Herbert Reginald Hansen

Service number: WWI 24/2530 AWMM
Also known as: —
Armed force / branch: Army AWMM
Last rank: —
War: World War I, 1914-1918 AWMM

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Biographical information

Herbert Reginald Hansen, 24/2530, was serving with the 2nd Entrenching Battalion when he was captured by German forces at Meteren on 16 April 1918. He and other British and New Zealand prisoners were marched to Armentières, where they were immediately put to work unloading ammunition despite having received no food.
Hansen described extremely poor conditions during his captivity. At Armentières, prisoners were confined for several weeks in a flooded cellar and subjected to long periods of forced labour on inadequate rations. He developed bronchitis and was sent to hospital at Lille, but after protesting about the lack of food and medical treatment he was transferred to the Citadel of Lille and then Fort Macdonald.
After being moved to a casualty clearing station at Leuze, Hansen made an unsuccessful escape attempt before escaping on 5 June 1918. Travelling largely at night and receiving assistance from Belgian civilians, he reached Brussels. Attempts to cross into neutral Holland failed and he was recaptured near Visé. Imprisoned at the Fortress de la Chartreuse at Liège, he made another unsuccessful escape attempt and spent 56 days there under harsh conditions.
On 5 November 1918, while being escorted with other prisoners to a train for Germany, Hansen escaped again by hiding behind a railway wagon and climbing over a wall. He returned to Brussels, where he witnessed the upheaval among German troops immediately before the Armistice.
Rather than wait for organised repatriation, Hansen eventually made his own way towards the Allied lines. He reached Courtrai and was sent by hospital train to Boulogne. Weakened by his experiences and injured in a fall while attempting to board a moving lorry, he was evacuated to England by hospital ship, arriving at the King George Hospital on 4 December 1918.

Chronicles of the NZEF, 24 January 1919 (article is titled "German Ill-treatment: Experiences of a plucky prisoner of war (pow)) AWMM

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Herbert Reginald Hansen