PRISONERS OF WAR : LISTINGS & SOURCES

The Nominal Roll of the 2/1 Aust. Infantry Battalion was compiled over a number of years by the committee that published the battalion history 'The First at War' in 1987 edited by E.C. Givney.  Each of the 3,491 names listed in the Nominal Roll was painstakingly checked at the Central Army Records Office (CARO) Melbourne and the Australian War Memorial records of returned POWs - this was started well before the days of online computer databases.  The letters 'PW' were added to 568 of the names where that serviceman had been a Prisoner of War during WW2. Almost all of those men were taken prisoner of war either in Greece or with the surrender on Crete to German forces on 30 May 1941. The Nominal Roll (All Who Served) pages of this website is a re-publishing of the original list with indicator 'POW' in the Notes column and also with spelling corrections to surnames, initials and in a few cases correction to the Service number. where there was a typo in the published version. 

The Ballarat Ex-Prisoners of War National Memorial opened in 2004 has the names of over 550 men of the 2/1st Battalion among the 36,000 names etched on the 130 metre long granite wall in the Ballarat Botanic Gardens. The searchable database of all POWs recorded which is maintained by the Trustees of the Australian Ex-Prisoners of War Memorial on their Memorial website  (https://www.powmemorialballarat.com.au/) was consulted when compiling the lists of 552 names of men of the 2/1st Aust. Infantry Battalion. Details include the POW camps (Stalags/Oflags and Campos) where the POW was held during the years 1941-1945 and their fate.  The initials RTA mean 'Returned to Australia'.  Sadly 11 men of the 2/1st Bn died in Europe as POWs and their names are also recorded in the section under 'Roll of Honour' - 'Prisoners of War - Europe'.

Very few of the more than 550 POWs managed to escape from their captors and return to their unit.  Those details where known are included in the notes for each POW.  Two of those who did manage an escape sadly later died on active service: 

 NX2610 Private Anthony Murphy who escaped from Crete, died on 19 September 1942 on the journey to Port Moresby in an accident onboard. 

 NX18434 Lieut. Francis Alfred Barrett (who escaped from Austria with NX3921 Private Walter Sicklen) was later KIA on Rabaul 24 October 1943 - he was awarded. the Distinguished Conduct Medal.  

Another escaped POW who survived to tell the tale was NX1121 Harry Giesen. He was held in Stalag 383, Stalag XVIIIA and escaped to Yugoslavia. He published his story as 'Seventh time lucky' in 2008 (see webpage section 'Stories' - 'Harry Giesen').

The Anzac POWs in Europe website including lists of servicemen who travelled from Greece and Crete back to Egypt and Palestine to rejoin their units was compiled by VX39694 Bill Rudd can be obtained by sending a message on the contact form on the home page.

There are 546 names for the 2/1 Infantry Bn in the Australian War Memorial Middle East Recovered POW roll that was kept by the Army 2nd Echelon Records unit. It includes Date and Place of capture, POW Camps held, Next-of-kin and Repatriation details. The listings here include information contained on these record cards.  If any omissions or errors are found in the listings below or in the Nominal Roll of 'The First at War' please get in touch via the Message form on the main home page of the website with the correct details and this will be checked and updated at the earliest opportunity.  Officers and men of the 2/1 Bn were held in a number of Oflags and Stalags in Germany, Austria, and Poland. The average number of camps a POW was held during 1941-45 was two, although many were moved multiple times.  The highest numbers were held in the following camps:

Stalag XIIIC (Hammelburg) 266

Stalag VIIIB (Lamsdorf) 187

Stalag 344 (Lamsdorf) 139

Stalag VIIA (Moosburg) 74

Stalag VIIB (Memmingen) 17

Stalag XVIIIA (Wolfsberg) 48

Stalag XXA (Torun) 20

Stalag 383 (Hohenfels) 65

Stalag 357 (Torun) 31

Oflag IIIC (Berlin) 57

Oflag VIB (Dossel) 26

Oflag XC (Lubeck) 20

Oflag VIIB (Eichstatt) 20