UK, British Army Prisoners of War, 1939-1945

Source Information

This database contains a listing of World War II British Army prisoners of war (POW). Information provided about them includes:

• Name


• Rank


• Army number


• Regiment


• POW number


• Camp type


• Camp number


• Camp location


• Record office


• Record Office number


• Notes

The Geneva Convention of 1929 established the rules for the treatment of prisoners of war that were used in World War II. Over 100,000 soldiers of the British Army were captured during this war and placed in prisoner of war camps. There were two types of POW camps run by the Germans that soldiers of the British Army were assigned to. These were:

• Oflag – camp for officers


• Stalag – camp for enlisted personnel

There were separate camps for navy, aircrews, and civilians.

The German camps were named according to a numbering system, beginning with a Roman numeral representing the military district the camp was located in. Following the Roman numeral could be a letter. This letter represented a specific camp within the military district. If the camp was a sub-camp, “/Z” was then appended to the end of the number. If the camp was a main camp, then the “/H” was appended to the end of the number. You will see this nomenclature in the “Camp number” field of this database.