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Battle of Bowmanville

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Battle of Bowmanville
Part of the American Theater of World War II
DateOctober 10–12, 1942
Location43°55′37″N 78°40′00″W / 43.92694°N 78.66667°W / 43.92694; -78.66667
Result Revolt failed
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

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]

Revolt

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The 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

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  1. ^ a b "Behind barbed wire in Canadian PoW camps". CBC Archives. Retrieved 29 June 2018.
  2. ^ a b Durflinger, Serge (27 October 2023). "To war once more". Legion Magazine.
  3. ^ 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.
  4. ^ a b "Prisoners: Battle of Bowmanville". Time. 26 October 1942. Archived from the original on 14 October 2010.
  5. ^ "An insult to our military history". Toronto Sun. 10 November 2014.