Today The Independent printed my piece about German POWs in Britain at the time of VE-Day (on pages 41, 42 and 43). The feature includes some previously unseen snippets from…
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Seventy years ago, Eberhard Wendler wrote in his diary: 15 April 1945: bought myself a book – Der Polarwind und die Obrigkeit (The Polar Wind and the Majesty)* from my…
Eberhard Wendler’s diary records some of the events which broke up the monotony in the POW camp where he was held prisoner during the last weeks of WW2. 8 March…
While researching Hitler’s Last Army I stumbled on an extraordinary story. On 12 September 1947, a group of about 25 civilians – mainly women and children – climbed into the…
My blog post about German prisoners of war in britain during WW2 is now available on the History Press website: http://www.thehistorypress.co.uk/index.php/updates/cat/blogs/post/Hitlers-Last-Army/ Here’s a sample of the text – and on…
On 21 February 1945 Eberhard Wendler wrote in his diary: ‘Received a letter from Willy and Gertrud posted on 28 November 1944. Bought myself a pair of scissors for 2…
Eberhard Wendler’s wartime diary continues: ‘10 February, 1945: at 2.00 p.m. I received the first parcel from home. It contained skin cream, a mirror, a mouth-organ, a handkerchief, socks, sugar…
Eberhard Wendler was conscripted into the German army in January 1944, at the age of 17. His unit was in combat against American forces in Normandy shortly after D-day, and…
Yesterday I joined Mike Read on his BBC Radio Berkshire show to chat about Hitler’s Last Army. We talked about prisoner of war camps in Berkshire, and I mentioned that German…
Yesterday I joined Sue Dougan on BBC Radio Cambridgeshire at mid-day. We talked in particular about how the German POWs were gradually accepted by most members of the British public. …