Luftwaffe prisoner exchanges?

[twoeagles]

Sometimes I feel I have been living in a sealed tin, for all I don't know.
Reading Caldwell's JG26 War Diary, he notes that on 18 August 1940,
"Oblt. Walter Blume crashed near Canterbury, severly wounded. Blume was
repatriated in 1943 and returned to combat, ending the war with fourteen
victories". I can't imagine Walter escaped and swam the channel. So, was
there a significant exchange of prisoners going on at that time?

 

[the lancaster kicks ass]

As far as i'm aware the only German Officer to escape from Britain back to Germany in WWII was Franz Von Werra, Adjutant of JG3, his aircraft crashing in Kent, September 5th 1940.............

 

[DerAdlerIstGelandet]

Actually Lanc he did not escape from England but rather Canada. He was shipped to Canada with other POWs in Jan 1941 and jumped from a train and crossed the border into the USA which was still neutral at the time. He turned himself into immigration authorities and they were doing to send him back to Canada but the Germand Consulate helped him get to Mexico where he took a ship to Spain and went through France and returned to Germany.

He was the only German aviator to escape from an allied camp. There were other German soldiers that did escape.

 

[pbfoot]

Actually Lanc he did not escape from England but rather Canada. He was shipped to Canada with other POWs in Jan 1941 and jumped from a train and crossed the border into the USA which was still neutral at the time. He turned himself into immigration authorities and they were doing to send him back to Canada but the Germand Consulate helped him get to Mexico where he took a ship to Spain and went through France and returned to Germany.

He was the only German aviator to escape from an allied camp. There were other German soldiers that did escape.

It was an amazing feat of courage by him crossing the St Lawrence river in the winter

 

[DerAdlerIstGelandet]

I agree.

He did escape one time from a British camp in England and made his way buy disguising himself as a down dutch aviator trying to get back to his unit. He made it all the way to a hanger and almost convinced a Mechanic that he was taking a plane out on a test flight but got caught at the last minute.

 

[the lancaster kicks ass]

oh ok thanks for the info adler.....

 

[DerAdlerIstGelandet]

Thats what we are here for!

 

[Nonskimmer]

I've read about this man on numerous occasions, in novels and old articles. He actually made it into the cockpit of a Hurricane by fooling folks into thinking he was a Dutch pilot, before he was stopped. Talk about close! He may have been the enemy, but what can you do but salute?

Tenacious b*stard, that's for sure. It paid off for him in the end. He escaped all the way from Canada!

 

[DerAdlerIstGelandet]

Yeap he told them he was taking the plane out on a test flight. They almost believed him and he almost got away with it.

I have to agree with Wayne here.

 

[G.P.Hughes]

Hi everybody,Very interesting man Von Werra.Regretably his wartime escapes are always diminished by his gross fabrications and exagerations of his combat record. His knight's Cross award was based on event's that never happened,neither recorded by either the Brit's or the German's.Better men deserve your attention......Regards...Greg Hughes

 

[DerAdlerIstGelandet]

Better men deserve our attentions? This thread is about Prisoner exchanges and prisoners escaping. He did escape, did he not? Therefor he deserves our attentions. Thankyou very much...

 

[Chingachgook]

I lived in UK for several years during the '90s (also Turin and Köln) while working at Dunton (Ford). In UK I met a nice old man and his wife at church - we became friends. His name was Ray Kemp. Ray lives in Brentwood, east of London.
I was at his home one Sunday for dinner with my wife and kids and he remarked that it reminded him of Sunday dinners when he grew up. He said it was usual for his family to have many people over on Sundays - they would host 4-6 Soldiers for Sunday dinner - German Soldiers! He said mostly downed airmen. He said that there was a POW camp in the town where he grew up (I can't remember what town-grrrr!). He said that the local officials set up work details for the soldiers early in the war. They were "nice"(he actually said "men of good character" -ed). Friendships were made. Soon a sign-up sheet was going around town for people to have them to dinner. The Germans were free to walk the village so long as they had the POW uniforms on, and could pretty much be free within the area - he said it was VERY strange to outsiders to see German POWs on the streets of their town. I said that was not good security - he said it was the best security - they had the Germans airmen's word - they trusted them and the POWs never betrayed that trust.
The English are just, well, so ENGLISH! lol

 

[DerAdlerIstGelandet]

They actually had similar in the US. The German POWs were allowed to take walks outside of the camp, work at local stores and in the farms and fields and even go to the movies. The program was set up to give them a good feeling about there captures so as to make the ocupation easier after the war and to also show them what living in a free world would be like so that they might take that back to Germany with them.

Many met American women and later married them. There was a camp in N. Carolina and now many of the people who reside in the Hendersonville area are either German decent or German PoWs that returned to the US and married there sweethearts.

If you drive around the area there, you see many many German flags flying from the windows next to the US flags which are flying as well.

They really are some interesting stories.

 

[stonewall23]

Have anyone ever told you about the German and allied air crews who crashed in neutral Ireland.They were kept in seperate camps next to each other in the curragh military camp.If the individual prisoner gave his word to return to the camp at the agreed time he was given parole to do what he wanted ( within reason ).Only one man broke his word and did not return.I think he was either an American or Canadian.When he got back to Britian the allied prisoners protested to their goverment ( because the parole system was stoped ). The British sent him back to the curragh and the parole system was reinstated.

 

[DerAdlerIstGelandet]

Wow I am surprised they sent him back...

 

[stonewall23]

Apparently he was pretty surprised too. The story goes that the allies ( mostly British ) prisoners were viewed this as a matter of personel honour.As he broke his word it was not good.Especially as all the German prisoners kept their word. 'A bad show you know old boy.'

 

[Chingachgook]

Many met American women and later married them...QUOTE]

This is kinda how I ended up with a British mother and an American father - USAF... hehe. Burtonwood AB...

When my father brought my mother to USA he had failed to tell her that HIS mother was German/Dutch... My mom and my dads mom didn't hit it off too well... My moms house had been bombed out Christmas 1940 in the Manchester blitz, and my grandmothers' kin in Holland and Germany... well, no one ever found them - thanks to "Bomber Harris."

 

[special ed]

I know this is an old thread but as I explore this website memories are triggered. I was raised in New Orleans ,and interested in history,listened to radio talk shows. When lots of POWs were captured in north Africa, Geneva rules require them to be kept as close to the climate where captured as possible. While the gulf coast is hot enough, the humidity is oppressive. New Orleans had the first drive-in movie theater in the south at the intersection of Elysian Fields and Robert E. Lee on land reclaimed from the lake by WPA during the depression. When subs began sinking ships just off shore the theater was shut down because of the light at night and the area was converted to a camp for Italian prisoners. New Orleans has a large Italian community, many of whom immigrated early in the century and Sundays became the day Italian mommas brought home cooked meals to camp, spoke Italian, found relatives and were accompanied by daughters. After the war, a number of ex-prisoners came back and married into local families.
German prisoners went to Jefferson parish (then rural to N.O.) and most to southern Mississippi to work in fields. As many had been farmers before the war, they fit in well. It is ironic that the segregation laws allowed white German prisoners more freedom than black US citizens. A few years ago, the Jefferson water treatment plant was torn down as a new one had been built farther out. The tank had never been drained ( similar to a very large above ground concrete swimming pool) and what came to light were the names of those Germans who built it. They had painted their names, often with home towns, and those who were engineers with their titles on the sides of the walls.

 

[yulzari]

In Britain inviting POWs to dinner had the advantage that they were expected to bring their own rations with them to be cooked. Under the Geneva Conventions they had the same rations as British servicemen and the military ration was larger than the civilian one so they had more and better food than the locals so the POWs had a nice time out and the locals had a better dinner.

 

[swampyankee]

My late father-in-law knew quite a few Italian PoWs in the US. One of the things that astounded him is that they were frequently better treated than the Black soldiers guarding them, including having more liberty to move around the towns near the camps than the American citizens guarding them.