Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunter's Campfire Battle of Britain, 1940, Franz von Werra

Woke up early this morning, and tripped across this video on youtube of the story of Franz von Werra.
Was shot down over SE England in his ME 109, captured and then put in a few POW camps, and had multiple escape attempts, that all failed.
Finally he was shipped to Canada for internment. He escaped by jumping off a Train in Ontario, near Lake Superior and crossed the border into the
USA before it was involved in the war..

He later crossed into Mexico and made his way down to South America, where he boarded a ship bound for Europe, from Rio de Janiero and returned to Germany. He was the ONLY pilot shot down over Britain who managed to finally escape and return to Germany in 1941, after 7 months in captivity.
That earned him a second Iron Cross and was made a National Hero in Germany. His second Iron Cross was awarded personally by Hitler.

Interesting video, that is about 30 minutes long for people who have an interest in WW 2, especially the Battle of Britain...which I love to read about every since I was 12 years old and lived over there at the time...my dad being in the USAF, and Stationed at RAF Alconbury, 75 miles north of London.
Alconbury on a side note, was the base that Glenn Miller left from to fly to France in August 1944, and was never heard from again as the plane went down over the English Channel.

Anyway, her is the 30 minute video of the escape of Franz von Werra, from Canada back to Germany in 1941... Enjoy!

Being German, he could have walked down any street in the US without getting a 2d glance. If he'd been Japanese doing the same thing, they'd have pegged him in a hurry.

That’s an interesting story, there was a movie made called ‘The One that Got Away’ . Von Werra was later killed.

Old70

Excellent story. A true hero.

Thanks for the link, I saw that on my feed at work, couldn’t find it again when I got home.

I saw that video a few years ago. Very interesting story.

Thank you !

Thanks for posting that. Don't have 30 spare minutes right now but will watch it later this afternoon. A lot of German POW's were interred in the U.S.; at least in and around Rochester NY during WW2. They helped with crop harvesting and helped construct a state park and all other sorts of general labor. Rochester was predominately German back then to the point of even having a German language newspaper. My mom's side of the family was total German and bi-lingual and this story reminded me of a few tales I heard growing up. Like how some POW's were clearing snow off downtown city sidewalks and they were amazed at how many Americans there spoke to them in fluent German. I never heard how closely they were guarded but I never heard of any escapees either.

Good video! Thanks.


Many in Phoenix, too. Submariners. A bunch pulled a big tunnel escape and planned to float down the Salt River to Mexico. Only the Salt River mostly flows underground there and all were recaptured. One of the prisoners was free with information for the US authorities about the latest German advances in subs and was tried by a POW court and found guilty of treason and hanged. A number of the perpetrators were tried by US courts, found guilty and hanged after the war in the last mass hanging in the US at Fort Leavenworth, IIRC.

My dad’s saintly Irish mom was employed as a cook at Camp Shanks NY. According to my dad the German POWs she fed called her “Mutter” (mother).

These stories go back far enough to highlight the better human nature of ordinary people. Whether ww2. Ww1, civil war