Franz von Werra

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Franz
JG 53
Battles/warsWorld War II
Awards

Franz Xaver

US, Mexico, South America and Spain, finally reaching Germany on 18 April 1941.[3]

Oberleutnant von Werra was awarded the Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross on 14 December 1940. His story was told in the book The One That Got Away by Kendall Burt and James Leasor, which was made into a film of the same name, starring Hardy Krüger.

Biography

Franz Freiherr von Werra was born on 13 July 1914, to impoverished

Valais. The title of Freiherr (equal to Baron) came from his biological father, Leo Freiherr von Werra, who after bankruptcy, faced deep economic hardship. Because his relatives were legally obliged to look after the Baron's wife and six children, his cousin Rosalie von Werra persuaded her childless friend Louise Carl von Haber to permit the Baron's youngest, Franz and his sister, to enjoy the benefits of wealth and education. The von Habers did not tell the children their true origin.[4]

Werra joined the

RAF
planes eliminated. The details of the actions are unknown, as the incident has not been found in British records.

Capture and escapes

On 5 September 1940, Werra's

Flight Lieutenant Paterson Hughes (234 Squadron) was posthumously given half of the credit, in The London Gazette 22 October 1940 citation awarding him a bar to his DFC. Some sources suggest that P/O George Bennions of 41 Squadron may have damaged Werra's fighter before Hughes and Stapleton also scored hits on it. Other sources suggest F/L John Terence Webster of 41 Squadron was the victor.[5]

Werra crash-landed in a field on Loves Farm and was captured by the unarmed cook of a nearby army unit. He was initially held in

Sir Philip Sassoon. Eventually, Werra was sent to POW Camp No. 1, at Grizedale Hall in the Furness Fells area of Lancashire, between Windermere and Coniston Water
.

Franz von Werra's Bf 109E-4, pictured at Marden, Kent

On 7 October he tried to escape for a 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, Werra slipped over a

Home Guard. On the evening of 10 October at around 11:00 p.m., two Home Guards found him sheltering from the rain in a hoggarth (a type of small stone hut used for storing sheep fodder that is common in the area). On being removed from the hut he knocked the lamp to the ground, extinguishing the light, then he quickly escaped and disappeared into the night. On 12 October, he was spotted climbing a fell. The area was surrounded, and Werra was eventually found, almost immersed in a muddy depression in the ground. He was sentenced to 21 days of solitary confinement and on 3 November was transferred to Camp No. 13 in Swanwick, Derbyshire
, also known as the Hayes camp.

In Camp No. 13, Werra joined a group calling itself Swanwick Tiefbau A.G. (Swanwick Excavations, Ltd.), which was digging an escape tunnel. The tunnel can still be seen at the

Squadron Leader Boniface asked for his credentials and von Werra claimed to be based at Dyce near Aberdeen
. While Boniface went to check this story, 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 the Hayes camp under armed guard.

In January 1941, von Werra was sent with many other German prisoners to

Smiths Falls, Ontario, 30 miles from the St. Lawrence River
. Seven other prisoners tried to escape from the same train but were soon recaptured. Werra's absence was not noticed until the next afternoon.

After crossing the frozen St. Lawrence River, von Werra made his way to

Italy
). He finally reached Nazi Germany on 18 April 1941.

Return and death

On his return to Nazi Germany, von Werra became a hero. Adolf Hitler awarded him the Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross (Ritterkreuz des Eisernen Kreuzes). Werra was assigned the task of improving German techniques for interrogating captured pilots, based on his experiences with the British system.[8] Werra reported to the German High Command on how he had been treated as a POW, and this caused an improvement in the treatment of Allied POWs in Germany. He wrote a book about his experiences titled Meine Flucht aus England (My Escape from England), although it remained unpublished.[9]

On 22 June 1941, German forces launched Operation Barbarossa, the invasion of the Soviet Union. Two days later, Oberleutnant Wilfried Balfanz, the commander of I. Gruppe of Jagdgeschwader 53 (JG 53—53rd Fighter Wing), was killed in action. In consequence, Oberleutnant Ignaz Prestele briefly commanded the Gruppe until von Werra was appointed the Gruppenkommandeur (group commander) on 1 July. At the time, I. Gruppe was based at Hostynne.[10]

In early August 1941, I. Gruppe withdrew to Germany to re-equip with the new Bf 109 F-4 at

Herbert Kaminski succeeded him as commander of I. Gruppe.[13]

Film

Von Werra's story was the subject of the 1957 film The One That Got Away starring Hardy Krüger as Franz von Werra. The film was based on a book by Kendall Burt and James Leasor published in 1956. A documentary called von Werra (with clips from The One That Got Away) was released in the 2000s.

Summary of career

Aerial victory claims

According to Obermaier, von Werra was credited with 21 aerial victories, eight of which over the

ground attack missions.[14] Mathews and Foreman, authors of Luftwaffe Aces — Biographies and Victory Claims, researched the German Federal Archives and found records for fourteen aerial victory claims, plus five further unconfirmed claims. This figure of confirmed claims includes eleven aerial victories on the Eastern Front and three on the Western Front.[15]

Chronicle of aerial victories
  This and the ? (question mark) indicates information discrepancies listed by Prien, Stemmer, Rodeike, Bock, Mathews and Foreman.
– Stab II. Gruppe of Jagdgeschwader 3 –[15]
Battle of France — 19 May – 25 June 1940
1 22 May 1940 16:28 Hurricane 15 km (9.3 mi) east of Arras[16] 3?[Note 1] 22 May 1940 12:52 Bréguet 690 Cambrai[16]
2?[Note 1] 22 May 1940 12:36 Bréguet 690 Saudemont[16] 4?[Note 1] 22 May 1940 14:26
Potez 63
 southwest of Cambrai[16]
– Stab II. Gruppe of Jagdgeschwader 3 –[15]
Action at the Channel and over England — 26 June – 5 September 1940
5 28 August 1940 17:10 Spitfire 3 km (1.9 mi) east of Rochester[17] 7?[Note 1] 28 August 1940
—
 Hurricane[17]
6?[Note 1] 28 August 1940
—
 Hurricane[17] 8?[Note 1] 28 August 1940
—
 Hurricane[17]
– Stab I. Gruppe of Jagdgeschwader 53 –[15]
Operation Barbarossa — 1 July – 7 August 1941
9 7 July 1941 09:05 DB-3 south of
Ploskirov[18]

Kraskoje 		15 18 July 1941 12:03?[Note 2] SB-3[19]
10 7 July 1941 17:10 DB-3[18] 16 26 July 1941 10:53 SB-3[19]
11 11 July 1941 18:40 SB-3 Kudno[18] 17 29 July 1941 17:05 SB-3 south of Smola[20]
12 11 July 1941 18:42 SB-3 Kudno[18] 18 31 July 1941 15:05 Pe-2[20]
13 12 July 1941 10:32 DB-3[19]?[Note 3] 19 31 July 1941 15:08 V-11 (Il-2)[20]
14 17 July 1941 17:50 I-153[19]

Awards

Notes

  1. ^ a b c d e f According to Mathews and Foreman, this claim is unconfirmed.[15]
  2. ^ According to Mathews and Foreman claimed at 12:05.[15]
  3. ^ According to Mathews and Foreman claimed as a Tupolev SB-3.[15]

References

Citations

  1. ^ Bernard & Bergeron 1995, p. 99.
  2. ^ Quinn 2014, chpt. 4.
  3. ^ "Aces of the Luftwaffe – Franz von Werra". luftwaffe.cz.
  4. ^ Meichtry 2001.
  5. ^ Burt & Leasor 2011, p. 18.
  6. ^ WW2 People's War
  7. ^ Crestview, Florida, "Nazi Ace in U.S. After Escape", The Okaloosa News-Journal, Friday 7 February 1941, Volume 27, Number 5, page 1.
  8. ^ Corum, James S. (March 2008). "Secrets of the Nazi Interrogators: How the Luftwaffe tricked Allied airmen into talking". World War II Magazine. Weider History Group: 42–49.
  9. ^ Burt & Leasor 2011, p. 268.
  10. ^ Prien et al. 2003b, p. 102.
  11. ^ Prien et al. 2003a, p. 92.
  12. ^ Prien et al. 2003a, p. 96.
  13. ^ Prien et al. 2003a, p. 93.
  14. ^ Obermaier 1989, p. 223.
  15. ^ a b c d e f g Mathews & Foreman 2015, p. 1406.
  16. ^ a b c d Prien et al. 2001, p. 164.
  17. ^ a b c d Prien et al. 2002, p. 217.
  18. ^ a b c d Prien et al. 2003b, p. 108.
  19. ^ a b c d Prien et al. 2003b, p. 110.
  20. ^ a b c Prien et al. 2003b, p. 111.
  21. ^ Scherzer 2007, p. 781.
  22. ^ Fellgiebel 2000, p. 443.

Bibliography

Further reading

External links

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