Repatriated via Odessa

Provided by Brian Cooper. 06/03/2025

At Odessa liberated POWs were carefully confined under a tight guard by Soviet officials. Allied repatriation officials were not permitted to live in the same quarters with the ex-POWs and they were not allowed to set up the internal administration of the compounds. Both Lieutenant- Colonel Hurndall, the British repatriation officer and Major Paul S. Hall, the American repatriation officer considered Soviet accommodations, food and medical care inadequate.

On the other hand, some repatriates describe being met with a Russian band playing. Some of the officers were permitted to visit Odessa under the supervision of a Russian officer. Others describe being taken to concerts, ballet performances, movies and parties with much drinking.

The liberated POWs attention though was focused on the arrival of ships to take them home.

THE SHIP EVACUATION OF LIBERATED POWs FROM ODESSA.

A 100% British operation using ships under the control of The Admiralty.

On 18 Feb 1945 the ships Moreton Bay, Highland Princess and Duchess of Bedford sailed from Liverpool carrying, respectively 1794, 1812 and 3840 Soviet POWs bound for Malta and Odessa. They arrived 5 Mar and discharged their Soviet POWs to the tender care of the Red Army.

The Moreton Bay departed Odessa 7 Mar bound for Port Said where it arrived 12 Mar. It carried a reported 1707 persons; a mix of British Army, RAF, Canadian Army, RCAF, Australian Army, RAAF, New Zealand Army, American Army, Indian Army, Greek Army, Polish Forces, French Forces and Norwegian Forces personnel.

The Highland Princess departed Odessa 8 Mar bound for Port Said where it arrived 13 Mar. It carried a reported 1719 persons; a mix of British Army, RAF, Royal Navy and Royal Marines, UK Merchant Navy, RCAF, Australian Army, Australian Navy, RAAF, New Zealand Army, South African Army, American Army, Indian Army, and French Army personnel as well as American and French Civilians.

Those carried by the Moreton Bay and Highland Princess destined for either the UK or Naples were embarked on the Samaria which sailed from Port Said 16 Mar. American nationals were to be disembarked at Naples for on carriage to USA. Samaria arrived Naples 20 Mar, sailed from Naples 22 March and arrived Liverpool 30 March 1945.

No figure for numbers of repatriates who travelled in the Samaria found in correspondence at The National Archives. The British press put the number at about 1100.

Duchess of Bedford departed Odessa16 Mar bound for Malta where it arrived 20 Mar.

It carried a reported 2979 persons; a mix of British Army, RAF, Royal Nany and Royal Marines, Canadian Army, RCAF, Australian Army, New Zealand Army, South African Army, American Army, Indian Army, French Army and Norwegian Army and Navy personnel as well as British, Dutch, Cuban and East and South African Civilians

British POWs disembarked at Malta for re-embarkment on Orion for transportation to the U.K other than ca. 30 persons to be transported to “Mideast” [Port Said]. The Duchess of Bedford was subsequently at Marseilles 23 Mar to disembark French (and other continental nationals) and US nationals. The latter for onward carriage to the USA.

The Orion, carrying repatriates destined for UK who disembarked Duchess of Bedford at Malta, departed Malta 21 Mar arriving in the Clyde 30 March. It carried 428 persons: mostly UK Forces together with a sprinkling of Canadians, Australians, New Zealanders and Norwegians plus one French national.

And so, the repatriation ships continued to sail.

Ship: Duchess of Richmond. Departed Odessa: 27 Mar 1945. Destination: The Clyde. *

Ship: Circassia. Departed Odessa:27 March 1945. Destination: Naples. *

Ship: Arawa. Departed Odessa: 30 Mar 1945. Destination : Marseilles.

Ship: Bergensfjord. Departed Odessa :2 Apr 1945. Destination : Marseilles. *

Ship: Nieuw Holland. Departed: Odessa 16 Apr 1945.Destination: The Clyde via Naples. *

Ship: Arawa. Departed Odessa:17 April 1945 Destination: Marseilles

Ship: Bergensfjord. Departed Odessa: 18 April 1945. Destination: Marseilles

Ship: Almanzora. Departed Odessa:19 April 1945 Destination: Marseilles.

Ship: Staffordshire. Departed Odessa : 22 Apr 1945 Destination : Marseilles via Naples. *

Ship: Tamaroa. Departed Odessa : 26 April 1945 Destination : Marseilles

Ship: Bergensfjord. Departed Odessa : 3 May 1945.Destination: Marseilles via Naples. *

Ship: Monowai. Departed Odessa : 4 May 1945. Destination: Marseilles.

Ship: Arawa. Departed Odessa: 9 May 1945. Destination: Taranto. *

Ship: Tamaroa. Departed Odessa:13 May 1945. Destination: Marseilles.

Ship: Monowai. Departed Odessa: 21 May 1945. Destination: Marseilles.

Ship: Arawa. Departed Odessa : 25 May 1945. Destination : Marseilles via Naples. *

Ship: Circassia. Departed Odessa: 25 May 1945. Destination: Marseilles.

Ship: Ascanius. Departed Odessa :28 May 1945. Destination: Marseilles via Port Said. *

Ship: Monowai. Departed Odessa: 4 Jun 1945. Destination: Marseilles. *

Ship: Empire Pride. Departed Odessa : 6 Jun 1945 Destination: Marseilles. *

Ship: Arawa. Departed Odessa:8 Jun 1945. Destination : Marseilles. *

Ship: Ascanius. Departed Odessa :22 Jun 1945. Destination: Marseilles via Port Said. *

* Reported carrying British Commonwealth Forces personnel.

A repatriation route negotiated by the British and American government for their POWs became an ‘escape’ route for French, Belgian, Dutch etc. wishing to remove themselves from Soviet control; civilians as well as liberated POWs.

With the sailing of the route via Odessa closed by the Soviet Government, anyone still in Soviet controlled territory would have to reach the west by land even if they turned up in Odessa having missed the last sailing.

Soviet Rails to Odessa, British Ships to Freedom, Richard Foregger, The Journal of Slavic Military Studies, Vol.8, No.4 (December 1995), pp.844-860 summarises the events at Odessa as “A total of 36,171 Allied ex-prisoners of war, liberated by advancing Soviet Armies from German prison camps in eastern Germany and Poland were transported in Red Army troop trains to Odessa. They were then shipped out of Odessa to their homelands in 19 British troopships from 7 March to 22 June 1945. A total of 4,310 of these liberated prisoners of war were British and British Commonwealth, 2,858 were American, 1,500 Belgian, and 27,503 French, according to RAMPS, the official report of Allied liberated POWs at the end of World War II.”

The eagle-eyed will note that the number of ship movements from Odessa listed above is higher than the number quoted by Foregger. The difference is accounted for by my working with British sources at the UK National Archives while Foregger worked with sources in the US.

Foregger does not differentiate between liberated POWs and civilians which the British sources do. He also puts ships at Odessa which can be placed elsewhere on the five oceans at the times they are supposed to have been in Odessa. Perhaps he worked with plans which by the necessities of war had to be changed to reflect immediate priorities.