[POW camp fence and huts]

Depicts the fence and huts of Oflag 7B POW camp in Eichstatt, Germany. The artist, Gordon Henry MacFarlane, was born in Sydney in 1915, and was a member of the pre-war permanent army. He joined the AIF as NX26, Lieutenant, Australian Army Service Corps, in 1939. He served as quartermaster with the Australian Reinforcement Depot (6th Division) in the Middle East, but was taken prisoner by the Germans (probably on Greece) in 1941. After being held in captivity at Oflag 7B, Eichstatt, he returned to Australia in 1945. The camp, Oflag 7B, is located in Bavaria in southern Germany, just north of Munich and south of Nuremberg. The inmates at the camp were allowed to receive Red Cross packages that supplemented the rations they received from the Germans, and could participate in many sporting and training activities as well as plays to pass the time. In 1943 over 60 POWs attempted to escaped through a tunnel they had dug under the fence. All were recaptured and as a result over 70 British officers from the camp were transfered to Oflag 4C at the infamous Colditz Castle.