How a German PoW found a life-long friendship in Devon

Bruno Pannhausen was a prisoner of war at a camp in Tiverton

A friendship between a German solider and a couple from Devon has kept two families in touch for almost 80 years.

Bruno Pannhausen was captured in Normandy in 1944 and detained in a prisoner of war camp in Tiverton.

After the war, he was offered hospitality by Tony Langworthy who lived nearby, and they would go on to be life-long friends.

Their present-day relatives now hope the remarkable story will be kept alive and passed down to future generations.

Tony's sister-in-law, Sheila remembered how the friendship began, following a newspaper appeal.

"There was an article in one of the local papers asking the residents of Tiverton if they could befriend some of these young prisoners," she said.

"My future brother-in-law and his father responded, and said that anyone who wanted to play the piano was more than welcome."

Sheila said Bruno took up the offer, and from that point on, the pair, together with Betty - Sheila's sister and Tony's wife to be - "struck up a great relationship".

Tony and Betty became best friends with Bruno

In 1948, Bruno returned to Germany where he became a teacher.

He married Hildegard, now aged 96 and the couple had two children, Thomas and Christina.

Christina, now a journalist for a radio station in Cologne in Germany, was invited to tell her father's story on air.

She recalled how her father was nervous when he first arrived at the camp in Tiverton.

"He was standing in a line with other soldiers and he realised somebody tapping on his shoulder and he thought this would be something very bad," she said.

"He turned around and it was an English soldier asking him whether he wanted to have a cup of tea.

"He was very happy."

Tony and Betty's son, Stuart, said his parents' friendship with Bruno and Hildegard remained as strong as ever over the years, with the two couples frequently travelling to meet up.

"I just think it's lovely that they kept that friendship going from a situation they both found themselves in," he said.

"Neither of them really wanted to fight.

"They were just ordinary people in a circumstance and they struck up a friendship that lasted many years."

Christina and Hildegard recently came to England to meet up with Stuart and Sheila a few years after the deaths of Bruno, Tony and Betty.

L-R: Sheila, Christina and Hildegard say it is important the story of the friendship is passed on to future generations

The two families drove to Tiverton, where they visited the museum and the former site of the prisoner of war camp, swapping stories, and keeping the memories of Bruno's friendship with Tony and Betty, alive.

"I'm very happy to have contact with the whole family now," said Christina.

"I would be very happy if our sons would continue the story for the next generation."