‘The Great March West’, ‘The Long March’, ‘The Long Walk’, ‘The Long Trek’, ‘The Black March’, ‘The Bread March’, and ‘Death March Across Germany’ are a variety of terms used to describe the marches.

From a total of 257,000 Allied prisoners of war (POWs) held in German POW camps, over 80,000 were forced to march westward, away from the advancing Soviet Army, across Poland, Czechoslovakia and Germany in extreme winter conditions, over about four months between January and April 1945.

Dire circumstances

Many POWs began their marches in awful conditions: some had malnutrition and most were simply too weak to endure such a strenuous journey. A lot of the marches became notorious, such as the one from Stalag Luft IV in Pomerania, where the POWs faced an 800 km (500 mile) trek in blizzard conditions across Germany, during which hundreds died.

The winter of 1944–45 was especially harsh, and during January and February 1945 those on the march had to endure heavy snowfall, ice and sub-zero temperatures day and night.

Red Cross parcels, which had been issued to men before the march, soon ran out, leaving them with meagre rations distributed by the Germans. Contaminated water led to instances of dysentery and diarrhoea and many men soon became physically unable to march. Coupled with this was the problem of Allied fighter aircraft roaming German occupied territory and mistaking long rows of marching POWs as enemy military personnel.