ABSTRACT
This chapter explores some of the ways that western front prisoners of war were used as a human intelligence resource during the war. While Britain is the focus here, the chapter draws comparisons with the French and German use of prisoners for intelligence purposes where possible this transnational approach is necessary as prisoner intelligence is by its very nature a transnational history: prisoner treatment was often determined by reciprocity, in response to enemy practices. The chapter focuses on how the interrogation of enemy prisoners evolved during the war. It explores the use of prisoner of war interrogation by the British and German armies to gain information regarding the battlefield; It assess the extent to which prisoner interrogation was used to ascertain specialist technical knowledge by the British during the First World War; and finally suggests that although they significantly modernized during the conflict, interrogation practices remained relatively under-developed during the First World War in comparison with later conflicts.
