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Search prisoner of war questionnaires

More soldiers were taken captive in World War 2 than in any other conflict in history. If your ancestor was a surviving British or Commonwealth prisoner of war (POW), held by Germany, Italy or Japan, they may be one of over 80,000 former POWs who filled in a questionnaire after liberation.

The records, originally top secret and catalogued as WO 344 at the National Archives, have recently been digitised and are available to search on Ancestry: www.snipca.com/48400. As well as the details of their capture, prisoners are asked about interrogations, escape attempts, sabotage and potential war crimes. Search by name and include details such as date of birth, date and place of capture, enlistment date, unit, service number and rank.

POWs captured in Europe

Actor Donald Pleasence, who starred in The Great Escape and played Bond villain Blofeld in You Only Live Twice, spent time as a POW in Germany during the war. We searched for him on Ancestry and found that he had filled in a questionnaire. F/O Pleasence ( 1 in our screenshot left) of Squadron 166, Bomber Command, was captured at Pas de Calais on 31 August 1944 2 . He reported that he had been imprisoned in Barth, Germany, at Stalag Luft I 3 from 1 October 1944 to 1 May 1945 4 .

On the final page, POWs could add further information. Here, Pleasence reported that he had “marched from St Omer, France to a place n.w. of Brugge with the retreating German Army before entraining (sic) Holland. Hardships suffered en route but names of German personnel concerned not known” (see screenshot above).

POWs captured in Far East

A similar questionnaire was drawn up for POWs held by the Japanese. We found one interesting example from F/Sgt Jack Holden of 59 Sqn Coastal Command, who was captured in Java on 12 March 1942 (see screenshot below).

When building the Changi Aerodrome in Singapore, he and his fellow POWs had committed many acts of sabotage. These included putting sand in the axle box