Repatriated Luftwaffe wounded

[Tony Kearns]

In September 1943 a Hospital ship left Glasgow and sailed to Gotenburg to exchange wounded personnel. I realise it is a long shot but can anyone tell me the name of the ship please.
Tony K

[Stig Jarlevik]

Hi Tony

Sorry to say I know nothing about the 1943 exchange, but exactly one year later the vessel M/S Gripsholm entered Gothenburg harbour on 7 September 1944 with 550 men from the former Rommel's Army but also included some former Luftwaffe personal. 162 of them were in such bad shape both physically and mentally that they were transferred to hospital for further treatment (many of these were in fact thought fit for assylum). I also believe the vessel returned with British former POW the other way round later in the month.

This exchange was organized by Folke Bernadotte working for the Red Cross at the time. He was also responsible for the 1943 exchange. I don't think Sweden possessed that many large vessels at the time, so the chances are quite good it actually was Gripsholm in 1943 as well...

Cheers
Stig

[Tony Kearns]

Thank you Stig, that is something to work on.
Regards
Tony K

[Brian Bines]

Tony is it this one http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d3pPpBkSHSE on checking this ship was probaly only used on the Gotenburg to Germany trip.- Scoll down on this site to Repatriation of Wounded POWs and it mentions some ships used http://www.prisonerofwar.org.uk/winter_2005.htm. This site would indicate the Gripsholm was not used in the Sept. 1943 POW exchange http://www.salship.se/mercy.asp.

[Martin Gleeson]

Hi Tony,

That ship, a converted liner, was possibly the Empress of Russia. It had arrived in Glasgow c.30 September 1943 from New York. It may have been there for up to two weeks before departing for Sweden.

This information from the excellent 'Footprints on the Sands of Time' by Oliver Clutton-Brock.

Regards,

Martin.

[Brian Bines]

Tony searching under Hospital Ship Atlantis there is a Daily Echo article which says that in Sept.43 cinema audiences were able to watch a newsreel of the first exchange of wounded British and German POWs carried out by the hospital ship Atlantis and its Royal Mail crew,

Regards

Brian Bines

[bill norman]

Tony, you have a PM.

[mkenny]

There is a book 'Confronting Captivity' that says the very first POW exchange was the 17th -21st October 1943 one. There had been many previous attempts to arrange exchanges but they all broke down over the German insistance that it be a 1-for-1 deal and the number of POW's held by German was much greater than the number of Germans in British hands. Disputes over making up the number with civilians and the staus of 'protected personel' and the involvemnet of the US all helped make it a nightmare and the deal only went through because the Tunisian surrender gifted the Allies a large pool of German POW's.
There is no mention of the ship used.

http://www.amazon.com/Confronting-Ca.../dp/B004IK8A1Y

and a partialy readable Google version

http://books.google.co.uk/books?id=b...ochavi&f=false

The Gripsholm (page 130) was used in the second Barcelona exchange