Other articles, not translated as yet, can be found in danish
Naval memoirs
Cecilie Lütken
the right man in the right job at the right time
From Dänholm to repatriation and home - Appendix C
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What lay ahead was a fairytale few days in Denmark staying in
comfortable seaside hotels,
eating fresh food and visiting the sights, the restaurants and theatres before
the last leg of the journey to the UK
Dannebrogsvalmuen – ”The Danish
flag” poppy
A symbol for the Danish-minded pows in Allied camps
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N.H. Rasmussen headed a committee
sending letters, parcels etc. to the Danish-minded pows from South Jutland.
In the spring of 1915 he had the idea of
sending them poppy seeds so they could, with due permission given,
sow a little bed of flowers. These
Dannebrogsvalmuer – “Danish flag” poppies were red and white as the Danish flag
is.
Dänholm - While the kettle boils part 1
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Approximately 900 British officers and 340 other ranks were interned at Dänholm in the latter
half of 1918.
A record of their time at Dänholm, often in great detail,
has been preserved in diaries and
memoirs created by these pows.
During the final weeks of the war the men were "waiting for the kettle to boil", well aware
of
the revolution happening around them and that an armistice was days away.
What would the next couple of months bring?
See the chart of arrivals to Dänholm here
Dänholm - While the kettle boils part 2
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After the armistice, when
departure dates were postponed, impatient young officers vandalized the camp.
This led to an unfortunate shooting episode where
one officer was killed and
another wounded.
Repatriation from Dänholm became high priority and the camp was emptied within a
fortnight.
From Dänholm to repatriation and Home – Appendix A
- leaving Stralsund camp on 30 November and 5 December 1918
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It must have been a strange
experience for the first group of 61 officers who left the
German POW camp at Dänholm on Saturday 30 November 1918.
Firstly, they had only been given a few hours warning and secondly they were not
on the list of names
of those who were supposed to leave first –
they were on the second list.
They had spent only a few months as pows whilst some of those named on the first
list had been prisoners for very much longer.
From Dänholm to repatriation and Home – Appendix
B
- leaving Stralsund on the 9th. December 1918
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Following
the shootings which had taken place on the 4th and 5th December it was clear that repatriation from Dänholm had to be speeded up.
Confirmation was received on the 8th that 200 officers and 71 orderlies were to leave via Wärnemunde for Copenhagen on the 9th.
Quedlinburg men’s camp –
Christmas in Denmark
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Danish Captain Zeilau noted in his
report of 9th December 1918 about the conditions at the camp at
Quedlinburg;
they had no Red Cross food parcels,
only the filthy clothes they were wearing
and many men had to share a bunk without enough blankets,
some were even sleeping on the floor.
Zeilau telegraphed for supplies to be sent
immediately,
he was concerned that delay would cause a “mutiny”.
After visiting the camp Zeilau went into
Quedlinburg town which was festively
decorated for the arrival home of German troops.
He spent the evening at a Finnish hotel where he had a good dinner
“nothing
found wanting here”.
The Aarhus monument
A monument to Danes who lost their lives fighting in the First World War
The Battle of Jutland
7 British seamen were rescued while 21 were buried in Denmark
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On a calm warm afternoon, the 31 May 1916, Danes living in fishing villages on
the west coast of Jutland could hear the rumble of thunder.
As the hours passed the noise got stronger and wilder, at times so violent that
their houses shook; it was no ordinary storm in the distance.
They guessed at what probably was happening; that the British and German fleets
had finally met.
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A body was found washed up on Blokhus beach on
the afternoon of 5th September 1917. The man had, on his left hand ring finger,
a gold
signet ring with the initials R.C.E. on the bezel. It was engraved inside “Dear mother died 10. June
1915.” 100 years later he
has been identified as Able
Seaman Reginald Cecil Evenden, who lost his life on 9th August on HMS “Recruit”.
A bread parcel for Private Barnes
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The
Marinemuseum Dänholm exhibits a single “British” artifact amongst the WW1
memorabilia of local families.
It is a label from a parcel
sent from “The Bread Bureau” in Copenhagen to
Private William Robert Barnes. It had been found during building work done on
site.
The tragedy of the submarine E 13 - for the living and the dead
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On Friday 20 August 1915 throughout the country Danes could read newspaper
reports of the tragic events relating to the British submarine E13.
It had run aground the day
before
on the sandbanks of Saltholm just outside
Copenhagen.
It had been attacked by a German torpedo boat which
resulted in the deaths of
fifteen crew members.....
The Copenhagen Bureau
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In the autumn of 1916 the "British Red Cross Society and Order of St. John of
Jerusalem in England" (BRC) opened a bureau in Copenhagen.
Its task was very specific, to send white bread to British prisoners of war in
Germany and it was referred to as the Copenhagen Bureau...
In loving memory
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The names of 19 British soldiers appear on an imposing memorial in the Vestre
Cemetery. All had died between 22 December 1918 and 13 January1919.
Amongst their number were a Canadian, an Indian and an Australian from Tasmania.
British
prisoners of war’s experience of the camp at
Gaardeby mark at Bajstrup near Tinglev 1915
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In April 1915 the Sheffield Daily
Telegraph ran the story of a local man’s death from starvation in a German
prisoner of war camp.
Was the lack of food in Germany really that bad? Or was this another of the
Germans’ fiendish threats put into effect; that they would starve British
prisoners of war.
Gilbert Henry Millar - An escaped prisoner of war
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On Saturday morning when
the steam ferry “Alexandrine”, on an extra trip, was half way between Warnemunde
and Gedser, a small boat with a man onboard was observed.
Frank and Dagny
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Frank and Dagny never
met. She died in 1917. Dagny had been “godmother” to two British pows.
Her husband, Copenhagen’s answer to Mr. Selfridge, carried on sending parcels to
them after her untimely death.
After the armistice Vilhelm Vett, welcomed Frank Vans Agnew, working as Deputy
Assistant Director of Transport for the Danish Scheme, into their home for the
duration.
The ones that got away
On Standby:
From Øster Terp to Ribe
Taylor, Painting, Jaggers and Meredith.
Ribe 19. nov. 1915.
”Are just about beat. All our feet are frozen more or less – we are lying in
some bushes trying to restore the circulation.
My God are we going to manage it. Tonight should decide.
If we don’t we would like our people in England to know that we were trying to
get back to dear old Blighty.
Please take care of my dear wife and little girl.
England must win.”
