During the First World War the local economy also ground to a halt as a result of conscription, the priority given to the transportation of troops and war materiel on the railways as well as the large contingents of troops that marched through the town with their resulting demands. To alleviate the lack of labour, prisoners of war, mainly Russians who had been interned in 1915 in a POW camp on the land of the International Drilling Company, were employed, mainly in agriculture. In order to meet the wartime demand for metal, the townsfolk had to give up relevant implements and the church had to donate some of its bells in return for little compensation. The lost war cost the lives of 142 Erkelenz townsfolk in Army service and another 155 were injured, some seriously.