The Schweidnitz Tunnellers

 

On 19th March 2022 our friends at the Polish blog site Swidnicki Portal Historyczny  http://historia-swidnica.pl/swidnicki-tunel/ published a story written by one of our researchers, John Copeland, grandchild of Arthur Copeland, one of the escapees.  The aim of the story is to raise awareness of the historical escape among local Polish people who might have known someone with a connection with the Schweidnitz WWI POW camp or might have historical knowledge of the camp itself.  It is also an attempt to try to elicit any newspaper cuttings or memorabilia from people in the Polish town which may still be accessible but temporarily forgotten.
The publication date of John’s story marks 104 years since the escape.  John’s story was translated into Polish by Andrzej Dobkiewicz, editor of the Świdnica Historical Portal for the purposes of this blog it has been modified slightly to reflect the audience of this blog.  Please contact us via the blog if you have anything to share.

 

View of the Evangelical church and camp barracks in 1918. Today, none of the visible objects at Sprzymierzeńców Street  exists

 

The Schweidnitz Tunnellers

Looking for answers about one of the least known,but largest, Prisoner of War escapes of World War I

One by one 24 men crawled slowly through a narrow tunnel and emerged into the crisp night air on the other side of the fence.  Two by two they melted into the darkness as they began their quest for freedom.  These were the tunnellers of Schweidnitz - a German prisoner-of-war camp during World War I.  The town of Schweidnitz, now known as Swidnica, lies within present day Poland.

 The Schweidnitz camp held mostly British officers and their allies.  Over half of those passing through the tunnel on the night of March 19/20, 1918 were from England.  The British Empire was also represented by a handful of Australians, a few Canadians, and one each from New Zealand and South Africa.  To the Germans they were all Engländers.  During the past two years they had been plucked from the sea, fallen from the sky, and dragged from the field of battle on their way to becoming reluctant guests of the Kaiser.

All of the escapees had experienced several camps prior to arrival at Schweidnitz, to which most of them were transferred a few weeks before Christmas in 1917.  The majority transferred from either Augustabad, Neubrandenberg or the infamous camp at Holzminden, Lower Saxony.

Schweidnitz was not considered a bad camp.  Prisoners transferring there from Augustabad had been living in a converted tourist lodge on the shores of a large lake, the Tollensesee, where they could sometimes swim in the summer and play ice hockey in the winter.  By comparison, those arriving from Holzminden left behind a camp known as one of the worst in Germany, run by a sadistic commandant, who encouraged his guards to abuse the prisoners in their care and even shoot at them on occasion.

Regardless how they felt about Schweidnitz, the 24 tunnelers shared a common goal - to escape from Germany, get back to England, and get back into the war or reunite with their loved ones.  As they left the tunnel and crept into the night, they were one step closer to realizing their dreams.  They put their faith in themselves, their God, and not least of all, their luck, to get them back home.

Twelve pairs of men spread out and dispersed in all directions of the compass, hoping their particular plans would help them avoid recapture by “the Hun” on their way to the German border - the first leg of their trip home.

My grandfather, Arthur H.M. Copeland, was an Observer in a two-seater aircraft in the Royal Flying Corps.  He was shot down by German aircraft in October 1916 during the Somme offensive.  He was lucky.  He was captured.  His pilot was killed.

Arthur Copeland

When I think of my grandfather I picture a small man sitting in his favourite chair in the living room of his house wearing a navy blue blazer with an air force crest on the chest.  He is wearing a straight tie, and often, a vest.

Sometime during my childhood I heard the story of my grandfather and a group of other men digging a tunnel from a basement with kitchen utensils and exiting the tunnel into a pig sty.  I don’t remember much beyond that.  I knew he was recaptured very close to the Dutch border, and I remembered that he had jumped from a train at some point during his captivity.  Like many others who experienced the horrors of war first hand, Gramps had no particular interest in reliving bad memories, so he rarely spoke of those years.  He was a nice man and had a great sense of humour.  With a twinkle in his eye, he enjoyed teasing his grandchildren.  The fact that he and I were both introverts probably didn’t promote any in depth discussions of his wartime experiences, despite my growing fascination with the subject.

I started reading stories about prisoners of war escapes as a young teenager.  Among the earliest were The Wooden Horse and The Tunnel, by Eric Williams.  Most of the available escape stories seemed to take place during World War II.  However, when I read the prologue to The Colditz Story, by P.R.Reid, I noted that Reid’s desire to escape from Nazi Germany was in part motivated by books of World War I escapes he had read during his childhood.  He was inspired by The Road to En-Dor, by E.H. James, The Escaping Club, by A.J. Evans and Within Four Walls, by H.A Cartwright and M.C.C. Harrison.

Until the advent of the internet I had no success finding any of these titles.  Now each of them has a place of honour in my collection.  Over the years I became aware of a book called The Tunnellers of Holzminden, by H.G. Durnford.  Knowing my grandfather had spent time at Holzminden I thought this could possibly be the story of his escape.  Alas, this was not the case.  Twenty nine officers escaped from Holzminden through a tunnel in July 1918, but he was not one of them.  I have now read at least 4 different books telling the story of the Holzminden escape, and quite clearly this was not his tunnel.

About fifteen years ago I started seriously searching the internet for anything related to escapes from the Schweidnitz camp, which I then knew was the camp from which he had escaped.  I could find no mention of any books, but I did find references to the escape in a couple of online forums.  One of the forum contributors was Ruve Baker from New Zealand, whose grandfather, Tarn Harker, had escaped from the Schweidnitz tunnel.  After further digging I found an email address for a Ruve Baker in New Zealand, but my attempt to contact her was unsuccessful.

 

 Photo of four prisoners of war in the Świdnica camp. From the left: Alan (Brolga) Hill - Australian in RFC, George Augustus (Gus) Avey - from New Zealand Rifle Brigade, William Henry Howes - British in RFC and Charles Nobbs - Australian in RFC. The first three escaped in March 1918 through a tunnel

A couple of years ago I again renewed my search for information about the Schweidnitz escape.  An online article about the death of Aubrey Rickards in an air accident in the 1930’s provided a lead.  James Offer, an information source for the article, was identified as Rickards’s nephew.  After a bit of detective work, with the help of social media, I was able to establish contact with both Ruve Baker and Britisher James Offer.  Needless to say, we all share a keen interest in learning more about the lives of our ancestors/relatives, particularly their wartime experiences.

 

Photo taken in Świdnica. From left to right: T. Gilford (Gil) Holley, Frank Bronskill and Arthur H. M. Copeland (John's grandfather). All three were Canadian in the Royal Air Force Corps (RFC). Bronskill was not one of the escapees. 

Since discovering each other we have shared much information and collaborated freely.  Along the way a couple of others joined our ranks - my sister, Gail, a Canadian with a keen interest in genealogy, and Robyn Ford, an Australian with a genealogy blog called Robyn and the Genies (http://robynandthegenies.blogspot.com), which records family history and stories, WWI tributes, etc.  Robyn is a third cousin of escapee Mark Fryar.  She has now created this new blog specifically related to Schweidnitz (https://schweidnitzpowcampwwi.blogspot.com).  In it she gives details of the tunnelers, other officers who spent time as prisoners at Schweidnitz, and life and conditions at the camp.  She also talks about some of our research materials and methods.

How does one go about researching events which took place over one hundred years ago.  That was our dilemma and our challenge.  We had access to publicly available records through sources such as the International Committee of the Red Cross, The National Archives in London, and genealogy websites.  We were not aware of any German archival records, since most of them had apparently been destroyed during World War II.  We were also not aware of any books or articles about the Schweidnitz tunnel escape. 

Our key piece of background information was a list of the names of the 24 escapees.  This list was obtained in 1929 by one of the Canadian escapees.  Cecil Ernest French, a pilot with the Royal Flying Corps during the war, obtained the list of names and a brief description of how the officers escaped the camp, from the German Consulate General in Montreal.

Armed with the list of names it was fairly easy to search online records of the International Committee of the Red Cross to discover which prisoner-of-war camps they had been in and background information such as their rank, unit, date and place of capture, birth date and place, and name and address of next-of-kin.

Over the course of time we gathered much background data, but we still lacked many details of these men and their actual experiences.  It seemed obvious that the best way to find out more about the men as individuals, and about their wartime experiences, was to look beyond the data and see if we could trace their descendants/relatives in search of memoirs, diaries, journals, photos, letters, anecdotes, etc.  The background data from the Red Cross records gave us a starting point and allowed us to actually track down living relatives of many of the escapees.

It can be a very rewarding experience to finally speak to the grandchild of one of our escapees over the phone and explain our project.  The reactions vary.  Some people are very excited to learn more and offer to share information.  Others are excited but readily admit they know nothing about their grandfather’s wartime experiences and have nothing to share.  Some never knew their grandfather.  Some have no interest in their grandfather or in helping with our research efforts.  Sadly, some talk about the difficulty their grandfather had adjusting to life after the war.  Some families, like some veterans, find it too painful to share memories.

Original drawing made in the Świdnica camp, showing the escape of prisoners through a dug tunnel

One of the more exciting contacts we made about a year ago was not related to an escapee.  Rather, our contact was another researcher with an avid interest in our project.  We were very excited to connect with Andrzej Dobkiewicz, Editor of the Swidnicki Portal Historyczny and to read an article about the escape which he had published in his monthly newsletter.  Andrzej offered to help us with our research.  This could be a significant step for us, because none of our team speaks Polish, and it would be very difficult for us to make enquiries locally.

Understanding that many German records were destroyed during WW II and that many Polish records have also been destroyed, I firmly believe there is still relevant information out there somewhere, whether in a repository for official records or in somebody’s scrapbook in their attic.  After the escape the Germans notified the public and authorities of the escape.  It may be that there were posters in public places to warn people to watch for the escapees.  When an escapee was captured there would have been a report prepared by whomever apprehended the escapee.  This could have been a railway official, a border guard, a soldier, a policeman, or even a civilian.  Perhaps records were kept at a local jail, where an escapee may have been held for several days before returning to Schweidnitz.

We know that there were stories in several local newspapers describing the recapture of some of the prisoners, and it is also likely that the authorities placed notices or stories in local or regional newspapers warning of the escape and asking citizens to be on the lookout for the escapees.  After being recaptured all of the escapees were court-martialed and sentenced to 2 weeks punishment.  Where did the court-martial take place?  Are there court records? Was the outcome reported?

It seems to me that any of this material could have ended up in a local library, archive, museum, or in somebody’s personal collection.

In addition to information specific to the escape, I would also like to learn about any other attempted escapes from Schweidnitz and about life and conditions at Schweidnitz and any interactions between local townspeople and the prisoners.  We know some of the prisoners left the camp to attend church.  They likely also saw local doctors and dentists.  We know a local photographer came into the camp to take photos of the prisoners.  We know that the prisoners sometimes went for walks under guard.  There may have been various other opportunities for them to interact with people from outside the camp.  Perhaps some of the people who interacted with the prisoners kept diaries or passed on stories to their children or grandchildren. 

 

So, why are we doing all of this work and collecting all of this information?  It may seem like a strange hobby to some, but I’m sure many genealogists and history buffs will understand the gratification we get from gathering up the morsels of information which collectively fit together to tell the stories of 24 lives.  At first I think our investigations were driven solely out of curiosity, but eventually, as our collection accumulated and began to form a story, the idea of gathering it into a book grew to a point where the book became an end goal.  The desire to write an account of their lives, with a focus on their World War I experiences, seems like a fitting tribute to two dozen men who put their lives on the line for what they considered a very noble cause. A book seems like a very gratifying conclusion to all the hard work and dedication of the Schweidnitz research team.

We are under no illusion that we can complete this project without the help of others.  If anyone has any information which may fill our knowledge gaps, or can point us towards other helpful sources, we would be very happy to hear from them.  We can be contacted either through Andrzej Dobkiewicz  or  Robyn

Oh, and what happened to our 24 heroes after they crawled out of that tunnel into the cold March air and set off in search of their freedom?  Despite their hopes, prayers, plans and ingenuity, luck was not with them.  Within a few days most were back at Schweidnitz awaiting the inevitable punishment for their little adventure.  They had been apprehended at whatever distance they had managed to travel from camp.  Most walked, but some had planned to travel by train to distance themselves from their pursuers, Even those who managed to ride a train for part of their journey were eventually recaptured.  The last pair, returned to Schweidnitz less than a month after their escape, was picked up in Bohemia, now part of the Czech Republic.

Written in English by John Copeland, Orillia, Canada