not be carried. Some even discarded their greatcoats, hoping that the weather did not turn cold again. As the columns reached the western side of Germany they ran into the advancing western Allied armies. For some, this brought liberation. Others were not so lucky. They were marched towards the Baltic Sea, where Nazis were rumoured to be using POWs as human shields and hostages. It was later estimated that a large number of POWs had marched over by the time they were liberated, and some had walked nearly . New Zealander Norman Jardine explained how, once liberated, his group of POWs were given a revolver by a U.S. Army officer and told to shoot any guards who had treated them unfairly. He stated that "We did!" On 4 May 1945 RAF Bomber Command implemented Operation Exodus, and the first prisoners of war were repatriated by air. Bomber Command flew 2,900 sorties over the next 23 days, carrying 72,500 prisoners of war. Total number of deaths The total number of US POWs in Germany was in the region of 93,000-94,000 and official sources claim that 1,121 died. The British Commonwealth total was close to 180,000 and while no accurate records exist, if a similar casualty rate is assumed, the number who died would be around 2,200. Therefore, according to a report by the US Department of Veterans Affairs, almost 3,500 US and Commonwealth POWs died as a result of the marches. It is possible that some of these deaths occurred before the death marches, but the marches would have claimed the vast majority. Nichol and Rennell, after detailed enquiries with the British authorities, concluded that no consolidated figures for deaths of British and Commonwealth POWs was kept. They are only able to put forward a "guess" of between 2,500 and 3,500 American, British and Commonwealth POW deaths on the marches. Other estimates vary greatly, with one magazine for former POWs putting the number of deaths from the Gross Tychow march alone at 1,500. A senior YMCA official closely involved with the POW camps put the number of Commonwealth and American POW deaths at 8,348 between September 1944 and May 1945. It is possible to get an impression of the casualty rate among Commonwealth POWs from the Commonwealth War Graves Commission website. The casualties of the March who have a known grave have mostly been reburied in the larger war cemeteries in