officers taken prisoner
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Should there be a reason why so many officers were taken prisoner (8) in comparison with OR's (only 13)?
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by cyngast moderator
My guess--and it is only a guess--is that at the time that this was written, the adjutant had confirmation that only 13 OR had been taken prisoner. Officers were probably easier to account for because they were more noticeable and played a more critical role in the operations.
If you look at the figures for Missing, you'll see that there are far more OR than officers. It is possible that some number of those missing were taken prisoner, but that no witness survived or escaped to return to headquarters and report that fact.
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by ral104 moderator, scientist
I agree with Cynthia - it seems that they simply didn't know yet what had happened to most of the men.
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by David_Underdown moderator
Officers were often more able to make their status known after capture too. Simple things like making arrangements to draw money from their bank alerted people that they were still alive. For ORs the German's at this time were often not reporting their capture to the Red Cross properly and using them for forced labour closer to the front lines than was allowed by the various conventions.
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