Early Repatriation of POWs - April 1945

[Buffnut453]

Folks,

The thread on the use of Stirlings to relocate refugees in August 1945 made me wonder whether anyone on the forum knows anything about POW repatriation flights in April 1945.

By way of background, my cousin went ashore on D-Day but was captured in October 1944 at s'Hertogenbosch, Belgium. The POW camp (or camps) he was sent to has not been recorded. He is recorded as being repatriated on 11 April 1945 but, sadly, he died of malnutrition the same day at a US military hospital near Oxford. My family received a telegram saying he was back in-country, only to receive a second telegram a few hours later to say that he had died.

I'm thinking that if I can identify his repatriation route, it might help me discover in which POW camp he was held. April 1945 was very early for POW repatriations and I've been unable to discover any accounts of POW camps being liberated that early (although several POW camps in the west were evacuated by the Germans and the prisoners marched east - given the physical condition of my cousin, it's likely he was left behind).

I know this is a long shot but it's possible someone out there has looked at transportation flights back from Europe in the April 1945 timeframe...I live in hope.

Thanks.