This postcard was sent to Mr H.D. Ward of Hertford by Company Quartermaster Sergeant Charles Sorrell of the Hertfordshire Regiment in March 1944. CQMS Sorrell was a prisoner of war at Stalag 383, a German POW camp located in Hohenfels, Bavaria. The camp comprised 400 detached accommodation huts, 30 feet (9.1 m) x 14 feet (4.3 m), each typically housing 14 men. More were built towards the end of the war as prisoners were moved in from other camps as the Russian front advanced. On April 24th 1945, the United States’ 65th Infantry Division captured Hohenfels. The camp staff and guards surrendered and the prisoners, including CQMS Sorrell, were liberated.

In his postcard, Sorrell addresses Ward as “Yacker”, and the two are clearly old friends. Conditions at the camp must have been reasonable as he mentions being able to practise his clarinet and asks if Yacker can pass any reeds on to his wife. Presumably Mrs Sorrell would have been able to post them to him. The postcard is stamped Gepruft – meaning it has passed through the German censor.