Marbury Hall Army and POW Camp 1939-1948

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Foam
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Marbury Hall Army and POW Camp 1939-1948

#1

Post by Foam » 16 Aug 2013, 12:48

I am an amateur historian and member of FOAM. This stands for the Friends of Anderton and Marbury which is a 1000 acre public park just North of the town of Northwich Cheshire England. During the Second World War the hall was an army camp from 1939 to 1944, and then a Prisoner of War Camp, number 180/189. FOAM is trying to update the current site history and link this to archaeological features of the park. A current focus is the World War 2 occupation of the camp by English, Scottish, Polish and American units followed by Prisoners of War.

We know the camp was not constructed until after September 1939 but we do not know exactly when.

Currently (and thanks most recently to a post of Knouterer on this forum) we have identified that (after some Dunkirk survivors were briefly present) the first known military users were the 19th, 20th and 21st battalions of the Royal Fusiliers from July to December 1940.

We think they were followed by 6th battalion Seaforth Highlanders January - April 1941 then 5th battalion Royal Norfolk Regiment, April to October 1941.

November to April 1942 the camp was occupied by 4th battalion King's Shropshire Light Infantry, followed at an uncertain date by 7th Battalion Kings Own Royal Regiment who left in June 1942.

We know some Polish troops were occupying the camp in 1943, followed possibly by the 390 Engineer General Service Regt, 2 Battalion, Company E, after the camp had passed to ETOUSA. The 390th may have been making the camp ready for the 313 regiment of the US 79 Division and the VIII Corps HQ staff who arrived in April 1944 and landed in Normandy on D+8. Later the 5th Auxilliary Surgical group were in residence, before the camp was presumably handed back by the US and became POW camp 180/189. We have precious little material on the POW camp, except the brief presence of Bert Trautmann.

A brief history of the park so far in WW2 is on line at but we know there is a lot more to add.

http://www.merseyforest.org.uk/foam/wp- ... s-rev3.pdf


We want to confirm all the occupants of the camp and fill in the gaps. If anyone has unit war diaries/references in military museums or The National Archive, personal correspondence, photographs, maps etc, indeed anything you have on Marbury Hall and its camp, it would be of great interest to us.

Thank you for reading this and helping us to remember all the brave men of all nations who lived in our community.

Please help us if you can.

Foam

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Andy H
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Re: Marbury Hall Army and POW Camp 1939-1948

#2

Post by Andy H » 17 Aug 2013, 23:34

Hi Clive

A quick search found the following files in the NA:-
FO 939/336 which covers January'45 - December'46 which sadly isn't digitised, so you would have to either visit it or get a copy which can be expensive from them. You can use this guy who is a lot cheaper and is reliable & honest http://www.arcre.com/ and a recent post he made about his charges-Don't forget to mention us :D
http://ww2talk.com/forums/topic/49094-n ... ce-change/

Regards

Andy H


Foam
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Re: Marbury Hall Army and POW Camp 1939-1948

#3

Post by Foam » 18 Aug 2013, 09:54

Thank you for searching. I do find the NA archives difficult to search. I am used to the old PRO yellow catalogues where you could easily flip pages.

Cheers and thanks

Foam

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Andy H
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Re: Marbury Hall Army and POW Camp 1939-1948

#4

Post by Andy H » 18 Aug 2013, 13:13

Hi Clive

As part of the large deception plan for D-Day (called Op.Fortitude) a phantom US Army Corps, the
XXXIII was created which had its HQ ‘based’ at Marbury Hall. This corps had the 11th & 48th Infantry Divisions plus 25th Armoured Division under its command. All as you would expect were dummy or deception units though the Germans suspected nothing.

Regards

Andy H

Foam
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Re: Marbury Hall Army and POW Camp 1939-1948

#5

Post by Foam » 18 Aug 2013, 16:59

Hi Andy.

I am up with both VIII and XXXIII Corps, Fortitude South, and Marbury's role with deception by the Allies using XX spies Garbo, Tricycle and Freak. Thaddeus Holt's book The Deceivers: Allied Military Deception in the Second World War and Roger Hesketh Fortitude: The D Day Deception Campaign have been invaluable.

I have found one error in Holt. He puts Marbury in south Cheshire near Whitchurch over the border in Shropshire but there is no doubt in my mind from Hesketh (who was a D Day deception planner) and the history of both 313 regiment and the 79th division, its parent, that it was not Marbury in south Cheshire but Marbury Hall Northwich that was the correct location. Otherwise Holt's book is brilliantly researched. I wish I had had his money to work and research across the UK and USA.

Your interest and advice is most welcome, thank you. I hope others can join the party too.

Cheers

Clive

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Andy H
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Re: Marbury Hall Army and POW Camp 1939-1948

#6

Post by Andy H » 19 Aug 2013, 18:31

Hi

In regards 5th Royal Norfolks:-
In January 1941 the 5th Battalion was posted to Scotland and Ayrshire for more training and in March they went to Marbury Hall in Cheshire.
http://www.northelmhamvillage.org.uk/ne ... ife-part-1

So maybe March and not April!

Regards

Andy

Foam
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Re: Marbury Hall Army and POW Camp 1939-1948

#7

Post by Foam » 21 Aug 2013, 08:17

Hi Andy,

I just checked their official website and it gives April 7.
http://www.britain-at-war.org.uk/WW2/ro ... aining.htm

As an aside, you have come up with a source that more than 100 hits with one search engine did not reveal. It just shows what I have been told but did not really believe, that you must use several search engine sources to get widest coverage.

Cheers

Foam

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Re: Marbury Hall Army and POW Camp 1939-1948

#8

Post by stepco » 01 Feb 2014, 18:01

I have recently obtained an interesting ribbon bound booklet relating to the POW camp at Marbury Hall. It is a book of drawings of POW "hostels" as they are called in the Cheshire area titled "Unterwegs mit dem Zeichenstift Lager 189 und Seine Hostel". The book is in German and states "Copyright Reserved - Nachdruck Verboten Herausgegeben im P.O.W. Camp 189 England September 1947". It contains drawings of hostels in Cheshire including Marbury Hall with descriptions in German of the size and location.

This translation is at the back of the book after the German index:

Main Camp: Marbury Hall
Marbury Hall did not dream of its fate: Country seat of a noble-man, then of discharged generals and at last of big manufacturers, until it was taken over by a club. The war brought Americans, Italians and Germans at last even Poles to Marbury Hall. And now I.C.I. is waiting that the will be free for the recreation of their workers.

Inserted loosely at the front is a letter from the camp leader Fr.Raer or Kaer and from (illegible signature) Leader of the Camp School addressed to The Commandant Marbury Hall:

189 (G) P W Wkg Camp- Marbury Hall Northwich, October 1947

Sir,
We have the pleasure to present to you that Picture Book with drawings from the main camp and all its hostels. It is produced to accompany our comrades when going home as a remembrance of the time they spent at Marbury Hall. We hope you will enjoy these pictures too reminding you on many drives through Cheshire.

I have not found another copy of this book on google and it may be of interest to someone researching the POW camps in Cheshire during and just after WW2.

Foam
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Re: Marbury Hall Army and POW Camp 1939-1948

#9

Post by Foam » 14 Feb 2014, 15:21

This is a thank you to Stepco and this site. Stepco has very generously donated the book of drawings of the Marbury Hall base camp 189 and its satellite smaller farm camps. Without his generosity and the existence of this site, this our wish here in Cheshire to portray the site history would be much the poorer.

I will in time attempt to add some of what continues to be learned to this thread and relevant postings on the POW thread. The book has already contributed to our understanding of the command and control of Cheshire camps and the satellite locations.

Cheshire cheese

Foam
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Re: Marbury Hall Army and POW Camp 1939-1948

#10

Post by Foam » 02 May 2014, 16:00

Update on Marbury Hall POW Camp

http://www.northwichguardian.co.uk/news ... ll/?ref=mr

Recent story shows 2000 prisoners in 1947. Photographs of POW artnd woodcarving.

kev cornwall
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Re: Marbury Hall Army and POW Camp 1939-1948

#11

Post by kev cornwall » 22 May 2014, 15:27

walter eckhardt below was held at marbury hall camp 189, i have a letter of his sent from marbury hall in 1947 to his lawyer in germany, kev

Walter Eckhardt (March 23, 1906, Bad Homburg vor der Höhe, Hesse-Nassau - January 1, 1994) was a German politician, who represented the All-German Bloc/League of Expellees and Deprived of Rights (GB/BHE) and subsequently theChristian Social Union of Bavaria (CSU). He was a member of the Parliament of Bavaria, a member of the Bundestag and aMember of the European Parliament.

Eckhardt was until 1943 a high-ranking official (Ministerialrat) in the Reichs Ministry of Finance. In 1943 he joined the German army and was captured in early 1945 by the British. He remained in captivity until 1948. Following his repatriationhe settled in Munich where he worked as a lawyer and became politically active. In 1949 he was elected president of the German Union and became a member of the directorate of the All-German Bloc/League of Expellees and Deprived of Rights the following year. He was elected to the Parliament of Bavaria in 1950, serving until 1954.[1] He was elected to theBundestag, serving from 1953 to 1957. In 1955 he left the BHE and joined the CDU/CSU faction in March 1956. Following the resignation of Otto von Feury, Eckhardt, who had not been elected in the first place, rejoined the Bundestag for the rest of the term. Similarly, he only rejoined the Bundestag after the next elections as replacement candidate from 1964 to 1969. Additionally, Eckhardt served as a Member of the European Parliament from 1954 to 1956.

The Walter Eckhardt Award for Contemporary History of the Zeitgeschichtliche Forschungsstelle Ingolstadt is awarded in his memory.

Foam
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Re: Marbury Hall Army and POW Camp 1939-1948

#12

Post by Foam » 18 Jun 2014, 09:27

There has been a major update of the Marbury Hall website with a more accurate timeline on early British occupation of the site 1940-1941 and US Army units 1943-1944. Finally much artwork by German POWs is shown for the first time.

http://www.merseyforest.org.uk/foam/wp- ... -rev61.pdf

FoAM

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