Franz von Werra
Encyclopedia
Franz Xaver Baron von Werra (13 July 1914 – 25 October 1941) was a German
World War II
fighter pilot and flying ace
who was shot down over England
and captured. He is generally regarded as the only Axis prisoner of war
to succeed in escaping from a Canadian prisoner of war camp and returning to Germany, though a second man, a U-Boat
rating named Walter Kurt Reich is said to have jumped from a Polish
troopship (presumably the ex-liner Sobieski) in the St. Lawrence river in July 1940. Von Werra managed to return to Germany via the USA, Mexico
, South America
and Spain
to reach Germany on 18 April 1941.
, a town in the Swiss canton
of Valais. Later he and his sister were given into the care of an aristocratic German family. The title Baron
came from his biological father Baron Leo von Werra, who, after bankruptcy, faced deep economic hardship. Because relatives were legally obliged to look after the Baron's wife and his six children, they were not amused about another child with the name Franz. Cousin Rosalie von Werra persuaded her childless friend Louise Carl-von Haber to permit the two youngest the benefits of wealth and education. The Carl-von Habers did not tell the children their true origin.
In 1936, von Werra joined the Luftwaffe
. At the beginning of the war, he served with Jagdgeschwader 3
in the French
campaign. An able officer, he became Adjutant of II Gruppe, JG 3. He was described as engaging in boisterous 'playboy' behavior. He was once pictured in the German press with his pet lion Simba, which he kept at the aerodrome as the unit mascot.
Von Werra scored his first four victories during the Battle of France
in May 1940. In one sortie during the Battle of Britain
on 25 August he claimed nine RAF planes destroyed, including five on the ground, but only four airborne planes were credited by the Germans. The particulars of the actions are uncertain as no matching incident has been found in British records.
On 5 September 1940, von Werra's Bf 109 was shot down over Kent
by Pilot Officer Basil Gerald 'Stapme' Stapleton
of No. 603 Squadron
. Pilot Officer George Bennions
of No. 41 Squadron may have initially damaged von Werra's fighter before Stapleton administered the coup de grâce
. Von Werra crash-landed in a field and was captured by the unarmed cook of a nearby army unit. Initially, he was held in Maidstone barracks by the Royal West Kent Regiment, from which von Werra attempted his first escape. He had been put to work digging and was guarded by Military Police private Denis Rickwood, who had to face von Werra down with a small truncheon, while von Werra was armed with a pick axe. (There is no mention of this escape attempt in the book The One that Got Away). He was interrogated for eighteen days at Trent Park, a mansion in Hertfordshire which before the War had been the seat of the Sir Phillip Sassoon. After the war it became Trent Park teachers' training college. Eventually was sent to the London
District Prisoner of War "cage" and then on to POW Camp No.1, at Grizedale Hall
in the Furness Fells
area of Lancashire, between Windermere
and Coniston Water
.
On 7 October he tried to escape for the second time, during a daytime walk outside the camp. At a regular stop, while a fruit cart provided a lucky diversion and other German prisoners covered for him, von Werra slipped over a dry-stone wall into a field. The guards alerted the local farmers and the Home Guard
. On the evening of 10 October, two Home Guard soldiers found him sheltering from the rain in a hoggarth (a small stone hut used for storing sheep fodder, that are common in the area), but he quickly escaped and disappeared into the night. On 12 October, he was spotted climbing a fell. The area was surrounded, and von Werra was eventually found, almost totally immersed in a muddy depression in the ground. Werra was sentenced to 21 days of solitary confinement
and was subsequently transferred on 3 November to Camp No. 10 in Swanwick, Derbyshire
.
In Camp No. 13, also known as the Hayes camp, von Werra joined a group calling themselves Swanwick Tiefbau A.G. (Swanwick Excavations, Inc.), who were digging an escape tunnel. On 17 December 1940, after a month's digging, it was complete. The camp forgers equipped the group with money and fake identity papers. On 20 December, von Werra and four others slipped out of the tunnel under the cover of anti-aircraft fire and the singing of the camp choir. The others were recaptured quickly, leaving von Werra to go it alone. He had taken along his flying suit and decided to masquerade as Captain Van Lott, a Dutch Royal Netherlands Air Force
pilot. He claimed to a friendly locomotive driver that he was a downed bomber pilot trying to reach his unit, and asked to be taken to the nearest RAF base. In Codnor Park Station, a local clerk became suspicious, but eventually agreed to arrange his transportation to the RAF aerodrome at Hucknall
, near Nottingham
. The police also questioned him, but von Werra convinced them he was harmless. At Hucknall, a Squadron Leader Boniface asked for his credentials, and von Werra claimed to be based at Dyce
near Aberdeen
. While Boniface went to check this, von Werra excused himself and ran to the nearest hangar, trying to tell a mechanic that he was cleared for a test flight. Boniface arrived in time to arrest him at gunpoint, as he sat in the cockpit, trying to learn the controls. Von Werra was sent back to Hayes under armed guard.
In January 1941, von Werra was sent with many other German prisoners to Canada
. His group was to be taken to a camp on the north shore of Lake Superior
, Ontario
, so von Werra began to plan his escape to the United States
, which was still neutral at the time. On 21 January, while on a prison train that had departed Montreal
, he jumped out of a window, again with the help of other prisoners, and ended up near Smiths Falls
, 30 miles from the St. Lawrence River. Seven other prisoners tried to escape from the same train, but were soon recaptured. Von Werra's absence was not noticed until the next afternoon.
After an agonizing crossing of the frozen St. Lawrence River, von Werra made his way over the border to Ogdensburg
, New York
, U.S.A. and turned himself over to the police. The immigration authorities charged him with entering the country illegally, so von Werra contacted the local German consul. Thus, he came to the attention of the press and told them a very embellished version of his story. While the U.S. and Canadian authorities were negotiating his extradition, the German vice-consul helped him over the border to Mexico
. Von Werra proceeded in stages to Rio de Janeiro
, Brazil
, Barcelona
, Spain
, and Rome
, Italy
. He finally arrived back in Germany on 18 April 1941.
Franz von Werra became a hero. Adolf Hitler
granted him the Ritterkreuz des Eisernen Kreuzes (Knights Cross of the Iron Cross). Von Werra was tasked to improve German interrogation techniques for captured pilots based on his own experience with the British system. Von Werra reported to the German High Command on his treatment as a POW, and this improved the treatment of POWs in Germany. Von Werra then returned to the Luftwaffe and was initially deployed to the Russia
n front, raising his tally to 21 aerial victories in July 1941. When his wing, JG 53, was withdrawn from Russia he flew patrols over the North Sea
.
On 25 October 1941, just seven months after his return to Germany, von Werra's aircraft disappeared over the North Sea near Vlissingen
, most probably due to engine failure. His body was never found.
as von Werra. The film was based on a book by Kendall Burt and James Leasor
published in 1956.
On the night of April 18, 1941, 28 German prisoners of war escaped from Angler, Ontario
through a 150 feet (45.7 m) tunnel. Originally over 80 Germans planned to escape, but Canadian guards discovered the breakout in progress.
Most escapees attempted flee to the then neutral United States, though prisoners Karl Heinz-Grund and Horst Liebeck made it as far as Medicine Hat, Alberta
before being apprehended by the Royal Canadian Mounted Police
. The two men planned to travel to Vancouver, British Columbia and make it out of Canada courtesy of the Japan
ese Merchant Marine.
Two of the four German prisoners of war killed in the act of escape from Canadian prison camps during the Second World War were shot in the aftermath of the Angler breakout. Three others were wounded.
The Angler breakout was the single largest successful escape attempt orchestrated by German POWs in North America during the Second World War: the December 23, 1944 breakout of 25 Kriegsmarine
and merchant seamen from Papago Park
, Arizona
was the second largest. In both instances all prisoners were recaptured.
On 23 November 1941 Luftwaffe
Oberleutnant Ulrich Steinhilper escaped from Bowmanville, Ontario
and managed to make it to Niagara Falls
within two days. Steinhilper unknowingly spent 30 minutes in the neutral United States clinging beneath a train car as it sat idle in a Buffalo, New York
railyard. In less than three weeks, he escaped again and made it as far as Montreal, Quebec.
Within four months Steinhilper would attempt a third escape. On February 18, 1942 Steinhilper and a friend, disguised as painters, used a ladder to escape over two barbed wire fences. The pair would make it as far as Watertown, New York before being arrested by police. Steinhilper was soon sent to Gravenhurst, Ontario
, where he attempted two further escapes.
Dornier Do 17
bomber pilot Oberleutnant Peter Krug made it as far as San Antonio, Texas
after staging an escape from Bowmanville, Ontario
POW camp on April 17, 1942. In the aftermath of Krug's escape, similar to Steinhilper's, the young Luftwaffe
pilot was aided in his flight by Axis sympathizers in United States whose addresses may have been procured from outside Abwehr
sources.
Von Werra's former Swanwick digging partner Luftwaffe Leutnant Walter Manhard successfully escaped from a Gravenhurst, Ontario
POW camp while on a swimming excursion. Presumed drowned, he had actually escaped to New York, where he decided to remain. He gave himself up in 1952, and by then he had married an American woman who was an officer in the United States Navy
.
Nineteen German POWs escaped through a large drainage pipe from Kingston, Ontario
on August 26, 1943. All were soon recaptured.
Karl Rabe of U-35 made four separate escape attempts from Lethbridge, Alberta in 1943 including an attempt using a 24 by 10 ft (7.3 by 3 m) home-made hot air balloon
. Previously he had escaped from a Toronto
hospital, subsequently stealing a small row boat with the intention of crossing Lake Ontario
to the American shore, but beached the craft too soon, mistakenly thinking he was already on the American side. He was immediately recaptured by Canadian soldiers.
Afrika Korps
soldier Max Weidauer escaped from Medicine Hat, Alberta
in the aftermath of the separate murders of fellow DAK prisoners August Plaszek and Karl Lehmann by Nazi elements. After explaining the circumstances of his escape and the fact that he feared for his life, Weidauer was hidden by a local farmer but was soon once again behind barbed wire.
Germany
Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...
World War II
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
fighter pilot and flying ace
Flying ace
A flying ace or fighter ace is a military aviator credited with shooting down several enemy aircraft during aerial combat. The actual number of aerial victories required to officially qualify as an "ace" has varied, but is usually considered to be five or more...
who was shot down over England
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
and captured. He is generally regarded as the only Axis prisoner of war
Prisoner of war
A prisoner of war or enemy prisoner of war is a person, whether civilian or combatant, who is held in custody by an enemy power during or immediately after an armed conflict...
to succeed in escaping from a Canadian prisoner of war camp and returning to Germany, though a second man, a U-Boat
U-boat
U-boat is the anglicized version of the German word U-Boot , itself an abbreviation of Unterseeboot , and refers to military submarines operated by Germany, particularly in World War I and World War II...
rating named Walter Kurt Reich is said to have jumped from a Polish
Poles
thumb|right|180px|The state flag of [[Poland]] as used by Polish government and diplomatic authoritiesThe Polish people, or Poles , are a nation indigenous to Poland. They are united by the Polish language, which belongs to the historical Lechitic subgroup of West Slavic languages of Central Europe...
troopship (presumably the ex-liner Sobieski) in the St. Lawrence river in July 1940. Von Werra managed to return to Germany via the USA, Mexico
Mexico
The United Mexican States , commonly known as Mexico , is a federal constitutional republic in North America. It is bordered on the north by the United States; on the south and west by the Pacific Ocean; on the southeast by Guatemala, Belize, and the Caribbean Sea; and on the east by the Gulf of...
, South America
South America
South America is a continent situated in the Western Hemisphere, mostly in the Southern Hemisphere, with a relatively small portion in the Northern Hemisphere. The continent is also considered a subcontinent of the Americas. It is bordered on the west by the Pacific Ocean and on the north and east...
and Spain
Spain
Spain , officially the Kingdom of Spain languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Spain's official name is as follows:;;;;;;), is a country and member state of the European Union located in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula...
to reach Germany on 18 April 1941.
Biography
Franz von Werra was born on 13 July 1914, to impoverished Swiss parents in LeukLeuk
Leuk is a municipality in the district of Leuk in the canton of Valais in Switzerland.Since it controls access to the Gemmi Pass, it had some importance from the time of Roman Raetia. The Leukerbad thermal baths are just North of Leuk, towards the pass...
, a town in the Swiss canton
Cantons of Switzerland
The 26 cantons of Switzerland are the member states of the federal state of Switzerland. Each canton was a fully sovereign state with its own borders, army and currency from the Treaty of Westphalia until the establishment of the Swiss federal state in 1848...
of Valais. Later he and his sister were given into the care of an aristocratic German family. The title Baron
Baron
Baron is a title of nobility. The word baron comes from Old French baron, itself from Old High German and Latin baro meaning " man, warrior"; it merged with cognate Old English beorn meaning "nobleman"...
came from his biological father Baron Leo von Werra, who, after bankruptcy, faced deep economic hardship. Because relatives were legally obliged to look after the Baron's wife and his six children, they were not amused about another child with the name Franz. Cousin Rosalie von Werra persuaded her childless friend Louise Carl-von Haber to permit the two youngest the benefits of wealth and education. The Carl-von Habers did not tell the children their true origin.
In 1936, von Werra joined the Luftwaffe
Luftwaffe
Luftwaffe is a generic German term for an air force. It is also the official name for two of the four historic German air forces, the Wehrmacht air arm founded in 1935 and disbanded in 1946; and the current Bundeswehr air arm founded in 1956....
. At the beginning of the war, he served with Jagdgeschwader 3
Jagdgeschwader 3
Jagdgeschwader 3 Udet was a Luftwaffe fighter-wing of World War II. The Geschwader operated on all the German fronts in the European Theatre of World War II. It was named after Ernst Udet in 1942.-Campaign in the West :...
in the French
France
The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...
campaign. An able officer, he became Adjutant of II Gruppe, JG 3. He was described as engaging in boisterous 'playboy' behavior. He was once pictured in the German press with his pet lion Simba, which he kept at the aerodrome as the unit mascot.
Von Werra scored his first four victories during the Battle of France
Battle of France
In the Second World War, the Battle of France was the German invasion of France and the Low Countries, beginning on 10 May 1940, which ended the Phoney War. The battle consisted of two main operations. In the first, Fall Gelb , German armoured units pushed through the Ardennes, to cut off and...
in May 1940. In one sortie during the Battle of Britain
Battle of Britain
The Battle of Britain is the name given to the World War II air campaign waged by the German Air Force against the United Kingdom during the summer and autumn of 1940...
on 25 August he claimed nine RAF planes destroyed, including five on the ground, but only four airborne planes were credited by the Germans. The particulars of the actions are uncertain as no matching incident has been found in British records.
On 5 September 1940, von Werra's Bf 109 was shot down over Kent
Kent
Kent is a county in southeast England, and is one of the home counties. It borders East Sussex, Surrey and Greater London and has a defined boundary with Essex in the middle of the Thames Estuary. The ceremonial county boundaries of Kent include the shire county of Kent and the unitary borough of...
by Pilot Officer Basil Gerald 'Stapme' Stapleton
Gerald Stapleton
Squadron Leader Basil Gerald "Stapme" Stapleton DFC was a Royal Air Force officer and fighter ace who flew Spitfires and Typhoons during World War II. He preferred the name Gerald and was nicknamed 'Stapme' after a phrase used in his favourite cartoon strip Just Jake published in The Daily Mirror...
of No. 603 Squadron
No. 603 Squadron RAF
No. 603 Squadron is a squadron of the Royal Auxiliary Air Force, based in Edinburgh, Scotland. The primary role of 603 Squadron, since reforming on 1 October 1999, has been as a Survive to Operate squadron, as well as providing Force Protection.-Formation and early years:No...
. Pilot Officer George Bennions
George Bennions
Squadron Leader George Herman 'Ben' Bennions DFC, RAF was one of the leading Battle of Britain Spitfire pilots.- Early Life :...
of No. 41 Squadron may have initially damaged von Werra's fighter before Stapleton administered the coup de grâce
Coup de grâce
The expression coup de grâce means a death blow intended to end the suffering of a wounded creature. The phrase can refer to the killing of civilians or soldiers, friends or enemies, with or without the consent of the sufferer...
. Von Werra crash-landed in a field and was captured by the unarmed cook of a nearby army unit. Initially, he was held in Maidstone barracks by the Royal West Kent Regiment, from which von Werra attempted his first escape. He had been put to work digging and was guarded by Military Police private Denis Rickwood, who had to face von Werra down with a small truncheon, while von Werra was armed with a pick axe. (There is no mention of this escape attempt in the book The One that Got Away). He was interrogated for eighteen days at Trent Park, a mansion in Hertfordshire which before the War had been the seat of the Sir Phillip Sassoon. After the war it became Trent Park teachers' training college. Eventually was sent to the London
London
London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...
District Prisoner of War "cage" and then on to POW Camp No.1, at Grizedale Hall
Grizedale
Grizedale is a hamlet in the Lake District of England, in the middle of the Grizedale Forest, located north of Satterthwaite and south of Hawkshead...
in the Furness Fells
Furness Fells
The Furness Fells are those hills and mountains in the Furness region of Cumbria, England. Historically part of Lancashire, the Furness Fells or High Furness is the name given to the upland part of Furness, that is, that part of Furness lying north of the line between Ulverston and Ireleth...
area of Lancashire, between Windermere
Windermere
Windermere is the largest natural lake of England. It is also a name used in a number of places, including:-Australia:* Lake Windermere , a reservoir, Australian Capital Territory * Lake Windermere...
and Coniston Water
Coniston Water
Coniston Water in Cumbria, England is the third largest lake in the English Lake District. It is five miles long, half a mile wide, has a maximum depth of 184 feet , and covers an area of . The lake has an elevation of 143 feet above sea level...
.
British Home Guard
The Home Guard was a defence organisation of the British Army during the Second World War...
. On the evening of 10 October, two Home Guard soldiers found him sheltering from the rain in a hoggarth (a small stone hut used for storing sheep fodder, that are common in the area), but he quickly escaped and disappeared into the night. On 12 October, he was spotted climbing a fell. The area was surrounded, and von Werra was eventually found, almost totally immersed in a muddy depression in the ground. Werra was sentenced to 21 days of solitary confinement
Solitary confinement
Solitary confinement is a special form of imprisonment in which a prisoner is isolated from any human contact, though often with the exception of members of prison staff. It is sometimes employed as a form of punishment beyond incarceration for a prisoner, and has been cited as an additional...
and was subsequently transferred on 3 November to Camp No. 10 in Swanwick, Derbyshire
Swanwick, Derbyshire
Swanwick is a village in Derbyshire, England, also a Parish within the Amber Valley district, with a population of 5,316 at the 2001 census.It has a number of shops, pubs and other businesses, a Church of , as well as Methodist and Baptist churches...
.
In Camp No. 13, also known as the Hayes camp, von Werra joined a group calling themselves Swanwick Tiefbau A.G. (Swanwick Excavations, Inc.), who were digging an escape tunnel. On 17 December 1940, after a month's digging, it was complete. The camp forgers equipped the group with money and fake identity papers. On 20 December, von Werra and four others slipped out of the tunnel under the cover of anti-aircraft fire and the singing of the camp choir. The others were recaptured quickly, leaving von Werra to go it alone. He had taken along his flying suit and decided to masquerade as Captain Van Lott, a Dutch Royal Netherlands Air Force
Royal Air Force
The Royal Air Force is the aerial warfare service branch of the British Armed Forces. Formed on 1 April 1918, it is the oldest independent air force in the world...
pilot. He claimed to a friendly locomotive driver that he was a downed bomber pilot trying to reach his unit, and asked to be taken to the nearest RAF base. In Codnor Park Station, a local clerk became suspicious, but eventually agreed to arrange his transportation to the RAF aerodrome at Hucknall
Hucknall
Hucknall, formerly known as Hucknall Torkard, is a town in Greater Nottingham, Nottinghamshire, England, in the district of Ashfield. The town was historically a centre for framework knitting and then for mining but is now a focus for other industries as well providing housing for workers in...
, near Nottingham
Nottingham
Nottingham is a city and unitary authority in the East Midlands of England. It is located in the ceremonial county of Nottinghamshire and represents one of eight members of the English Core Cities Group...
. The police also questioned him, but von Werra convinced them he was harmless. At Hucknall, a Squadron Leader Boniface asked for his credentials, and von Werra claimed to be based at Dyce
Dyce
Dyce is a civil parish and suburb of Aberdeen, Scotland, about north west of Aberdeen city centre, and best known as the location of the city's airport. It is on the River Don.- History :...
near Aberdeen
Aberdeen
Aberdeen is Scotland's third most populous city, one of Scotland's 32 local government council areas and the United Kingdom's 25th most populous city, with an official population estimate of ....
. While Boniface went to check this, von Werra excused himself and ran to the nearest hangar, trying to tell a mechanic that he was cleared for a test flight. Boniface arrived in time to arrest him at gunpoint, as he sat in the cockpit, trying to learn the controls. Von Werra was sent back to Hayes under armed guard.
In January 1941, von Werra was sent with many other German prisoners to Canada
Canada
Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...
. His group was to be taken to a camp on the north shore of Lake Superior
Lake Superior
Lake Superior is the largest of the five traditionally-demarcated Great Lakes of North America. It is bounded to the north by the Canadian province of Ontario and the U.S. state of Minnesota, and to the south by the U.S. states of Wisconsin and Michigan. It is the largest freshwater lake in the...
, Ontario
Ontario
Ontario is a province of Canada, located in east-central Canada. It is Canada's most populous province and second largest in total area. It is home to the nation's most populous city, Toronto, and the nation's capital, Ottawa....
, so von Werra began to plan his escape to the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
, which was still neutral at the time. On 21 January, while on a prison train that had departed Montreal
Montreal
Montreal is a city in Canada. It is the largest city in the province of Quebec, the second-largest city in Canada and the seventh largest in North America...
, he jumped out of a window, again with the help of other prisoners, and ended up near Smiths Falls
Smiths Falls, Ontario
Smiths Falls is a town in Eastern Ontario, Canada. It is in the census division for Lanark County, but is considered a separated town and does not participate in county government...
, 30 miles from the St. Lawrence River. Seven other prisoners tried to escape from the same train, but were soon recaptured. Von Werra's absence was not noticed until the next afternoon.
After an agonizing crossing of the frozen St. Lawrence River, von Werra made his way over the border to Ogdensburg
Ogdensburg, New York
Ogdensburg is a city in St. Lawrence County, New York, United States. The population was 11,128 at the 2010 census. In the late 18th century, European-American settlers named the community after American land owner and developer Samuel Ogden....
, New York
New York
New York is a state in the Northeastern region of the United States. It is the nation's third most populous state. New York is bordered by New Jersey and Pennsylvania to the south, and by Connecticut, Massachusetts and Vermont to the east...
, U.S.A. and turned himself over to the police. The immigration authorities charged him with entering the country illegally, so von Werra contacted the local German consul. Thus, he came to the attention of the press and told them a very embellished version of his story. While the U.S. and Canadian authorities were negotiating his extradition, the German vice-consul helped him over the border to Mexico
Mexico
The United Mexican States , commonly known as Mexico , is a federal constitutional republic in North America. It is bordered on the north by the United States; on the south and west by the Pacific Ocean; on the southeast by Guatemala, Belize, and the Caribbean Sea; and on the east by the Gulf of...
. Von Werra proceeded in stages to Rio de Janeiro
Rio de Janeiro
Rio de Janeiro , commonly referred to simply as Rio, is the capital city of the State of Rio de Janeiro, the second largest city of Brazil, and the third largest metropolitan area and agglomeration in South America, boasting approximately 6.3 million people within the city proper, making it the 6th...
, Brazil
Brazil
Brazil , officially the Federative Republic of Brazil , is the largest country in South America. It is the world's fifth largest country, both by geographical area and by population with over 192 million people...
, Barcelona
Barcelona
Barcelona is the second largest city in Spain after Madrid, and the capital of Catalonia, with a population of 1,621,537 within its administrative limits on a land area of...
, Spain
Spain
Spain , officially the Kingdom of Spain languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Spain's official name is as follows:;;;;;;), is a country and member state of the European Union located in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula...
, and Rome
Rome
Rome is the capital of Italy and the country's largest and most populated city and comune, with over 2.7 million residents in . The city is located in the central-western portion of the Italian Peninsula, on the Tiber River within the Lazio region of Italy.Rome's history spans two and a half...
, Italy
Italy
Italy , officially the Italian Republic languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Italy's official name is as follows:;;;;;;;;), is a unitary parliamentary republic in South-Central Europe. To the north it borders France, Switzerland, Austria and...
. He finally arrived back in Germany on 18 April 1941.
Franz von Werra became a hero. Adolf Hitler
Adolf Hitler
Adolf Hitler was an Austrian-born German politician and the leader of the National Socialist German Workers Party , commonly referred to as the Nazi Party). He was Chancellor of Germany from 1933 to 1945, and head of state from 1934 to 1945...
granted him the Ritterkreuz des Eisernen Kreuzes (Knights Cross of the Iron Cross). Von Werra was tasked to improve German interrogation techniques for captured pilots based on his own experience with the British system. Von Werra reported to the German High Command on his treatment as a POW, and this improved the treatment of POWs in Germany. Von Werra then returned to the Luftwaffe and was initially deployed to the Russia
Russia
Russia or , officially known as both Russia and the Russian Federation , is a country in northern Eurasia. It is a federal semi-presidential republic, comprising 83 federal subjects...
n front, raising his tally to 21 aerial victories in July 1941. When his wing, JG 53, was withdrawn from Russia he flew patrols over the North Sea
North Sea
In the southwest, beyond the Straits of Dover, the North Sea becomes the English Channel connecting to the Atlantic Ocean. In the east, it connects to the Baltic Sea via the Skagerrak and Kattegat, narrow straits that separate Denmark from Norway and Sweden respectively...
.
On 25 October 1941, just seven months after his return to Germany, von Werra's aircraft disappeared over the North Sea near Vlissingen
Flushing, Netherlands
Vlissingen is a municipality and a city in the southwestern Netherlands on the former island of Walcheren. With its strategic location between the Scheldt river and the North Sea, Vlissingen has been an important harbour for centuries. It was granted city rights in 1315. In the 17th century...
, most probably due to engine failure. His body was never found.
Popular culture
Werra's story was the subject of a film called The One That Got Away starring Hardy KrügerHardy Krüger
Hardy Krüger is a German actor. He is thought of as one of the greatest German actors of the 1960s. He was born in Wedding, Berlin, German Reich...
as von Werra. The film was based on a book by Kendall Burt and James Leasor
James Leasor
James Leasor was a prolific British author, who wrote historical books and thrillers. Leasor's 1978 book, Boarding Party, about an incident that took place in the Second World War, was turned into a film, The Sea Wolves, starring Gregory Peck, Roger Moore and David Niven.-Biography:Leasor was born...
published in 1956.
Other noteworthy escape attempts from Canadian internment camps
In total there were more than 600 individual escape attempts from Canadian internment camps, including at least two mass escapes using tunnels. Many German prisoners were motivated by von Werra's earlier success.On the night of April 18, 1941, 28 German prisoners of war escaped from Angler, Ontario
Angler POW escape
In April 1941, inmates at the Angler POW Camp near Neys Provincial Park on the north shore of Lake Superior planned the largest escape from a Canadian POW camp during World War II. The escape was the largest of its kind in Ontario, Canada.-Angler Camp background:...
through a 150 feet (45.7 m) tunnel. Originally over 80 Germans planned to escape, but Canadian guards discovered the breakout in progress.
Most escapees attempted flee to the then neutral United States, though prisoners Karl Heinz-Grund and Horst Liebeck made it as far as Medicine Hat, Alberta
Medicine Hat, Alberta
Medicine Hat, known to locals as "The Hat", is a city of 61,097 people located in the southeastern part of the province of Alberta, Canada. It is enclaved within Cypress County along with the nearby Town of Redcliff, although neither is part of the county....
before being apprehended by the Royal Canadian Mounted Police
Royal Canadian Mounted Police
The Royal Canadian Mounted Police , literally ‘Royal Gendarmerie of Canada’; colloquially known as The Mounties, and internally as ‘The Force’) is the national police force of Canada, and one of the most recognized of its kind in the world. It is unique in the world as a national, federal,...
. The two men planned to travel to Vancouver, British Columbia and make it out of Canada courtesy of the Japan
Japan
Japan is an island nation in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south...
ese Merchant Marine.
Two of the four German prisoners of war killed in the act of escape from Canadian prison camps during the Second World War were shot in the aftermath of the Angler breakout. Three others were wounded.
The Angler breakout was the single largest successful escape attempt orchestrated by German POWs in North America during the Second World War: the December 23, 1944 breakout of 25 Kriegsmarine
Kriegsmarine
The Kriegsmarine was the name of the German Navy during the Nazi regime . It superseded the Kaiserliche Marine of World War I and the post-war Reichsmarine. The Kriegsmarine was one of three official branches of the Wehrmacht, the unified armed forces of Nazi Germany.The Kriegsmarine grew rapidly...
and merchant seamen from Papago Park
Papago Park
Papago Park is a municipal park of the cities of Phoenix and Tempe, Arizona, USA. It has been designated as a Phoenix Point of Pride.-Description:...
, Arizona
Arizona
Arizona ; is a state located in the southwestern region of the United States. It is also part of the western United States and the mountain west. The capital and largest city is Phoenix...
was the second largest. In both instances all prisoners were recaptured.
On 23 November 1941 Luftwaffe
Luftwaffe
Luftwaffe is a generic German term for an air force. It is also the official name for two of the four historic German air forces, the Wehrmacht air arm founded in 1935 and disbanded in 1946; and the current Bundeswehr air arm founded in 1956....
Oberleutnant Ulrich Steinhilper escaped from Bowmanville, Ontario
Bowmanville, Ontario
Bowmanville is the largest community in the Municipality of Clarington in Durham Region, Ontario, Canada. It is located in Southern Ontario about 75 km east of Toronto and 15 km east of Oshawa along Highway 2...
and managed to make it to Niagara Falls
Niagara Falls
The Niagara Falls, located on the Niagara River draining Lake Erie into Lake Ontario, is the collective name for the Horseshoe Falls and the adjacent American Falls along with the comparatively small Bridal Veil Falls, which combined form the highest flow rate of any waterfalls in the world and has...
within two days. Steinhilper unknowingly spent 30 minutes in the neutral United States clinging beneath a train car as it sat idle in a Buffalo, New York
Buffalo, New York
Buffalo is the second most populous city in the state of New York, after New York City. Located in Western New York on the eastern shores of Lake Erie and at the head of the Niagara River across from Fort Erie, Ontario, Buffalo is the seat of Erie County and the principal city of the...
railyard. In less than three weeks, he escaped again and made it as far as Montreal, Quebec.
Within four months Steinhilper would attempt a third escape. On February 18, 1942 Steinhilper and a friend, disguised as painters, used a ladder to escape over two barbed wire fences. The pair would make it as far as Watertown, New York before being arrested by police. Steinhilper was soon sent to Gravenhurst, Ontario
Gravenhurst, Ontario
Gravenhurst is a town in the Muskoka Region of Ontario, Canada. It is located approximately south of Bracebridge, Ontario. The mayor is Paisley Donaldson...
, where he attempted two further escapes.
Dornier Do 17
Dornier Do 17
The Dornier Do 17, sometimes referred to as the Fliegender Bleistift , was a World War II German light bomber produced by Claudius Dornier's company, Dornier Flugzeugwerke...
bomber pilot Oberleutnant Peter Krug made it as far as San Antonio, Texas
San Antonio, Texas
San Antonio is the seventh-largest city in the United States of America and the second-largest city within the state of Texas, with a population of 1.33 million. Located in the American Southwest and the south–central part of Texas, the city serves as the seat of Bexar County. In 2011,...
after staging an escape from Bowmanville, Ontario
Bowmanville, Ontario
Bowmanville is the largest community in the Municipality of Clarington in Durham Region, Ontario, Canada. It is located in Southern Ontario about 75 km east of Toronto and 15 km east of Oshawa along Highway 2...
POW camp on April 17, 1942. In the aftermath of Krug's escape, similar to Steinhilper's, the young Luftwaffe
Luftwaffe
Luftwaffe is a generic German term for an air force. It is also the official name for two of the four historic German air forces, the Wehrmacht air arm founded in 1935 and disbanded in 1946; and the current Bundeswehr air arm founded in 1956....
pilot was aided in his flight by Axis sympathizers in United States whose addresses may have been procured from outside Abwehr
Abwehr
The Abwehr was a German military intelligence organisation from 1921 to 1944. The term Abwehr was used as a concession to Allied demands that Germany's post-World War I intelligence activities be for "defensive" purposes only...
sources.
Von Werra's former Swanwick digging partner Luftwaffe Leutnant Walter Manhard successfully escaped from a Gravenhurst, Ontario
Gravenhurst, Ontario
Gravenhurst is a town in the Muskoka Region of Ontario, Canada. It is located approximately south of Bracebridge, Ontario. The mayor is Paisley Donaldson...
POW camp while on a swimming excursion. Presumed drowned, he had actually escaped to New York, where he decided to remain. He gave himself up in 1952, and by then he had married an American woman who was an officer in the United States Navy
United States Navy
The United States Navy is the naval warfare service branch of the United States Armed Forces and one of the seven uniformed services of the United States. The U.S. Navy is the largest in the world; its battle fleet tonnage is greater than that of the next 13 largest navies combined. The U.S...
.
Nineteen German POWs escaped through a large drainage pipe from Kingston, Ontario
Kingston, Ontario
Kingston, Ontario is a Canadian city located in Eastern Ontario where the St. Lawrence River flows out of Lake Ontario. Originally a First Nations settlement called "Katarowki," , growing European exploration in the 17th Century made it an important trading post...
on August 26, 1943. All were soon recaptured.
Karl Rabe of U-35 made four separate escape attempts from Lethbridge, Alberta in 1943 including an attempt using a 24 by 10 ft (7.3 by 3 m) home-made hot air balloon
Hot air balloon
The hot air balloon is the oldest successful human-carrying flight technology. It is in a class of aircraft known as balloon aircraft. On November 21, 1783, in Paris, France, the first untethered manned flight was made by Jean-François Pilâtre de Rozier and François Laurent d'Arlandes in a hot air...
. Previously he had escaped from a Toronto
Toronto
Toronto is the provincial capital of Ontario and the largest city in Canada. It is located in Southern Ontario on the northwestern shore of Lake Ontario. A relatively modern city, Toronto's history dates back to the late-18th century, when its land was first purchased by the British monarchy from...
hospital, subsequently stealing a small row boat with the intention of crossing Lake Ontario
Lake Ontario
Lake Ontario is one of the five Great Lakes of North America. It is bounded on the north and southwest by the Canadian province of Ontario, and on the south by the American state of New York. Ontario, Canada's most populous province, was named for the lake. In the Wyandot language, ontarío means...
to the American shore, but beached the craft too soon, mistakenly thinking he was already on the American side. He was immediately recaptured by Canadian soldiers.
Afrika Korps
Afrika Korps
The German Africa Corps , or the Afrika Korps as it was popularly called, was the German expeditionary force in Libya and Tunisia during the North African Campaign of World War II...
soldier Max Weidauer escaped from Medicine Hat, Alberta
Medicine Hat, Alberta
Medicine Hat, known to locals as "The Hat", is a city of 61,097 people located in the southeastern part of the province of Alberta, Canada. It is enclaved within Cypress County along with the nearby Town of Redcliff, although neither is part of the county....
in the aftermath of the separate murders of fellow DAK prisoners August Plaszek and Karl Lehmann by Nazi elements. After explaining the circumstances of his escape and the fact that he feared for his life, Weidauer was hidden by a local farmer but was soon once again behind barbed wire.
Literature
- The One That Got Away by Kendall Burt and James LeasorJames LeasorJames Leasor was a prolific British author, who wrote historical books and thrillers. Leasor's 1978 book, Boarding Party, about an incident that took place in the Second World War, was turned into a film, The Sea Wolves, starring Gregory Peck, Roger Moore and David Niven.-Biography:Leasor was born...
(London, 1956, 2011) ISBN 978-1-908291-12-7
External links
- Barron Von Werra Begins Tour of "Sights" After Arrival In New York City, Ogdensburg Journal (USA 27 January 1941)
- von Werra's escape attempt from Grizedale Hall
- Aces of the Luftwaffe - Franz von Werra at www.luftwaffe.cz von Werra's Luftwaffe record.
