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The site, which housed around 2,000 German captured men, had sports pitches, space for musical shows, carpentry workshops and a school. Captured Nazis had hot showers while electricity powered lights and heating.
But the Wehrmacht held at Mile End, Oswestry, Shropshire, were not always happy campers.
There were frequent breakouts while boundary ditches and barbed wire fragments found there hint at increased security.
Archeologists dug up a spent 303 cartridge revealing a British rifle was fired while a loaded German pistol was discovered close to a building.
However John Winfer, project manager at Wessex Archaeology who oversaw the excavations, said: “We have revealed surprising evidence of relatively comfortable conditions for the inmates.
Archeologists dug up a spent 303 cartridge revealing a British rifle was fired while a loaded German pistol was discovered close to a building.
However John Winfer, project manager at Wessex Archaeology who oversaw the excavations, said: “We have revealed surprising evidence of relatively comfortable conditions for the inmates.
“Each prisoner had two hot baths a week. Many prisoners were employed in carpentry workshops, with younger inmates given time off to study at the camp’s school.
“This all paints a civilised and rather unexpected picture of a POW camp.”
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