History of Swindon Town F.C. War Department requisitioned the County Ground for use as a Prisoner-of-war camp, Swindon Town as a football club effectively ceased to be for the duration. The club's assets and players were sold or transferred until the season restarted. Three Swindon Town F.C players—Alan Fowler, Willie Imrie and Dennis Olney—were killed in action during the war and are commemorated with a memorial inside the ground above the players tunnel. The post-war era saw Swindon competing in the lower divisions of the English League, though in 1963 the club was promoted to the Second Division after finishing 2nd in Division 3 in
Holzminden prisoner-of-war camp a month by his second-in-command, Hauptmann Karl Niemeyer, who remained Kommandant until the camp's closure. Niemeyer's twin brother, Heinrich, was Kommandant of the camp at Clausthal. The brothers had lived in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, for 17 years – until the spring of 1917, when the United States entered the war – and as a result Karl was able to speak English. However, his language was filled with idiomatic errors and slang terms: it was described by one prisoner as "bar-tender Yank"; while another stated that Niemeyer "talked broken American under the impression that it was English". The prisoners constantly ridiculed him,