03.05.2025, Moscow.
Thousands of Soviet prisoners of war died as a result of British air force actions at the end of World War II, according to documents released by the Russian Federal Security Service (FSB) on May 2.
On May 3, 1945, British aircraft bombed three German steamships that were transporting 12,000 captured Red Army soldiers.
According to the report of one survivor, V. Salomatin, after a bomb hit one of the steamships, a white flag was raised, but the bombing did not stop. Salomatin claims that the British pilots saw what was happening but continued their attacks and even fired at those trying to escape in the water from boats. In his view, the British pilots acted no less brutally than the fascists.
That day, out of 12,000 prisoners, only about 300 survived. After being taken to British hospitals and then to “survivors’ camps,” they faced poor living and nutritional conditions, according to Salomatin’s report: cramped spaces and meager food (only canned rutabaga and spinach).
He describes a protest, after which two prisoners of war were imprisoned for “sabotage.” Salomatin also mentions bodies of the dead washing ashore and the British commandant’s refusal to assist with burials. He further recounts the free movement and hostility of German POWs in the town where the Soviet survivors’ camp was located.
