Caption: The calm before the storm. Straehler with naval detachment in Tsingtao, China, prior to the Anglo-Japanese siege.
About the talk: Anne recounts the little-known escape story of two German naval officers, who spent a year on the run covering an astonishing five thousand miles and almost circumnavigating the globe. Fritz Sachsse (Korvettenkapitän} and Herbert Straehler (Oberleutnant sur Zee) were among the 4,700 Germans captured after the Siege of Tsingtao in China in November 1914 and sent to the POW camp at Fukuoka in Japan. In January 1916, five officers escaped individually from the Fukuoka camp with the aim of returning home to Germany to re-join the war effort. Two of them - Sachsse and Straehler - met up in Shanghai and made plans to travel along the 'Silk Road' west through China, Afghanistan, Persia and Turkey. A detailed diary of the journey has recently been found by the family of one of the men, providing a fascinating insight into the experiences of German officers in Japanese captivity during the First World War and into life in China a century ago.
Straehler and Sachsse were on the run for most of 1916,
they travelled an astonishing five thousand miles.
About the speaker: Anne is Associate Professor in the German Department of the University of Leeds, where she teaches and researches in German and Translation Studies. Her research focuses on the Great War training and POW camp in Skipton. She led the translation for the book 'German Prisoners of the Great War: Life in a Yorkshire Camp', published in hardback February 2021. She also co-translated Holger Afflerbach's book 'On a Knife Edge: How Germany Lost the First World War'.
This online talk: opens at 19:20 for a 19:30 start, and ends about 20:30. Participating is quick and easy. The only equipment you need is a computer, or a tablet, or a smart phone. Simply email wfa.nwkent@gmail.com for your link and the passcode. These will be sent out on the day of the talk, a few hours before it starts. We'll also automatically add you to the mailing list to keep you updated with future events.
Anne Buckley holding the German original 'Kriegsgefangen in Skipton'. The English language
edition - 'German Prisoners of the Great War' - is about to launch in paperback and is available
from the publishers at a special reduced introductory price.