Pow Wow was the largest circulating daily underground newspaper in Germany during World War II.  Its headquarters were at Stalag Luft I. It grew from a small penciled newssheet read by hundreds into a neatly printed 2,000 word daily, eagerly perused by thousands. At its most successful period, it boasted editions in three languages and a circulation that reached seven prison camps.  Pow Wow stood for Prisoners Of War - Waiting On Winning and it claimed to be the only truthful newspaper in Germany.

The Germans knew about Pow Wow and they made strenuous efforts to eliminate it, but from March 1944 to May 1945 not one edition was missed because of enemy interference.  It served a continuous and vital kriegie need: the urgent necessity to be kept informed on what was happening outside their barbed wire isolation.

NEWS SOURCES
News was obtained from four main sources:  from German newspapers and magazines brought into the camp, from loudspeakers which broadcast the Nazi war communiqués and from newly arrived prisoners who brought fresh news from home.  The fourth source was  a secret radio hidden in the South/West Compound.

THE SECRET RADIO
The best source of news was from the hidden radio  which was strong enough to pick up the BBC news. The radio had been constructed by two RAF (Royal Air Force) men, mainly from smuggled parts late in 1943.  It first operated on the camp electrical system, but it was later converted to run on batteries in order to listen to the BBC nightly broadcast when the camp electricity supply had been cut off.  The receiver was concealed within a wall panel located behind a bed in the barrack room, some of the fixing nails acting as terminals to which an aerial wire and earphone cables could be attached.  Only two almost invisible points on the wall disclosed where the radio was erected.  When these points were joined by a short length of wire, the set was automatically switched on to the correct wave-length and the chimes of London's Big Ben preceding the nightly news.

There were designated listeners who transcribed the news onto pieces of toilet paper. Lou Trouve, and American POW  and Alec Small an RCAF POW were the primary transcribers. This paper was then  hidden in a tin of dried milk that had been fitted with a false bottom.

After roll call the next morning, the notes were dictated to a typist who made a copy on a small very thin sheet of paper.  This paper was then folded and hidden in a hollow wristwatch.  The wristwatch was  worn by W/O R.R. Drummond (RAF) the official liaison officer between the  West Compound and the North  Compound during his daily trips between them. Although he was often searched, this paper was never discovered.

PUBLICATION
The actual compilation and publication of the paper occurred in Barracks 9 of the North I Compound.  Pow Wow consisted of  two columns on each side of a legal-size piece of tissue paper.  It was printed and duplicated by carbon paper on a typewriter and circulated each evening throughout the camp. When supplies of carbon paper were exhausted, new stocks were made by smoking sheets of paper over oil based lamps and sizing them with smuggled kerosene.  The "staff" generally worked until mid-afternoon until the evening paper was ready for distribution to the compounds. One copy was distributed to each barracks.  Ray Parker was the editor of POW WOW


OTHER LANGUAGES
At one time a daily Russian edition was published from the original and the thirty five Soviet fliers who were also interned in the camp had a means of communicating their news to other Russian compounds in the vicinity. And for a short time, a French version also appeared regularly.


THE SUNDAY PAPER
During the summer of 1944, they also produced, a weekly Sunday supplement that contained eight pages of news summaries, features, contributions, editorials and analysis.  The paper frequently contained cartoons, hand drawn on each copy. Fighter Ace, Capt. Donald Ross supplied a weekly page of comics entitled "Klim Kriegies" which parodied the more amusing aspects of camp life. Another feature was a weekly poll, in which representatives canvassed the  camp for opinions on timely subjects. A poll in the middle of July 1944 showed that the majority of the prisoners thought the war would be over by September 1944.


SCOOPS
Pow Wow scored some spectacular news scoops despite the handicaps under which it operated.  These scoops came from the German radio, and from German guards secretly listening to the Oslo or Copenhagen radio and tipping off the POWs. The crew got out an "extra" on the invasion of Normandy which preceded American news flashes by twenty minutes. And their issue announcing the fall of Paris was out two hours before any New York newspaper had it.

OTHER ISSUES
Because Pow Wow was almost always destroyed after it was read, few actual copies are known to exist.  The copies below are the only ones we know of in existence.  We hope to find more and would like to hear from anyone who might have any other issues. Please contact us at Stalagluftone@hotmail.com if you have any copies of POW WOW not listed below.