Demobilised German prisoners of war, Elmshorn, 1945

Photograph by Major Wilfred Herbert James Sale, MC, 3rd/4th County of London Yeomanry (Sharpshooters), World War Two, North West Europe, 1945.

Operation BARLEYCORN, masterminded by Major General Gerald Templer, saw thousands of the former German POWs who had been captured and detained in the British Zone released between June and September 1945, in order to work the land and bring in the harvest.

This photograph shows a number of vehicles carrying soldiers down a street in Elmshorn in Schleswig-Holstein in Northern Germany.

From an album containing 201 photographs and captions compiled by Major W H J Sale, MC, 3rd/4th County of London Yeomanry (Sharpshooters).