Generalfeldmarschall Gerd Von Rundstedt…Continued…

Several months after the war had ended, certain prisoners were allowed to be escorted out of the camp to work in the surrounding areas. Rundstedt was allowed the privilege of being escorted to Bridgend. The shopping crowds in Nolton street and Caroline Street took no notice of the ageing man but would most certainly have done had he not been dressed in civilian clothes.

Some people remembered, though, how in certain shops he would jostle his way to the front of the queue and demand preferential treatment which left many customers angry.

Von Rundstedt was allowed to go to church in Bridgend.  The guards used to escort him to Nolton Church and on certain occasions he went to Merthyr Mawr Church .

Von Rundstedt appreciated the fellowship that he received at St Mary's Nolton for, on his departure back to Germany he sent the following note:

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10.5.48 Dear Mrs Lees ! I thank you sincerely for your kindness to send me the delicious food- parcel ! I hope that I can send the 2 tinned cans to my grand-chil dren in Germany.  The eggs I have very en- joyed ! With compliments Yours very sincerely Von Rundstedt - Field Marshal

In February 2005, I corresponded with one of the grand-children mentioned in the above letter. Paul von Rundstedt told me: I believe that the tins contained fruits and some drinking chocolate. They did not go far seeing as there were 5 grand children, but we were very grateful, "However, the selfish swine kept the eggs for himself!".

• 12 January 1948: Son Hans Gerd (previously a POW at Island Farm) died of throat cancer in Hannover.

• 4 May 1948: Transferred to No. 231 Prisoner of War Hospital at Redgrave Hall.
• 23 July 1948: Departed the United Kingdom aboard an aircraft bound for Germany. After a brief stay in Nürnberg, von Rundstedt was transferred to No. 6 PW Hospital at Munsterlager.
• 29 August 1948: The British Government formally declared its intent to try Generalfeldmarschall Walther von Brauchitsch, Generalfeldmarschall von Rundstedt, Generalfeldmarschall Erich von Lewenski genannt von Manstein and Generaloberst Adolf Strauß as war criminals. Effective that date, all four generals were discharged from the Wehrmacht and no longer considered prisoners of war.[3]
• 24 September 1948: The four generals were transferred to No. 94 British Military Hospital at Hamburg-Barmbeck.
• 1 January 1949: The British Government formally charged von Rundstedt with 20 counts of war crimes including involvement in the Commando Order, the Commissar Order, ill-treatment and killing of Russian civilians, partisans and prisoners of war and captured French resistance members, and the ill-treatment, killing and deportation of Polish, Dutch, Belgian and French civilians.
• 5 May 1949: The British Government declared von Rundstedt and Strauß medically unfit to stand trial and ordered their release.[4] (During the last years of his life, von Rundstedt suffered increasingly from insomnia, chronic arteriosclerosis, osteo-arthritis and some short term memory loss. Period photographs from his captivity clearly illustrate von Rundstedt’s frail physical appearance and his dependence on canes for mobility due to a painful, arthritic right hip.)
• 26 May 1949: Released from captivity and returned to Germany. He died in Hanover on the 24th February 1953 aged 77 years.

Regarded by both Eisenhower and Montgomery as the best of the German commanders, Rundstedt was, in truth, well past his prime by 1942. Never an original thinker, as he was the first to admit, he was a pragmatist, possessed of much common sense, and a believer in decentralised command. His strength lay in his adherence to the Prussian military code of duty, honour, and loyalty, which also made him incapable of actively opposing Hitler and his regime.

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