Oflag VII-B

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Oflag VII-B was a World War II German POW camp for officers, located 1 km from Eichstätt, Bavaria.

1 Timeline
2 Evacuation and repatriation
3 See also
4 References
5 Sources
6 See also

[edit] Timeline

The camp was built in September 1939 to house Polish prisoners from the German September 1939 offensive. The first arrivals were 18 October 1939. 22 May 1940 all 1336 Polish prisoners were transferred to Oflag VII-A Murnau

They were replaced with British, French and Belgian officers taken prisoner during the Battle of France. In the summer of 1941 Australians and New Zealanders captured in Greece and Crete during the Balkans Campaign arrived in the camp. After Rommel's second offensive on Tobruk on 21 June 1942 along most of the South African 2nd Division was captured. Many of these soldiers were interned at Oflag V11-B. In September 1942 Canadian officers arrived from the Dieppe Raid.

Also, late 1942 British officers were transferred here from Oflag VI-B Dössel, where several had been involved in an unsuccessful escape attempt. In spring of 1943 Americans captured in the Tunisia Campaign arrived.

On 3 June 1943, 65 prisoners escaped through a tunnel but within two weeks were captured. 50,000 German troops, police, Hitlerjugend were engaged in the manhunt. As a result 76 officers were transferred on 30 June 1943 to Oflag IV-C in Colditz Castle.

[edit] Evacuation and repatriation

As the American Army approached, a number of the officers were marched out of the camp. Unfortunately the column was bombed by mistake by an American plane on 14 April 1945,^[1] 14 British officers were killed and 46 were wounded. The camp was liberated 16 April 1945 by the US Army. Within days they had been repatriated to their home countries.

Currently the Bavarian police have barracks at the site of the camp. In 2003 a memorial plaque was erected by local German authorities at the site of the unfortunate bombing accident.