I was recently learning about the North African theater of WWII (specifically Operation Compass) and how less than 40,000 British took over 130,000 Italian prisoners, mostly over the course of a single month, while advancing hundreds of miles through the desert. What were the logistical challenges of dealing with such a large number of prisoners while trying to continue such a rapid military advance against a still numerically superior force?
As a follow-up, how did this compare to other instances in WWII where disproportionately massive numbers of prisoners were taken by the Western Allies (I'm assuming the challenges of supporting these prisoners in North Africa would be much different than in Western Europe, and that the challenges and solutions would have varied from situation to situation).
There were just under half a million POWs, mostly German, that were actually brought to the United States. Part of the reason for that was that the British ran out of room to house POWs. In terms of burdens, finding the space and resources to house the POWs by allies in Europe was, to use your word, a “burden,” one can argue. Before the war was over, nearly every state in the US had a least one camp. There were around 500 total camps.
Interestingly, rather than a burden in the US the the camps were actually considered helpful to the areas where they were located. This is because the POWs were used for farm and factory labor. Obviously, there was a shortage in these two labor areas because of the number of young men enlisted in the armed services and on active duty during that period.
Smithsonian Magazine has an article that is very accessible for non-academics on the camps.