Australian POWs of the First World War: responding to the challenges of captivity and return

Abstract

Just over 4000 Australian servicemen were taken prisoner by Ottoman and German forces during the First World War. Their distinctive stories are rarely considered in Australian histories and memories of the war: captivity affected only a minority of Australian servicemen and, for a long time, surrender or capture was seen as a failure of the contemporary prescription for Australian martial masculinity. This article explores some of the challenges the prisoners of war (POWs) faced both during and after the war, and how they responded to these challenges. Learning or refining skills and trades in prison camps helped overcome boredom but also may have enabled POWs to prepare for post-war life, while articulating particular ideas of capture and imprisonment in the post-war period to explain the physical and psychological legacies of captivity could lead to successful claims for ‘Repat’ assistance. Exploring ways in which Australian prisoners of the Germans and Ottomans made sense of their experiences of capture and captivity offers important nuance to this little-known aspect of Australian First World War history.