I am trying to sort out details from Camps 18 / 224 / 225 – all of which list the address as Featherstone Park in February to April, 1944. The original documents from the National Archives are available on Martin Richards’ Repatriated Landscapes site (links to docs - https://www.systonimages.co.uk/pow-camps-details-issue-5-10.pdf). I have summarised the details here. As far as I can see…. The Camp with POWs was Featherstone Camp 18 formed in 1943 – its number did not change. In February 1944, 2 P.W. Units were formed at Featherstone Park – 224 and 225. They were located and trained there, but were not actual camps holding pows. They were being established prior to D-day in anticipation of pows to come / service overseas. 224 moved to Rothwell, no pows. After that I do not know, but guess similar to 225….. 225 moved to Maybole; then Girvan; then Thorpe Bay in July. The ‘camp’ did not hold any pows during these times. In August, 225 embarked for overseas service. Do others agree that 224 / 225 were units in formation and NOT actual pows camps while in the UK? Best wishes - Malcolm
Might be useful info Search results: "featherstone park camp" | The National Archives Featherstone Park Escape from Camp 18 - Northumberland Archives 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.
Malcolm, Nice to see you are still actively populating our knowledge of all these sites. I am writing this largely for the benefit of wider readership as I know you are up with all of it pretty well. I tend to agree that there were army units being prepared as future POW guard forces post D Day. It was all part of the pre-planning. The number of German POWs in Britain pre-June 6 1944 was very small, about 7,000 from memory. J Anthony Hellen's article on Temporary Settlements and Transient Populations the Legacy of Britain's POW Camps 1940-48 gives some POW numbers. It was published in ErdkundeBd. 53, H. 3 (Jul. - Sep., 1999), pp. 191-219 (29 pages). Somewhere on the forum I created a thread where I posted an extract from a Fold3 document that showed a map with the camps the US was creating on UK sites prior to D Day. They took over existing UK POW camps like Warth Mills Bury (IIRC) plus designated camps particularly in the East Riding. One British POW camp at Toft Hall near Knutsford was emptied of its Italians and occupied from late January by half of Patton's HQ staff. [Edit 16.12.22., possibly erroneous see: Tying down Number 2 ] There may be other POW camps where there was a clear out to make room for troop movements.
