The Battle of Bowmanville was a 1942 revolt in the Bowmanville prisoner of war camp (Camp 30) in Ontario, Canada. The prisoners, most of whom were higher-ranking German officers, objected to the intended shackling of 100 prisoners. The battle lasted for three days.[1][2]
Battle of Bowmanville | |||||||
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Part of the American Theater of World War II | |||||||
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Belligerents | |||||||
Canada | Germany | ||||||
Units involved | |||||||
Veterans Guard of Canada Canadian Army cadet commandos | 126 German POWs | ||||||
Casualties and losses | |||||||
1 Veteran's Guard injured | Several wounded |
Revolt
editThe residents of Camp 30 were mostly Germans captured by the British and sent to Canada for internment in anticipation of a potential invasion of Britain. They were guarded by the Veterans Guard of Canada. The violence began after 126 prisoners were sent to another camp to be shackled as a reprisal for the chaining of Canadian soldiers captured at Dieppe (itself a reaction to captured plans for the shackling of German POWs[3]). After a period of hand-to-hand fighting, during which one Canadian guard had his skull fractured, 400 prisoners barricaded themselves in a hall. They remained there for over a day while the guards awaited reinforcements. A group of students at a nearby commando course in Kingston, Ontario arrived on Canadian Thanksgiving, subduing the barricaded prisoners with fire hoses and tear gas.[4]
Three shots were fired during the revolt, two of which wounded PoW Volkmar Koenig, shot by a tower guard after prisoners grabbed a Canadian officer.[5] Another prisoner was stabbed with a bayonet, but survived.[4] A number of other prisoners and guards were injured during the revolt, often in hand-to-hand combat.[1][2]
References
edit- ^ a b "Behind barbed wire in Canadian PoW camps". CBC Archives. Retrieved 29 June 2018.
- ^ a b Durflinger, Serge (27 October 2023). "To war once more". Legion Magazine.
- ^ Turcotte, Jean-Michel (January 2018). "Bowmanville, 1942: The 'Shackling Crisis' and the Treatment of German Prisoners of War in Canada". Online Atlas on the History of Humanitarianism and Human Rights.
- ^ a b "Prisoners: Battle of Bowmanville". Time. 26 October 1942. Archived from the original on 14 October 2010.
- ^ "An insult to our military history". Toronto Sun. 10 November 2014.