, with two hundred huts over four compounds that could house up to four thousand officers and six hundred German orderlies. The camp held a broad range of prisoners from the German Army, Navy, U-boat Officers and Luftwaffe pilots, as well as diplomats and bureaucrats were represented amongst the camps growing population in the mid to late 1940s.
Camp 18 ran programmes of ādenazificationā in the hope that when German POWs returned to Germany they would have been re-educated along democratic lines. POWs were often screened to assess their ideological sympathies. They were then placed into three groups: ‘white’ (anti-Nazi), ‘grey’ (in-between), and ‘black’ (hardline Nazi). āBlack Nazisā were often sent to Camp 18 for re-education. The ādenazificationā programs at the camp were considered to be a huge success and towards the end of the 1940s prisoners were allowed to undertake work in the local community. Maureen Smith remembers German POWs being allowed to attend the village dance on a Saturday night. She recalls one man, āPeter, a German prisoner, [who] used to work on the fields near [their] allotmentā and if it was raining he would sit in their shed and eat his sandwiches. The POWs of Camp 18 also produced their own German newspaper āDie Zeit am Tyneā that was printed on the presses of the the Hexham Courant. The Northumberland Archives hold original copies along with some transcriptions of issues one to six of the newspaper. Alongside the German newspaper and community work, prisoners in the Camp also held stage plays, radio broadcasts and football matches.
Joseph Kirchdorfer, a Luftwaffe pilot, was determined to escape Camp 18. In his memoirs he claims that the escape was born out of a youthful urge for action, rather than any sort of heroics. He had been arrested behind enemy lines in Holland in 1944. He was of special interest to his captors as he carried with him a letter from the worldās first female test pilot, Hanna Reitsch. Soon after arriving at Featherstone Park, Joseph became involved in a daring plot to escape the camp, hijack a plane and return to Germany. The young officer was well aware of the risks involved with an escape attempt; later writing in his memoirs that if the search light was switched on āyou were a dead manā.
In the dead of night, using a thunderstorm for cover, Joseph and seven of his compatriots, dressed in make-shift outfits and using wire cutters fashioned out of a window latch, fled the camp. The men said their goodbyes at the fence and headed in their separate ways. Some of the men attempted to cross the South River Tyne that had become flooded in the thunderstorm. One POW, 24-year-old Karl Kropp, was last seen up to his neck in water, attempting to wade across the flooded river. His body was recovered by John Walton, who was out on a shooting trip, as the waters receded three days later. He was buried in the war graves section of Hexham cemetery, draped in a swastika flag and escorted by six German POWs who saluted as the coffin was lowered into the ground. Kroppās body was disinterred and repatriated to Germany in 1958. Ā Ā
Joseph and two other escapees in his group followed the South Tyne Railway to Alston. The group hid out in a guardsmanās hut during the day and continued their journey as darkness set. The three men travelled 12 miles in one day and made it into Cumbria. Their escape was ended by a local policeman, PC Wilson, who stopped the group and reported them to soldiers. PC Wilson also arrested four of the surviving POWs in Haldonās Mill, outside of Alston. Recaptured and returned to the Camp, Joseph was stripped naked and beaten by guards determined to locate the remaining escapees. After refusing to give up the names and locations of his fellow escapees, guards
Joseph and his fellow POWs escape attempt had ended in catastrophe. All at the men were recaptured and Karl Kropp paid for the attempt with his life.
Thank you to Derek Holcroft for suppling the colour images of a soggy Featherstone and also giving us the original idea for this story.
Hi… walked through the old Camp 18 today. Saw the plaque on the old entrance and amazed to see the concrete slab for the Nissan Huts along with what i thought to be the sewer outlet into the Tyne river…
Just looked at old photos of the camp along with reading your attempted escape…
Thank you…
š
The memorial stone for the camp is a bit misleading. German pows were held at Camp 18 from 1945 to 1948 as stated, BUT the camp was open before this holding Italian pows. It was probably opened in mid-1943. In May 1944 there was an International Red Cross Inspection of the camp when it was listed as an Italian Labour Battalion under the Northern Command area.
š
My father was the Commandant of the camp I used to stay in a Nissan hut in the holidays from boarding school Diana Bartlett then I live in Melbourne Australia now
Thank you very much for your information š
That’s fascinating. My father, Captain Walter Merkel, was Adjutant
Camp Commandant Lieutenant Colonel G McL Bartlett (āBottlesā Bartlett), Royal Artillery, July 1947 ā May 1948.
Not sure what G McL initials stand for.
That’s fascinating. My father, Captain Walter Merkel, was Adjutant
š
Karl Kropp was later re-interred at Cannock Chase German Military Cemetery. The date of death is recorded as 4 April 1945.
Karl Kropp was disinterred in August 1962 by the German War Graves Commission, along with 10 other German PoWs of Featherstone who had been buried in Hexham Cemetery. All of them were re-buried in German Military Cemetery at Cannock Chase .
Cesare Marricci, an Italian, was disinterred in 1958 and buried in Brookwood Cemetery, Woking.
There is an unfinished paragraph in this articleā¦ā¦.āafter refusing to give up the names of his fellow escapees guardsā¦ā¦ā¦.ā What happened?
My father, Capt. Walter Merkel, was Camp Adjutant and spoke often of his time at Featherstone Camp. He had a great deal of respect for many of the PoWs, and formed lasting relationships with a couple of the German officers which continued post War through exchanges of letters. He formed lasting relationships and was proud of these friendships. He could speak a fair amount of German by the end of the War. He encouraged us to show respect first and constantly reminded us that they too were doing their duty, it just wasn’t the same as our own. We have a large collection of amusing greeting cards, painted for him and gently teasing him just prior to his marriage to my mother. They also sent many loving gifts beautifully crafted from wood found nearby. They also knew that he, along with the other leadership team, were all Jewish and proud of to be so. I’ll leave that there ….
Thank you
Dear Mrs. Merkel,
I am the daughter in law of Heinrich Richter (1918-2014), who was in Featherstone POW camp 18 from 1944 till 1948. He was a painter and member of the theatre group. He must have known your father and probably has dedicated him also cards, letters or drawings. I would like to know what you did do with the souvenirs that you have from your father of his time in Featherstone camp? I have here an amount of drawings, portraits, photos, newspaper articles, etc. that my father in law hast collected. My husband Knut Richter has dies 5 years ago, so I feel the duty to bring this collection to a “safe” place like a museum or an archive. As we have no children, I feel the responsibility to occupy myself with this “heritage”.
Maybe you can recommend me an institution which is seriously interested in these documents.
I would be very glad to hear from you and look forward to your answer. My name is a little bit similar to yours! I am Heidrun Merkle (I have kept my girlĀ“s name when I got married with Knut Richter) and I come from South-Germany.
Many greetings!
Heidrun Merkle
Dear Heidrun, I am so very sorry not to have seen this lovely greeting before. How wonderful that you want these documents etc that you have to be taken care of.
We gave our collection of drawings, very funny cartoons with cheeky messages to my father inside, painted cards, and beautiful hand pcarved wooden items (clock, ashtrays, picture frames etc) to The National Archive on the understanding that they would photograph them all and copy the images onto a CD for us to be able to see them. We also asked for notification should they ever be used in an exhibition. They were very happy to agree to those wishes and we were delighted that they would be kept safely. We’ve recently visited Featherstone Park and looked at the Monument, we also spent time at Haltwhistle Library with their wonderful Librarians who have shown an enthusiastic interest in the history of the POW Camp as it was.
I’m very happy to continue to exchange stories with you and to see our shared history. with very best wishes, Karen
My father, Gerhard Barchet, has been a POW for 16 months including all of 1945 in camp 18. He was 26 years old at the time and has attended and brought back written notes on numerous courses ranging from agriculture to animal husbandry to economics. He passed away when I was 6 years old, so I never heard a first hand account.
š
Dear Mrs. Merkel,
I am the daughter in law of Heinrich Richter (1918-2014), who was in Featherstone POW camp 18 from 1944 till 1948. He was a painter and member of the theatre group. He must have known your father and probably has dedicated him also cards, letters or drawings. I would like to know what you did do with the souvenirs that you have from your father of his time in Featherstone camp? I have here an amount of drawings, portraits, photos, newspaper articles, etc. that my father in law hast collected. My husband Knut Richter has dies 5 years ago, so I feel the duty to bring this collection to a “safe” place like a museum or an archive. As we have no children, I feel the responsibility to occupy myself with this “heritage”.
Maybe you can recommend me an institution which is seriously interested in these documents.
I would be very glad to hear from you and look forward to your answer. My name is a little bit similar to yours! I am Heidrun Merkle (I have kept my girlĀ“s name when I got married with Knut Richter) and I come from South-Germany.
Many greetings!
Heidrun Merkle
Dear Heidrun,
I’m so sorry, I completely forgot to say that I’d love to see anything that you have to share and I will try and work out a way to share what we have.
Karen