Alongside the Women’s Land Army, German and Italian prisoners of war (POWs)became an absolutely vital backbone of South Holland’s agricultural workforce during and immediately after World War II.
Lincolnshire hosted roughly 20 POW camps, establishing a fascinating dynamic of low-security labor and surprising community integration across the Fenlands.
🇮🇹 The Italian Co-Operators (1941–1945)
Italian prisoners, captured mostly during campaigns in North Africa, were the first to arrive in large numbers in the early 1940s.
- Shift in Status: Following the Italian surrender in 1943, those who renounced Fascism were reclassified as “co-operators”.
- Relaxed Restrictions: Because they were deemed low-risk, guards rarely monitored them heavily. Camp wardens would sometimes hand an unloaded rifle to a trusted Italian prisoner and tell him to watch the group while the guard went away for hours.
- Billeting on Farms: To save on transport logistics, many Italians were permanently “billeted” (housed and fed) directly on the family farms where they worked.
🇩🇪 The German Influx & Post-War Labour (1945–1948)
While some German prisoners worked during the war, their numbers in South Holland peaked after VE Day in 1945. With the British economy shattered and the local workforce slow to return from the front, German POWs were legally mandated to work the fields.
- Fulney Park Camp (Camp 153): Located just south of Spalding, Fulney Park Camp became a major post-war hub for Axis prisoners and displaced persons. It consisted of corrugated tin Nissen huts and a reinforced concrete communications bunker.
- Heavy Labor: The German prisoners worked grueling 12-hour summer days clearing the endless network of Fenland drainage ditches, harvesting wheat, and digging up sugar beet for roughly 8 shillings a week. They supplemented their pocket money by crafting wooden toys and picture frames to sell to locals.
🤝 Integration, Fraternisation, and Legacy
The interaction between the prisoners and the South Holland community left a lasting social footprint:
- The Ban Lifted: In December 1946, the British government lifted the strict ban on “fraternisation”. POWs were suddenly allowed to walk into town, visit local shops, and accept invitations to family homes for Christmas dinner.
- Spud Picking & Friendships: Local schoolchildren and Land Girls working alongside the prisoners in the fields frequently formed close friendships with them.
- Choosing to Stay: When the camps finally closed—Fulney Park remained active until around 1952—hundreds of German and Italian men chose not to return home. Having built lives in the Fens, many married local Lincolnshire women, settled permanently in the district, and continued working in South Holland’s thriving agricultural industry for the rest of their lives. Today, the former Fulney Park camp site operates as a massive commercial plant nursery.
