Oflag IX-A/H Spangenberg

Oflag IX-A/H was a German Wehrmacht officer prisoner-of-war camp established in October 1939 within Spangenberg Castle, a thirteenth-century hilltop fortress above the small town of Spangenberg in northern Hesse. The designation “H” stood for Hauptlager (main camp), distinguishing it from a sub-camp at Rotenburg an der Fulda. Its first intake comprised British RAF officers and French Air Force officers; after a brief closure between February and July 1941 — during which many prisoners were transferred to Stalag XX-A at Toruń in occupied Poland — the camp reopened to hold RAF and British Army officers for the remainder of the war. RAF aircrew figured prominently throughout: Wing Commander Harry Day, a Great Escape survivor, and Battle of Britain ace Group Captain Robert Stanford Tuck were among those held there, along with future politicians and several veterans of the St Nazaire raid. Escape attempts were a persistent feature; in August 1940 Flight Lieutenant Howard Wardle broke out briefly before recapture and transfer to Colditz, and in September 1941 three RAF officers — Dominic Bruce, Peter Tunstall and Eustace Newborn — slipped through the gate disguised as Swiss Red Cross delegates, only to be arrested ten days later while attempting to steal a Junkers Ju 52 near Kassel. In late March 1945, as Allied armies closed on Hesse, the Germans marched approximately 350 prisoners eastward; roughly 25 escaped during the column’s movement, and American forces liberated the remainder near Lengefeld unterm Stein on 4 April 1945. The castle itself was subsequently damaged by American bombing after the evacuation.