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WORLD WAR TWO

Little information survives regarding the camp after the Great War. There was a return to a summer training routine and for some reason, many of the old P.O.W huts were removed.

Camp 1924

With the beginning of the Second World war, Stobs became the focus of new activity and a new building programme was begun. Nissan huts were erected and electricity was generated at a new power station

Camp 1939
Secrecy surrounds activity at the camp during the war as little was written in local newspapers of life in the camp. Tank Regiments are known to have used the range above Shankend Viaduct and there are remembered instances of tanks "bogging-down" and sinking in some of the quagmires which surround the camp.

Camp 1939

Units of the Royal Marines trained at Stobs from 1941. An intelligence report details a lapse in security at the camp on 3rd September, 1941:
"Sergeant Houston who was unchallenged by the main gate sentry enquired "Where am I?" Not only did he receive the name of the camp but also the further information that 3 and 5 Royal Marines were in residence, and Brigade HQ were in Stobs Castle. Lieutenant Anderson entered the camp on motorcycle at 2228, also unchallenged, and fired 2 pistol shots before riding out by another route. Two minutes later at 2230, L/Cpl Nixon walked up behind the Arms Dump and placed a time bomb by it whilst Sgt Polack kept the sentry talking: Nixon then fired three Verey Lights but the sentry took no action! One man took some photographs inside the camp without being challenged. It was obvious that there was very little security, and no security-mindedness in the Brigade"

Main Camp 1939

Only a small number of German Prisoners were held at the camp during the war and until the very last days of the war, they were housed under canvas within a small stockade. Another camp, Wilton Camp at Howdenbank in Hawick seems to have been the main camp for prisoners.
A story circulated of a German prisoner who was found hanged at Stobs towards the end of the war. The man had assumed the identity of a dead German on the battlefield by taking his dog tags. The prisoner was to be transferred to Wilton Camp but when he learned that some of the P.O.W's at Wilton had been in the same unit as the dead German, he committed suicide. It was thereafter established that this man had been a member of the Waffen S.S. He was buried in the Wellogate Cemetery.

German POW's 1946

WORLD WAR TWO
Little information survives regarding the camp after the Great War. There was a return to a summer training routine and for some reason, many of the old P.O.W huts were removed.
	With the beginning of the Second World war, Stobs became the focus of new activity and a new building programme was begun. Nissan huts were erected and electricity was generated at a new power station
	Secrecy surrounds activity at the camp during the war as little was written in local newspapers of life in the camp. Tank Regiments are known to have used the range above Shankend Viaduct and there are remembered instances of tanks "bogging-down" and sinking in some of the quagmires which surround the camp.
Units of the Royal Marines trained at Stobs from 1941. An intelligence report details a lapse in security at the camp on 3rd September, 1941: "Sergeant Houston who was unchallenged by the main gate sentry enquired "Where am I?" Not only did he receive the name of the camp but also the further information that 3 and 5 Royal Marines were in residence, and Brigade HQ were in Stobs Castle. Lieutenant Anderson entered the camp on motorcycle at 2228, also unchallenged, and fired 2 pistol shots before riding out by another route. Two minutes later at 2230, L/Cpl Nixon walked up behind the Arms Dump and placed a time bomb by it whilst Sgt Polack kept the sentry talking: Nixon then fired three Verey Lights but the sentry took no action! One man took some photographs inside the camp without being challenged. It was obvious that there was very little security, and no security-mindedness in the Brigade"

Only a small number of German Prisoners were held at the camp during the war and until the very last days of the war, they were housed under canvas within a small stockade. Another camp, Wilton Camp at Howdenbank in Hawick seems to have been the main camp for prisoners. A story circulated of a German prisoner who was found hanged at Stobs towards the end of the war. The man had assumed the identity of a dead German on the battlefield by taking his dog tags. The prisoner was to be transferred to Wilton Camp but when he learned that some of the P.O.W's at Wilton had been in the same unit as the dead German, he committed suicide. It was thereafter established that this man had been a member of the Waffen S.S. He was buried in the Wellogate Cemetery.