The AGRICULTURAL HISTORY REVIEW
a journal of agricultural and rural history
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Agricultural History Review, Volume 60 Part 2 (2012), pp. 243–265
Employing the enemy: the contribution of German and Italian Prisoners of War to British agriculture during and after the Second World War
German and Italian prisoners of war (POWs) were a common sight in parts of rural Britain during and immediately after the Second World War. This article seeks to ascertain their economic contribution to the British wartime and post-war economy. The analysis of new evidence from the National Archives reveals that Italian and in particular German prisoners were productive assets on the land, more so than previous estimates have shown. At a peak in 1946 they formed one fifth of the rural workforce. Both their productivity and the scale of their employment was highest in the immediate post-war years, leading to a contribution to British GDP of one per cent in both 1946 and 1947.