Second World War blunder that doomed 50,000 British PoWs | World news | The Observer

A fateful blunder by British military intelligence allowed the Nazis to seize 50,000 Allied prisoners of war from the Italians during the Second World War and transport them to camps in Germany and Poland where thousands are believed to have perished.

Newly published evidence reveals that a top-secret branch of the Ministry of Defence known as MI9 ordered British PoWs in Italy to remain in their camps after Italy surrendered. The order, issued in June 1943 as Field Marshal Bernard Montgomery was planning the invasion of the Italian mainland, and revealed for the first time in a new book, Where the Hell Have You Been?, was transmitted in code on a BBC religious broadcast. In some camps, British officers posted their own guards to prevent the men from leaving, even after the Italians had laid down their weapons.

As a result, the German army was able to walk into dozens of camps and round up the PoWs. According to War Office records, more than 50,000 Allied soldiers were transported from Italian camps by cattle train to far worse conditions in Germany and Poland during the summer of 1943. Thousands are estimated to have died, either shot while trying to escape from the trains or in the camps over the course of the following two winters.

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Why...? Was anyone ever held accountable for this decision after the war? Sounds like something that Montgomery would have supported..."tidy up the lines".

Does it qualify as a blunder?

One wonders how much of a chance scattered groups of largely unarmed men would have had wandering about the Italian countryside, particularly given the starvation conditions that Italy was bordering on, and the massacres various German units were already somewhat prone to in the area. Some captured troops had successful and adventurous escapes through Italy, but on the whole they were exceptional men.

The prevailing military situation (Italy was a slow old grind) meant that most of these men would have been shifted to Germany anyway doesn't it, whether confined to camps or scattered? The order to stay put seems reasonable. How much of a defence could a few hundred PoWs with the kind of meagre arms and ammunition they might obtain from surrendered Italian camp guards actually have put up against the forces the Germans potentially deployed against them?
Not much I suspect, and they'd give the Germans a clear chance to wipe them out on the spot.

~A

The whole Italian surrender thing was badly mismanaged, probably due to a fear of giving the Germans advance confirmation of the Cassibile armistice.
The first SS panzer korps was stationed in northern Italy at the time (recovering from Kursk) and did take part in rounding up and disarming Italian troops, how the SS would have reacted to masses of escaped POWs is anybody's guess but it could have turned really bad.
The partisans were not strong enough in 1943 to be much help, there were no partisan "sanctuaries" in 1943 the POWs could escape to.
On the other hand the thought of thousands of escaped POWs moving around in their rear may have well convinced the Germans to retreat from southern Italy as they had originally planned, Rommel's analisys considered a stand south of Rome as unfeasible, only after Kesselring's stand at Salerno proved him wrong was the strategy changed.

Doomed 50,000 ????
Seeing the vast majority did survive the headline seems a little over the top.




Actually Bradley was keen on tidying up the lines, that's why Hurtgen Forest was fought.

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if in doubt....Panic!!!!