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What does POW stand for?

Compass

Small (escape) compass fitted into the back of an RAF brass button.

POW stands for Prisoner of War. The Museum's display depicts a WWII POW camp in Germany. Fewer than 100 New Zealand troops were taken prisoner in South Africa, just over 500 in WWI and in total 8348 during WWII.

In WWII New Zealanders were either captured by the Germans in North Africa or Europe (mainly Greece) or by the Japanese during the war in the Pacific. Generally the Germans treated their prisoners as per the 1929 Geneva Convention whereas the 100 or so soldiers captured by the Japanese often experienced extreme conditions with many returning home suffering from malnutrition, disease and lacking their former 'punch'.

The chief enemy of being a POW was boredom and with New Zealand's army being a 'citizens' army where many soldiers were highly skilled professional fitters, carpenters, builders and so on, some amazing trench art was created while locked in prisoner of war camps.

Escape Jacket Handmade Chess Set

Grey Woollen escape jacket made from an army blanket. This jacket was made and worn during escape by Brigadier Reginald Miles CBE, DSO, MC across Italy to neutral Switzerland.

Handmade Chess Set in a coconut shell and made by Sapper Lancelot Herd while a prisoner in Changi Prison , Singapore during WWII.

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