{"id":7038439,"date":"2026-07-24T10:13:25","date_gmt":"2026-07-24T08:13:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/migflug.com\/jetflights\/franz-von-werra-the-one-that-got-away-escape\/"},"modified":"2026-07-24T10:13:51","modified_gmt":"2026-07-24T08:13:51","slug":"franz-von-werra-the-one-that-got-away-escape","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/migflug.com\/jetflights\/franz-von-werra-the-one-that-got-away-escape\/","title":{"rendered":"The One That Got Away"},"content":{"rendered":"<style>.et_pb_title_container h1.entry-title { padding-top: 40px !important; }<\/style>\r\n<p>Tens of thousands of Axis prisoners spent the Second World War behind Allied wire. Exactly one of them broke out, crossed an ocean, and made it all the way back to his own side to fly again. His name was Franz von Werra, and the film they made about him was called, simply, <em>The One That Got Away<\/em>.<\/p>\r\n<p>Getting there took a downed fighter, a fake Dutch identity, a nearly-stolen Hurricane, a leap from a moving train, and a freezing river crossing into a neutral country.<\/p>\r\n\r\n<div style=\"background:#f5f5f5;padding:20px;border-radius:8px;margin:24px 0\"><h3 style=\"padding-top:0;margin-top:0\">Quick Facts<\/h3><ul style=\"margin:0;line-height:1.8\"><li><strong>Pilot:<\/strong> Oberleutnant Franz von Werra, Luftwaffe fighter pilot<\/li><li><strong>Shot down:<\/strong> Over Kent, 5 September 1940, during the Battle of Britain<\/li><li><strong>Aircraft:<\/strong> Messerschmitt Bf 109<\/li><li><strong>Great escape:<\/strong> Jumped a moving train in Canada, January 1941<\/li><li><strong>Route home:<\/strong> Across the frozen St. Lawrence, then Mexico, Brazil, Spain, Italy<\/li><li><strong>Distinction:<\/strong> The only German POW held in Canada to escape and reach Germany<\/li><\/ul><\/div>\r\n\r\n<div style=\"position:relative;padding-bottom:56.25%;height:0;overflow:hidden;margin:24px 0\"><iframe class=\"skip-lazy\" data-no-lazy=\"1\" loading=\"eager\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/Gw83Ml-bphw\" style=\"position:absolute;top:0;left:0;width:100%;height:100%;border:0;border-radius:8px\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/div>\r\n<h2 style=\"padding-top:22px\">The man who would not stay caught<\/h2>\r\n<p>Von Werra was flying a <a href=\"https:\/\/migflug.com\/aircraft\/messerschmitt-bf-109\/\">Messerschmitt Bf 109<\/a> when he was brought down over England in September 1940 and taken prisoner. Captivity did not agree with him. He escaped a work party in the Lake District and spent days loose on the fells before being recaptured.<\/p>\r\n<p>His next attempt was pure theatre. In December 1940 he tunnelled out of a camp at Swanwick with several others, the diggers covered by the camp choir singing at full volume. Alone after the others were caught, von Werra pulled on a flying suit and became &ldquo;Captain van Lott,&rdquo; a downed Dutch pilot desperate to get back to his squadron.<\/p>\r\n\r\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\" style=\"margin:0 0 24px;width:100%\"><img data-opt-id=2001739615  fetchpriority=\"high\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"skip-lazy\" data-no-lazy=\"1\" loading=\"eager\" width=\"1024\" src=\"https:\/\/ml5psubhxdln.i.optimole.com\/cb:0e0_.b970\/w:auto\/h:auto\/q:mauto\/ig:avif\/https:\/\/migflug.com\/jetflights\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/4\/2026\/07\/franz-von-werra.jpg\" alt=\"Oberleutnant Franz von Werra\" style=\"width:100%;height:auto;max-width:100%;display:block;border-radius:6px\"><figcaption style=\"font-size:13px;color:#777;text-align:center;margin-top:6px;font-style:italic\">Oberleutnant Franz von Werra. Captivity, he decided almost immediately, was not going to be permanent. Public domain<\/figcaption><\/figure>\r\n<p>The bluff nearly worked spectacularly. He talked a railway driver into helping him, reached the RAF airfield at Hucknall, and had a mechanic showing him the controls of a Hurricane fighter &mdash; until an officer pressed a loaded revolver into his ribs. Back to prison he went, this time shipped across the Atlantic to Canada.<\/p>\r\n\r\n<div style=\"position:relative;padding-bottom:56.25%;height:0;overflow:hidden;margin:24px 0\"><iframe class=\"skip-lazy\" data-no-lazy=\"1\" loading=\"eager\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/Wy-_tqv5QkI\" style=\"position:absolute;top:0;left:0;width:100%;height:100%;border:0;border-radius:8px\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/div>\r\n<h2 style=\"padding-top:22px\">Off the train and over the ice<\/h2>\r\n<p>He never reached the Canadian camp. On 21 January 1941, as the prison train rattled through Ontario, von Werra shoved open a window and threw himself out into a snowbank. He walked some thirty miles through the winter to the St. Lawrence River, found a boat, and hauled it across the ice and freezing water to the far bank &mdash; and into New York State.<\/p>\r\n\r\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\" style=\"margin:0 0 24px;width:100%\"><img data-opt-id=348207887  fetchpriority=\"high\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"skip-lazy\" data-no-lazy=\"1\" loading=\"eager\" width=\"1024\" src=\"https:\/\/ml5psubhxdln.i.optimole.com\/cb:0e0_.b970\/w:auto\/h:auto\/q:mauto\/ig:avif\/https:\/\/migflug.com\/jetflights\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/4\/2026\/07\/von-werra-der-adler-1941.png\" alt=\"Franz von Werra featured in Der Adler magazine, 1941\" style=\"width:100%;height:auto;max-width:100%;display:block;border-radius:6px\"><figcaption style=\"font-size:13px;color:#777;text-align:center;margin-top:6px;font-style:italic\">Back in Germany, von Werra was feted as a hero in the Luftwaffe magazine Der Adler. Public domain<\/figcaption><\/figure>\r\n<p>The United States was still neutral. He was charged only with illegal entry, and the German consul quickly paid his bail. While Washington and Ottawa argued about extradition, von Werra slipped over the border into Mexico and worked his way home &mdash; Brazil, Spain, Italy, and finally Germany by April 1941.<\/p>\r\n\r\n<div style=\"background:#f8f9fa;border-left:4px solid #5C91FF;padding:20px 22px;margin:18px 0 24px;border-radius:0 8px 8px 0;font-size:16px;line-height:1.7\"><em>&ldquo;The one that got away.&rdquo;<\/em><div style=\"margin-top:10px;font-size:14px;color:#555\"><strong>The epithet that stuck<\/strong> &mdash; later the title of the book and film about him<\/div><\/div>\r\n<h2 style=\"padding-top:22px\">A short-lived triumph<\/h2>\r\n<p>He came home a celebrity, debriefed at the highest levels on how the British interrogated prisoners &mdash; information that changed how the Luftwaffe prepared its aircrew. He was, by every account, the only German POW held in Canada to escape and make it all the way back.<\/p>\r\n\r\n<div style=\"background:#f8f9fa;border-left:4px solid #5C91FF;padding:20px 22px;margin:18px 0 24px;border-radius:0 8px 8px 0;font-size:16px;line-height:1.7\"><em>&ldquo;The only German POW interned in Canada to successfully escape and make his way back to Germany.&rdquo;<\/em><div style=\"margin-top:10px;font-size:14px;color:#555\"><strong>Historians<\/strong> &mdash; on von Werra&rsquo;s unique feat<\/div><\/div>\r\n<p>His luck did not hold. In October 1941, only months after his return, von Werra&rsquo;s Bf 109 went down over the North Sea, apparently from engine failure. His body was never found &mdash; the one who got away, gone for good.<\/p>\r\n\r\n<div style=\"position:relative;padding-bottom:56.25%;height:0;overflow:hidden;margin:24px 0\"><iframe class=\"skip-lazy\" data-no-lazy=\"1\" loading=\"eager\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/MlWR8G1eMGA\" style=\"position:absolute;top:0;left:0;width:100%;height:100%;border:0;border-radius:8px\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/div>\r\n<p><em>Sources: Kendal Burt &amp; James Leasor, &ldquo;The One That Got Away&rdquo;; War History Online; Valour Canada; Pegasus Archive; Wikipedia.<\/em><\/p>\r\n\r\n<div style=\"background:#f0f4ff;border-left:4px solid #5C91FF;padding:16px 20px;margin:32px 0 8px;border-radius:0 8px 8px 0\"><p style=\"margin:0 0 8px;font-weight:600;color:#333\">Related Posts<\/p><p style=\"margin:4px 0\"><a href=\"https:\/\/migflug.com\/jetflights\/adolf-galland-luftwaffe-ace-general-give-me-spitfires\/\">Adolf Galland: &ldquo;Give Me a Squadron of Spitfires&rdquo;<\/a><\/p><p style=\"margin:4px 0\"><a href=\"https:\/\/migflug.com\/jetflights\/suez-1956-operation-musketeer-air-war-sea-hawk-canberra\/\">The Last Old-Fashioned Air War<\/a><\/p><\/div>\r\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Tens of thousands of Axis prisoners spent the Second World War behind Allied wire. Exactly one of them broke out, crossed an ocean, and made it all the way back to his own side to fly again. His name was Franz von Werra, and the film they made about him was called, simply, The One [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":27,"featured_media":7038312,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"editor_notices":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[666,664],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-7038439","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-history-and-legends","category-military-aviation"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v28.1 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Franz von Werra: The One That Got Away<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Franz von Werra was the only German POW to escape Allied captivity and reach home &mdash; via a stolen identity, a train jump and a frozen river crossing.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, 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