Scenes of War - Prisoners

A certain share of the respective losses were prisoners: for the French about 12%, for the Germans about 9%, and for the British about 7%; the Austro-Hungarians and the Russians had significantly higher prisoner rates (35% and 50%, respectively).

The numbers of Russian prisoners in the battles at Tannenberg in August 1914 (93,000) and at the Masurian Lakes in September 1914 (45,000) were spectacular.

Captivity was by no means without risk, especially at the moment of capture. Time and again there are reports of prisoners being killed, not only in the heat of battle. But problems could also arise for those taking prisoners: resistance could flare up again and it was not easy to bring the prisoners behind the front line.

Ernst Jünger (In Stahlgewittern. Stuttgart 1978, p. 262 ff.) reports from the Kaiserschlacht (1918): "Then I saw the first enemy. A figure in a brown uniform, apparently wounded, crouched twenty paces ahead in the middle of the trampled hollow, hands on the ground. We became aware of each other as I rounded a bend. I saw them draw together at my appearance and stare at me with wide-open eyes, while I, my face hidden behind the pistol, approached slowly and maliciously. A bloody scene without witnesses was about to take place. It was a relief to finally see the adversary within reach. I placed the muzzle at the temple of the man paralyzed by fear, the other fist clawing into his uniform coat, which bore orders and rank insignia. An officer; he must have commanded in those trenches. With a cry he reached into his pocket, but he did not draw a weapon; instead he produced a photograph which he held up to me. I saw him on it, surrounded by a large family, standing on a terrace. That was a conjuring up from a sunken, unbelievably remote world. I later considered it a great piece of luck that I released him and rushed on. That very one often appeared to me in dreams. That made me hope that he had seen his homeland again."

The German fusilier Willy Adams of the Lehr-Infanterie-Regiment describes the capture of British soldiers during the German offensive in the spring of 1918 as follows: "The Brits often fought in small groups in widely separated positions and did not offer very fierce resistance. They threw away their rifles and wanted to surrender. But none of us spoke English, and so we left them to the attacking waves following us. They had suffered some dead and wounded from our artillery fire. We told the wounded to wait for our medics. I still see a young fellow, perhaps nineteen years old. He tried to hide in the bushes. He probably thought I would kill him. Obviously he was very afraid. I was certainly the first German soldier he had seen. I signaled to him with my hands that I meant him no harm, but that we had to move on. So I left him lying there." (quoted after: Martin Middlebrock, March 21, 1918. The Kaiserschlacht, 1979, p. 141).

The British Lance Corporal J. Wortly (2/5 Lincolns) describes his capture in the so-called Kaiserschlacht in 1918 as follows: "Then the officers realized what had happened behind us. We were barely being fired upon and could see no one to shoot at. Then we found that the Germans had come through on both sides of us and the men behind us had been taken prisoner. The Germans had us surrounded from three sides in no time. I could not make out many German infantrymen, but only light rifle fire. I clearly remember seeing some of the horse-drawn vehicles of the German artillery. An artilleryman led the saddle horse, an older man who obviously knew how to handle horses. He smoked a small crooked pipe with a knot on the pipe bowl, and looked as calm as if he were plowing at home.

The Germans called to us: "Quick! Quick!" and ordered us to surrender. One of our men was so excited that he forgot to throw away his weapons and equipment. A German went at him, but one of our boys shouted at him and hurried him along. We really could do nothing more. I believe no shots were fired in the whole affair. A few of us were very nervous, but most remained quite calm. The officers did not know what to say, but we could not change it. Our enterprise had been hopeless from the start." (quoted after: Martin Middlebrock, March 21, 1918. The Kaiserschlacht, 1979, pp. 172/173).

Only in 1918 did more German soldiers surrender as well; in the West from mid-July to November 1918 about 340,000.

In total 993,775 German soldiers became prisoners of war: into French and Belgian captivity 424,157, into British captivity 328,020, into American captivity 49,560, into Russian captivity 168,104, into Romanian captivity 12,898 and in other countries 11,038. Of these POWs 55,899 died.

840,491 prisoners of war returned to Germany. The whereabouts of the remaining soldiers is not clarified.