About the book
The book draws on exclusive face-to-face interviews as well as on British and German official archives. It reveals how the POWs played a vital part in Britain’s post-war survival while, at the same time, their prolonged detention sparked political uproar. Its central theme though, is the human story of trust, friendship and even romance which developed between the POWs and the local population.
On 16 January, Paula D. gave 'Hitler’s Last Army' a five-star review on Amazon!
“… a very well written book retelling people’s experiences of being a German POW during and after WWII. The various stories are cleverly interwoven with background information taking one back to a different time which most of us have no knowledge or experience of. Highly recommended for anyone who just likes reading about other people’s lives and experiences. Couldn’t put it down until I’d finished it – very unusual for me."




Blog: Hitler’s Last Army
- The making of Hitler’s Last Army November 15, 2014
An acquaintance of mine who lived on a farm during the Second World War once told me how German prisoners of war had been sent to carry out agricultural tasks, and how they had impressed the locals with their capacity for hard work. After the war one of these POWs, whose home was in the eastern zone, had been reluctant to go back to Germany and had remained on the farm until the mid-1950s.
Something about the incongruity of it all – the idea of prisoners staying in what had recently been for them an enemy country – appealed to my curiosity. I started looking into the subject more deeply in late 2011 and my idea for a book on the subject – Hitler’s Last Army – was taken up by The History Press. Incidentally, the title was inspired by one German prisoner’s recollection of being marched, with hundreds of other POWs, along a street in Britain on their way to a prisoner of war camp. ‘The English civilians didn’t pelt us with stones like in Belgium,’ he recalled. ‘The English stood at the side of the road, and just said, “Hitler’s last army!” No stones – just “Hitler’s last army!”’