User:Aaron n Randall/Camp 104 Eaden Vale

Eden Vale Camp(114), Westbury

There was in October 1944 an audacious plan hatched by Waffen SS officers and some Fallschirmjäger troops to break out of their Eden Vale Camp in Westbury, Wiltshire and seize weapons, including tanks from a local army depot and march on London, all this was to coincide with the Ardennes offensive which was taking place in Europe. The Ardennes Offensive lifted the moral of many German prisoners as they thought this would lead to their liberation but they were very much mistaken. Although the plan sounds ludicrous it caused the British some concern and not unfoundedly as there were around 250,000 prisoners in Britain (the equivalent of 48 divisions) at that time and the British and American forces stationed in Britain numbered considerably less as they were fighting in Europe and the Far East. The plan was fortunately discovered and the perpetrators were dealt with, being sent to Comrie Camp in Perthshire (Camp 21) in the wilds of Scotland which housed hard-line line Nazis (mainly young Waffen SS, Fallschirmjäger and U-boat crew prisoners) out of the way of other moderate prisoners. This did lead to one very unfortunate incident where Feldweldbler Wolfgang Rogsterg-a known anti-Nazi was Left behind. He was believed to have informed of the plot to march on London and after a severe beating was hanged in the latrine. Ironically he was hanged by the electric light fitting he negotiated to have fitted as a luxury on behalf of the camp prisoners. Five prisoners were caught, tried and hanged in Pentonville Prison in North London on 6th December 1946. Another prisoner- Unitetozzoffizer Gerhard Reittig was beaten to death for his open criticism of the plan after being chased round the Eden Vale Camp and two other prisoners were executed in November 1946 in Eden Vale Camp.

On November, 16 1946, Feldweldbler Wolfgang Rogsterg was buried at the Nearby Brook Farm. The local newspaper reports state that the 23 year olds coffin was accompanied by 30 fellow prisoners under escort and buried "with full military honours" in the temporary cemetery. Feldweldbler Wolfgang Rogsterg family attempted to have the body returned home after the war but the building work for the Brook lane industrial complex was already well underway and Feldweldbler Wolfgang Rogsterg body was never located.