On pages 138 and 139 of number 5 of 1941 of the magazine Der Adler, the Luftwaffe’s biweekly propaganda organ, there appeared an article entitled “The Escape of Lieutenant von Werra”, in which the adventures of Lieutenant von Werra were narrated, with some imprecision. of the first and only German pilot held prisoner by the Allies who managed to escape from America to return to the motherland.
Hailed as a hero by the press led by Minister Joseph Goebbels, his popularity, however, proved short-lived. His extreme talkativeness and some benevolent comment towards his captors did the rest.
Returned to a combat unit, the fighter pilot participated in Operation Barbarossa, later being transferred to occupied Holland. He disappeared, with his new Messerschmitt Bf 109 F, off the Dutch coast, near Vlissingen (Flesingen), on October 25, 1941, when the engine failed. His body was never found. But who was Franz von Werra and how did he accomplish his feat?
Franz Xaver was born on July 13, 1914 in the small, medieval town of Leuk, in the Swiss canton of Valais. Seventh son of the bankrupt barons Leo and Henriette von Werra, he was born at a bad time.
His parents were in such a hurry that he was given up for adoption – along with his sister Emma-Charlotte, to whom he was always very close – to a childless German noble family: the Von Haber barons, who lived in Beuron (Baden Wurtemberg). With them, he spent his childhood and youth without ever knowing his biological parents.
Intelligent, graceful and mischievous, the young Franz was always somewhat rebellious, and caused more than one annoyance to the Von Habers, who moved to Cologne after being hit by the hyperinflation of 1923. Things did not go well for them in the city on the Rhine either. : The family ended up completely ruined, which caused the marriage to separate in 1932.
Aware of his real origin, Franz recovered the surname Von Werra, which he would never abandon, a decision that had a positive impact on his future within National Socialist Germany, given that his adoptive mother, although converted to Catholicism, was Jewish. However, the young man was never interested in meeting his biological father, who was still alive.
Without family guardianship and eager for adventure, Franz tried to travel to the United States as a stowaway on the freighter Niederwald, but he was discovered, which did not diminish his rebellious spirit. He joined the Assault Sections (SA) of the National Socialist Party, until, in 1936, after the creation of the Luftwaffe just a year before, he entered pilot school, where he reached the rank of second lieutenant.
Von Werra soon stood out as a notable and conscientious pilot, an aviation ace, being praised by his superiors. Known for his eccentricities, he often wore a flowing red sweater over his uniform, and had adopted a lion cub named Simba.
He achieved his first victories in the French campaign, witnessing four certain kills, to which he added another four during the Battle of Britain, although he was denied five that he said he had destroyed on the ground, since the German kill count system was very strict.
Promoted to first lieutenant (Oberleutnant), his luck was cut short on September 5, 1940, when his aircraft made a forced landing with a damaged engine near Winchet Hill (Kent), without the causes of the failure being clear.
Captured by the British, his first destination was the nearby Maidstone field, where he caused some incident that was interpreted as a first escape attempt. He was transferred to Grizedale Hall Prison Camp No. 1 (Lancashire) with the label of troublemaker.
Once there, he interacted with the most active elements of the institution, with a view to a group escape from which he would become the only beneficiary. He managed to jump over the wall, taking advantage of the guards’ distraction by the noise of a van, and spent five days in evasion, until he was arrested and booked into a punishment cell.
Transferred to prison camp No. 13 in Swanwick (Derbyshire), he joined the so-called Swanwick Tiefbau A. G., the name given to itself by a group of German prisoners who were building a tunnel. Thus, he escaped again along with four other inmates, who were soon captured.
This was not the case with Von Werra. Using his knowledge of English, and in order to mask his accent, he posed as a Dutch pilot who had been shot down and was seeking to rejoin his unit. With that identity, he arrived at the Hucknall RAF base, where he was detained when he was boarding a Hawker Hurricane fighter with which he intended to reach France. At the time, he was unaware that in Germany he had been awarded the prestigious Knight’s Cross of the Iron Cross on December 14, 1940.
At that time, it was common practice for the British Army to send especially dangerous or highly trained prisoners, such as airplane pilots or submarine crews, to Canada, so that their escape and potential reintegration into the enemy war machine would be almost impossible. . Von Werra was one of those chosen: on January 10, 1941, he boarded the steamship Duchess of York, along with other compatriots, bound for Halifax (Nova Scotia).
Once disembarked, the prisoners were put on a train heading to the Neys internment camp (Ontario), but, far from being intimidated, the German pilot saw a new opportunity in it.
Under cover of the darkness of the night, the lack of surveillance and the noisy clatter of the convoy, while his companions stood up and covered him with a blanket, Von Werra threw himself out of the window near the small town of Smith Falls, taking advantage of a brief deceleration of the train. He knew that the United States, still neutral, was very close to the south, so, guided by the stars, he headed towards the San Lorenzo River, the border between both countries.
Von Werra once again drew on his Dutch identity – in this case, as a sailor – to be driven by car by a local to Prescott, on the Canadian bank of the great river. He tried to cross it on foot, but it was impossible because of the ice. After finding a boat without oars that seemed abandoned, he managed to make it to the other side, but was detained by the police in Ogdensburg, New York, on a cold January 23, 1941.
Thus, a legal problem arose. Von Werra had entered the United States illegally, but, as a combatant, he was to be interned. However, there was a claim from Canada for having “stolen” a boat. Not knowing how to rule the case, the district judge set bail at $15,000, which was taken care of by the German embassy, ??with the obligation that the accused not leave the country. Become a media star, his face, with his ears covered with gauze and tape, as they had frozen during the journey, appeared all over the North American press.
The German diplomats assumed that the pilot must flee, so he was sent by train to El Paso (Texas) and, from there, to Ciudad Juárez (Mexico), with the unconvincing disguise of a blonde Mexican peasant with blue eyes. . A few dollars wisely distributed did the rest.
With the false identity of Dr. Berd Natus, he crossed Guatemala, Panama, Peru and Bolivia, until reaching Brazil. Finally, on April 11, he boarded an Italian plane that took him to Rome, via Cape Verde, and Barcelona.
Once in Berlin, after reporting to German military intelligence (Abwehr) on British internment methods and other services, he became a star, and even wrote a book, My Escape from England (Mein Flucht aus England), which the authorities did not like and which, consequently, was not published. This circumstance precipitated his re-entry into a hunting unit, and in the Russian campaign he scored another eleven kills.
After marrying his girlfriend Elfi Traut on August 22, 1941 and having been promoted to captain, he was transferred to Holland to test the new Messerschmitt Bf 109 F fighters, one of which led to his death. Always smiling and sly, despite all his adventures, he had time to send a postcard from the United States to his captor in Hucknall, wishing her luck.
