This Day in Welsh History, March 10 1945 - Bridgend and WWII

The town of Bridgend in South Wales may seem a little remote from the main action in World war II. But on this day in 1945 a dramatic escape from the Island Farm POW camp in the town took place and for a short while 84 senior German military officers were roaming the Welsh countryside. Nearly all were subsequently caught having made it in a few cases as far as Birmingham and Southampton.

From the Wikipedia :- "Island Farm was a Prisoner of War Camp (Camp 198) on the outskirts of the town of Bridgend, South Wales. It hosted a number of Axis prisoners, mainly German, and was the scene of the largest escape attempt by German POWs in Britain during World War II. Near the end of the war it became known as Special Camp XI. The list of former inmates includes many senior SS military leaders, who were awaiting extradition to the Nuremberg trials."

Bridgend was also important during WWII for other reasons. It was the site of a massive ordnance factory at Brackla, just outside the town, which at peak production employed 40,000 workers, making it the largest single production plant in British history.

From the Wikipedia :- "Until 1936, the 900 acres (3.6 km2) of land occupied east to west by the Bridgend Industrial Estate, Brackla and the Brackla Industrial Estate was farm land. In 1936, noting the building propensity of war by Adolf Hitler and the Nazi regime, the British Government agreed creation of two new Royal Ordnance Factories, including one at Bridgend on the site of what is now Bridgend Industrial Estate. Needing to store munitions, they eventually dug eight long shafts under Brackla Hill, connecting it to two new ROF's on what is now Brackla Industrial Estate. Both facilities were connected to the Great Western Railway South Wales Main Line, with the line to the Barckla facility running along what is now Church Acre. At its peak, ROF 53 employed some 40,000 people, and was the biggest single factory in Western Europe."

Once World War 2 ceased main operations, ROF 53 stopped production at the end of 1945, and closed completely by the end of 1946. The land was sold to property developers, with that north of the railway developed as a housing."