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Cowra holds a special place in Australian military history being the scene of an attempted mass escape by Japanese prisoners on 5 August 1944. Four Australian soldiers and 234 Japanese prisoners were killed and 108 wounded in the breakout. There were over one thousand Japanese prisoners at Cowra. On the morning prior to the break out the Japanese inmates were told that all privates would soon be moved to another prison in Hay, New South Wales. Whether this was the trigger or whether general feelings of shame or an urgency to do something for the break out remains unclear.
Australian prison camps were especially built to house POWs taken overseas and were guarded by CMF reservists. Over 25 000 enemy POWs were held in Australia. The first drafts arrived from the Middle East in 1941 following Australian acceptance of a British request to take Italian prisoners. The British Government took financial responsibility while the Australian government maintained administrative control. In all 1651 Germans, 5637 Japanese and 18 432 Italians were sent to Australia.
A scheme was introduced whereby many Italian prisoners were employed as farm labourers. They were paid one pound per week and for the most part were unguarded, instead, being supervised from local control centres.
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