Shackled Australian Prisoners of War: a weapon behind the wire

Shackles were a weapon of choice for detaining powers to use against unarmed men in prisoner of war camps. Used to dehumanise and punish the prisoners, they were a tool of manipulation. They could also be used as an effective political weapon, particularly during the shackling crisis of 1942-1943. Australian prisoners of war suffered through this method of political reprisal, with the prisoners shackled together for hours a day and, in some cases, months at a time. This paper seeks to discuss how Australian prisoners of war became caught up in the shackling crisis, and how the detaining powers used shackles as a weapon in order to extract political advantage. The paper aims to explore the complex issue of the shackling of Australian prisoners of war in Europe – particularly Italy and the way in which the reciprocal use of shackles undermined the morale of prisoners and manipulated belligerent governments.

Lee Rippon graduated in 2023 from Flinders University with her doctoral thesis titled Prisoner of War Diplomacy: Australian Prisoners of War in Italy and Australian Foreign Policy, 1939-1945. Lee is the lead author of an article titled Baseline bioavailable strontium and oxygen isotope mapping of the Adelaide Region, South Australia, published in the Journal of Archaeological Science Reports 2020. In April 2023, Lee presented a paper at the Britain and the World Conference in Pittsburgh, USA. She is a member of the Australian Historical Association, Royal Historical Society, Society for the History of Warfare and Friends of the South Australia Archives.