Memories is wee bit hazy but did some Royals capture in Korea not choose to stay behind.

Sure some of them had worked in Jugoslavia alongside Tito's partisans

That Russian Site is pretty amazing.
When you think that they are still recovering stuff from WW1, Makes you wonder how long their EOD tasking is going to last.
I would not want to get within a country mile from some of that kit.
(Let alone that the area was mined,) (One of the photos shows a AP mine in a hollow, I would think planted rather than left.)
Those guys must have some pretty big ones. Or as mentioned, Are not taking the risks into account.
(I wish I could read Russian.)

Very interesting all the same.
Cheers
Gadge

Edited for spelling

Russian relic huntic with magnet

Unfortunately, what used to be a battlefield archaeology hobby by enthusiasts and historians is now big business - grave sites are being dug up to make big bucks from the international militaria markets (eg German dog-tags, Iron crosses, etc). Although some of the remains are now being re-interred in cemeteries (I think the Germans are now paying for their war dead to be handed over), a lot of bones seem to be burned or chucked back in the holes once the goodies have been taken out....

They're not totally unfeeling, nice to see the poppies laid on that tank (KV 1?)

I'm sure I've seen an article in a paper about a book a few years back which claims that there is about 500 unaccounted for British POW's from WW2 they were believed to have been liberated/captured by the Russians during the advance west in 44/45 and put into the Gulags . Russia wasnt scared of having it's allies citizens in the camps during the war and it's covered a little in Gulag: A History of the Soviet Camps by Anne Applebaum.

and after this who know's link

An elderly Hungarian found languishing in a Russian mental hospital could finally be allowed to return home - 55 years after being taken prisoner by the Russian Army.

The Hungarian Consul in Moscow, Imre Laszloczki, said he was sure that 75-year-old former prisoner of war, Andras Tamas, would be granted permanent residence status in Hungary.


He speaks the language used 50 years ago

Hungarian psychiatrist Andras Veer
Mr Tamas was confined in the Kotelnich mental hospital in northern Russia in 1947, where he remained until a Slovak doctor treating him was surprised to discover that his patient knew no Russian but could speak some Hungarian.

Efforts were made to establish Mr Tamas's identity, but incomplete records and the patient's own confused state - the former POW is thought to suffer from schizophrenia - meant it took several years for a clearer picture of his origins to emerge.

A leading Hungarian psychiatrist, Andras Veer, travelled to Russia to examine Mr Tamas and came to the conclusion that there was "no reason to doubt that he was taken prisoner while serving as a soldier in the Hungarian Army".

'Indisputably Hungarian'

"He speaks only Hungarian, in the language used 50 years ago, with a middling-rich vocabulary," Dr Veer - who runs the Hungarian National Institute of Psychiatry - told Hungarian radio.

Mr Tamas told Dr Veer that he was born in what used to be known as Turocszentmarton - now Martin in southern Slovakia - and had spent some time in the northern Hungarian towns of Miskolc and Nyiregyhaza.

Mr Tamas
Confined for 55 years
Dr Veer concluded that Mr Tamas's mental condition was likely to improve in a Hungarian-speaking environment, and recommended that he be repatriated.

The Budapest newpaper Vasarnapi Hirek said that Mr Tamas's command of Hungarian "improved significantly" during the course of his conversation with Dr Veer, although his language was "spiced with archaic terms".

Mr Laszloczki said that although it was not yet possible to confirm Mr Tamas's Hungarian citizenship, he was indisputably "Hungarian by nationality" and should therefore be allowed to return home.

Not strictly Allied POWs but :

The Long Walk
Story of a Polish Cavalry Officer who escaped from one of the Gulags, and similarly
As Far As My Feet Will Carry Me tellls the story of a German called Clemens Forell who escaped from a camp near Lake Baikal.

I'm sure there is a bit of poetic licence in both stories, but absolutely fascinating, nonetheless.

One French infantryman was 'liberated' by the russkies in `45 from a pow camp. He finally got home to France in the mid `90s.

Originally Posted by chasndave

Not strictly Allied POWs but :

The Long Walk
Story of a Polish Cavalry Officer who escaped from one of the Gulags, and similarly
As Far As My Feet Will Carry Me tellls the story of a German called Clemens Forell who escaped from a camp near Lake Baikal.

I'm sure there is a bit of poetic licence in both stories, but absolutely fascinating, nonetheless.

IIRC, the first turned out to be invented (he was simply released and went directly home), the second was a fictionalised biography of another chap who, when traced, refused to confirm the story.

One of the appalling things about the Gulag is that almost no-one escaped to tell the tale. Even Russian victims still tend to keep silent. When you get to meet one (most of the people released remained in internal exile well away from the major cities), they are still reluctant to talk and remain in terror of the authorities - either personally, or for their families and descendants. Now much of the Gulag history is erased for ever - probably not even remaining in KGB/FSB archives.

Originally Posted by tiger stacker

Memories is wee bit hazy but did some Royals capture in Korea not choose to stay behind.

One Royal Marine Andrew Condron from Scotland remained behind
IIRC he came back top the UK in 1960

23 U.S. prisoners elected to remain also

I'm sure one of the Soviet spys from the 60's possibly George Blake claimed to have been turned by the Russians after capture in Korea

Didn't Stalin send his own son to the Gulag as punishment for being captured?