Assistance and confirmation deeply appreciated. What I know about my 2nd cousin Neal P. Barnett, U.S. Army Serial Number 34040022: he was in the 135th Infantry Regiment, 34th Division, and was captured 27 March 1943 near Fondouk Pass in Tunisia. According to the P.O.W. record at Ancestry.com, he was detained by Germany in "camp 004." According to the website ww2pow.info, "004" is "Bad Godesberg Lazaret Serves Stalag 17A Godesberg, Rheinland Prussia." My question: Is this correct? I am assuming that the camp number is an American military designation. My confusion stems from my discovery that Stalag 17 A was in southern Austria, yet the hospital was in Bad Godesberg, now part of Bonn, quite some distance. From reading threads in this forum, though, I have learned that P.O.W.s were typically moved from camp to camp. Also, if anyone can provide a link or an article or just point me in the correct direction, I am interested in learning how P.O.W.'s were moved from Tunisia to presumably Italy and beyond. Thanks, Doyce
Hi and welcome to the forum. Most POWs were transported by ship across the Mediterranean to Italy from North Africa. (Some Italian ships with prisoners aboard were sunk by the Allies. http://ww2talk.com/forums/topic/2493-british-pow-losses-on-italian-ship-ariosto/ ) I think it may be the case that some officers were flown across. Once destined for Germany, prisoners would then proceed by train.
The ID 004 in the NARA POW database is for Stalag 3B Furstenberg Brandenburg, Prussia (Also KDOS [USA] #1-5; ARB BTNS 225-255) 52-14 and Corporal Barnett is listed as in that camp. http://aad.archives.gov/aad/record-detail.jsp?dt=466&mtch=1&cat=WR26&tf=F&sc=11675,11660,11679,11667,11669,11676,11672,11673&bc=,sl,fd&txt_11675=34040022&op_11675=0&nfo_11675=V,8,1900&rpp=10&pg=1&rid=42485
Thanks immensely. I actually discovered this earlier today, helped because no one immediately answered yesterday. In looking over the P.O.W. camp list at WW2pow.info, I realized that the camps were in alphabetical order and probably didn't fit any military code. That same site has a search bar for individual soldiers and that is how I found Stalag 3B Furstenberg Brandenburg. There is also a link to the American National Archives for double confirmation. It has been quite a day for genealogical and historical discoveries, heartbreaking... reading about Stalag life, the Red Cross parcels... talk about a new respect for the Red Cross... how the Russians were treated worse than the other Allies in Stalags 3A and 3B, German geography, the camps being freed by the Russian army. Can you or anyone else explain what the abbreviated code means: KDOS [USA] #1-5; ARB BTNS 225-255 52-14 ? Again, thanks from Doyce and the extended family.
KDO = Kommando which are small offshoot commands of the main Stalag in the USA terms they were number 1 to 5. Germans had a different numbering/naming system. Usually they had their own buildings and camps. ARB BTN = Arbeitsbattalion which are the German term for a work unit that goes out of the main Stalag and does work like clearing rubble, farming, working in mines, etc. Sometimes these units would be out of the main camp for weeks or months and put up locally where the work was. The range of 225 to 255 were the battalion numbers. 52-14 is NARAs code for the camp as compared to the Army code for the camp.
