The Red Devil: The Only Axis Prisoner to Escape from North America And Make It Back to Germany

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there is a link below it's got 100 happiness guarantee so you can get a refund if you don't like it for any reason fantastic let's get into the video during the second world war more than 260 000 allied personnel were captured by the western axis powers and held in prisoner of war camps in germany italy and their occupied territories their bold and often ingenious escape attempts have become the staff of a legend including the famous great escape from the stalag luft 3 camp in march of 1944 and countless outlandish breakouts from the infamous called its castle and for more on that please see our video that time allied pow secretly built an airplane from scratch to escape a nazi compound it's an incredible story less well-remembered of the some 400 000 german and italian prisoners of war interned in britain canada and the united states their ingenuity and will to escape was no less than that of their allied counterparts but while some 1 500 allied pows succeeded in making the home run back to friendly or neutral territory over the entire course of the war only one axis prisoner managed to escape canadian allied captivity and make it all the way back home to germany this is the extraordinary story of lieutenant franz fonterra franz fonvera was born on july 13th 1914 in the swiss village of luke terossoli and leo freyja von vera destitute german aristocrats franz fonvera joined the german air force or luftwaffe in 1936 and was commissioned as a lieutenant in 1938. he was by all accounts the epitome of the aryan superman celebrated by nazi propaganda with blue eyes and wavy blonde hair though luftwaffe chief hermann goering would later note his unusually short stature he played up the image of a dashing fighter pilot driving fast sports cars and keeping a pet lion cub named simba as a squadron mascot while his habit of wearing a red jacket into combat led german tabloids to dub him the red devil terror of the british air force though many of his colleagues saw him as arrogant and bragging fellow pow heinz kramer would later describe him as an honest and pleasant young man a bit of a showman with a wonderful imagination but a reliable and honest chap upon their rehearsal combat during the battle of france is part of jagdeshwada iii shooting down his first aircraft a british hawker hurricane on may the 20th 1940. he followed this two days later by shooting down three french bombers during the subsequent battle of britain on a single day august 25th 1940 von vera claimed to have shot down one spitfire and three hurricanes and destroyed a further five aircraft on the ground bringing his total kills to 13 and officially making him an ace while only a few of these victories were ever officially confirmed the german state media saw the propaganda value of fon vera's exploits and his claims were never contested on september the 5th 1940 folivera was escorting a bomber squadron over kent when his messerschmitt bf-109 fighter was shot down by spitfires flown by flight lieutenant patterson hughes and pilot officer gerald stapleton of 234 squadron raf fonveira managed to crashland to stricken aircraft in a field on love's farm near wintertill and was quickly arrested by a cook from a nearby army unit he was taken to the nearby village of maidstone and held overnight in the local constabulary before being transferred to maidstone barracks under the guard of the queen's own royal west kent regiment it is here that he made his first escape attempt overpowering his guard while digging in the garden with a pickaxe he was quickly recaptured and sent to the infamous cockfoster's cage and mi-9 interrogation center at trent park in hertfordshire here he was held interrogated for 18 days but failed to divulge any useful information at one point in typical cockshaw fashion fonterra bet his interrogator one squadron leader hawks that the british wouldn't be able to hold him for six months neither man could have known at the time how ride fond farah was following his stay at the cage fonterra was transferred to pow camp number one in furnace fells lancashire where he immediately set about planning his next escape attempt on the afternoon of october the 7th 1940 while the prisoners were out on a guarded walk in the countryside fond vera took advantage of a distraction created by an approaching fruit cart to roll over a low stone wall and slip away his absence was not noticed until later that evening whereupon local police forces and the home guard were alerted to the presence of an escaped german officer in the area von vera traveling mainly by night managed to evade capture for three days until on the night of october the 10th he was discovered by the home guard sheltering from the rain in a hog arthur a small stone structure used to store animal feed the guardsman bound fonvera's hands behind his back and began leading him back to the nearest town but fond vera managed to slip his bonds break the guardsman's lantern and escape into the darkness it was another two days before he was finally recaptured while attempting to hide in a bog submerged up to his neck after serving 21 days solitary confinement at furnace falls on november 3rd upon herrera was transferred to camp number 13 at swanwick derbyshire here he befriended a group of prisoners including lieutenant walter manhart and major heinz kramer who formed an escape committee they jokingly called swanwick typhow ag or swanwick digging company incorporated while progress on their escape tunnel was swift due to the sturdy clay soil the group soon began running out of room to hide all the excavated soil this stalled construction for weeks until manhattan discovered a large rainwater system beneath the garden house which could hold double the expected volume of soil on december 17 1940 the tunnel was at last complete on the night of the 20th under the cover of a nearby air raid and the camp cua von vera manhart and cramer crawled through the tunnel and out into the surrounding countryside amusingly the song chosen to cover their escape was i must away into the great wide world while the men's absence was not noticed until the following afternoon cramer and manhart were quickly spotted and recaptured leaving von vera on his own thankfully he had prepared a convincing disguise thousands of air crew from occupied allied nations such as poland norway and the netherlands served in the raf so a man in british uniform with a foreign accent did not attract undue suspicion dressed in a homemade raf uniform with forged identity papers pon vera planned to pass himself off as captain von lott a dutch bomber pilot whose aircraft had crashed returning from a mission knowing that bombers flew at night he waited until 3am before approaching a friendly locomotive driver and asked to be taken to the nearest raf airfield at cardinal park railway station fornvera came under the suspicion of the local railway clerk and police constable but he managed to convince them of his identity and they secured his passage to ariev hucknall and nottingham at hucknall when the squadron leaders asked for his credentials fornvera claimed to be based at dicen aberdeen in scotland while the squadron leader rang there to confirm his story he asked font vera for his identity disc to his horror of honvara realized that his fake disc had melted due to his body heat and he hastily excused himself to use the laboratory running across the airfield he spotted a hawker hurricane fighter being readied and informed the mechanic that he was taking it on a test flight von vera was already strapped into the cockpit trying to figure out the controls when the squadron leader ran up with his service revolver to arrest him amazingly this would not be the closest to german prisoner who would come to escaping britain by aircraft on november 24 1941 lieutenants hans schnabel and harry vaplan escaped from a pow camp in penrith cumbria and made their way to nearby raf kingston airfield where they managed to commandeer a mars magister training aircraft and get airborne however lack of fuel and freezing temperatures forced them to turn back and land near the coast where they were soon captured in ford ferra's case it became clear that the british isles could no longer contain the slippery pilots so on january the 10th 1941 pon vera and a thousand other german prisoners were placed on board the ocean liner ss duchess of york to be sent to internment camps in canada fonterra who was by now a known escape risk was placed in his own cabin under special guard yet he still continued to plot his escape during the crossing von vera managed to befriend the ship's galley crew offering to peel potatoes and carry out other menial tasks slowly but surely he gained the trust of more and more of the crew and began to penetrate normally forbidden areas of the ship getting as far as the engine room without being stopped knowing that the convoy they were sailing with was bound for north africa and would soon depart fonterra and his fellow passengers plotted to take over the ship and sail her back to an occupied french port unfortunately for them on the day the convoy departed the germans discovered to their dismay that one escort the british battleship hms ramelise had remained to shepherd them all the way to canada duchess of york arrived safely in halifax nova scotia where the prisoners were transferred to a train bound for a p.o.w campbell on the north shore of lake superior after the abortive mutiny ponterra had decided to escape to the united states which at the time was still neutral while the nearest border crossing was between new brunswick and maine ponthera decided to save his attempt until late in the train journey when it would least be expected this would take place between montreal and ottawa where the rail line came closest to the sun lawrence river on the us canada border on the 21st of january 1941 near smith's falls ontario valvera put his plan into action the train windows had all frozen shut in the winter cold forcing the prisoners to turn up the car heaters to free them at a pre-arranged signal a fellow passenger raised a blanket as if holding it shielding fond fare and seven other prisoners from view as they crawled through the open windows and plunged headfirst into the snow below amazingly none of the guards noticed the escape and the windows quickly frosted over again blocking the escapees from view the train was nearly a hundred miles away by the time their absence was noticed once again all of hon fera's fellow escapees were quickly recaptured leaving him on his own freezing due to a lack of proper winter clothes hon fera stumbled upon a nearby road hoping to bomb a ride to the border a car soon approached but as it drew closer vod vera realized it was a police car and quickly dropped his hand it was too late the car came to a stop believing he had been caught on vera grudgingly approached the car only to be informed that hitchhiking had recently been outlawed in canada and that he had barely avoided being arrested nonetheless the policeman offered him a ride and dropped him off in johnstown just across from dustin lawrence from ogdenberg new york seeing that the river was frozen von pere attempted to cross on foot but found a wide ice-free channel blocking his path doubling back he wandered through the night until he stumbled upon an abandoned summer camp near the town of prescott where he found an overturned wooden boat despite his hands being nearly frozen using fence paling as a shovel he managed to dig the boat out of the snow drag it across the ice and cross the river once in ogdensburg ponterra turned himself into the police who passed him off to the board of immigration charged with illegally entering the country if honvair contacted the german consul in new york city who paid his bail and arranged for a local attorney james davies to represent him fonfera was released and instructed to appear before a grand jury in albany a week later fonver's arrival in the united states caused a sensation and he was treated like a celebrity by the media and otherwise saw the sights and lived the high life in new york city he also took to writing wish you were here postcards to old friends and comrades including squadron leader bonaface from harknell airfield and squadron leader hawk from cockfoster's cage interrogation center during this time he also learned that adolf hitler had awarded him the prestigious knights cross for his august 25 attack on an raf airfield an attack most historians now agree never took place but fonvera did not have long to relax but the commonwealth's authorities were hot on his trail soon after his border crossing the ontario provincial police delivered a summons to the ogdensburg police charging von vera with the theft of a rowboat worth 35 this tiny sum was widely mocked in the german press the german embassy even issuing a statement reading in view of the great importance canada appears to attach to the boat franz von thera will gladly place at the disposal of the american authorities the sum of 35 so that the warrant against him may be withdrawn however given the criminal nature of the charge it could not be tried in an american court and could have led to von vera's extradition back to canada the german consul therefore decided to get fonfeira out of the united states as quickly as possible in april 1941 while negotiations between the american and canadian governments raged on fonterra boarded a train out of new york and slipped across the border into mexico from here the various german consoles in south america shuttled honvair along a circuitous route through brazil bolivia and peru and finally across the atlantic to barcelona and rome francois vera finally reached germany on april the 18th 1941 225 days after he had been captured in germany if hon farah was hailed as a hero with hitler personally congratulating him for his courage and ingenuity and ability to turn a tactically unfavorable situation to his own advantage but even more valuable than font vera's heroic status where his unique insights into british interrogation techniques drawing from his experiences at the cockfoster's cage fonterra wrote a pamphlet titled how to behave if taken prisoner which remained in use until 1944 and effectively cut off one of mi-9's most valuable sources of intelligence he also consulted on improvements to german interrogation techniques and contradicted the portrayal of british pow camps in nazi propaganda stating generally speaking british treatment of german war prisoners is unexceptional such isolated instances of maltreatment as have occurred have resulted from wrong behavior on the part of the prisoners concerned in the first decisive moments of captivity in any event in recognition for his daring escape ponthera was promoted to harptman and made a commander of the squadron jg 52 on the eastern front in july 1941 he scored 30 more victories against russian aircraft bringing his total kills to 21. in august his squadron was recalled to germany to be equipped with new aircraft and reposted to catwork in the netherlands then a mere eight months after arriving back in germany franz von vera's luck finally ran out on october 25th 1941 von vera was on a routine training flight off the dutch coast when he experienced engine failure and crashed into the sea north of lissengan his body was never recovered franz barbara's extraordinary globe spanning odyssey from captivity to freedom is emblematic of the determination and fighting spirit displayed by all servicemen during the second world war and the effectiveness of interning axis prisoners in canada indeed with the possible exception of u-boat sailor voltorai who claimed to have escaped from a troop ship in the saint lawrence in july of 1940 von farrah remains the only german pow to make it all the way from canada to germany during the entirety of the war his story was popularized in a 1956 book by kendall burt and james lisa and a 1957 film starring hardy kruger both titled after von vera's now immortal nickname the one that got away so i really hope you found that video interesting if you did please do hit that thumbs up button below don't forget to subscribe also please do check out our fantastic sponsor magic spoon link below and thank you for watching you

Channel: Today I Found Out

Views: 88,348

Rating: 4.9383798 out of 5

Keywords: today i found out, tifovidz12, tifo, awesome, facts, didn't know

Id: waCCKtx8PPQ

Length: 15min 56sec (956 seconds)

Published: Thu Apr 01 2021