Franz von Werra Franz Xaver Baron von Werra ( 13 July 1914 – 25 October 1941 ) was a German World War II fighter pilot and flying ace who was shot down over Britain and captured . He is generally regarded as the only Axis prisoner of war to succeed in escaping from a Canadian prisoner of war camp and returning to Germany , though a second man , a U - Boat rating named Walter Kurt Reich is said to have jumped from a Polish troopship ( presumably the ex - liner " Sobieski " ) in the St . Lawrence River in July 1940 . Von Werra managed to return to Germany via the USA , Mexico , South America and Spain to reach Germany on 18 April 1941 . Oberleutnant von Werra was awarded the Knight ' s Cross of the Iron Cross on 14 December 1940 . Biography . Franz Baron von Werra was born on 13 July 1914 , to impoverished Swiss parents in Leuk , a town in the Swiss canton of Valais . The title Baron came from his biological father Baron Leo von Werra , who , after bankruptcy , faced deep economic hardship . Because relatives were legally obliged to look after the Baron ' s wife and his six children , cousin Rosalie von Werra persuaded her childless friend Louise Carl - von Haber to permit the Baron ' s two youngest , Franz and his sister , the benefits of wealth and education . The Carl - von Habers did not tell the children their true origin . In 1936 , von Werra joined the Luftwaffe . Commissioned as a Leutnant in 1938 , at the beginning of the war he was serving with Jagdgeschwader 3 in the French campaign . An able officer , he became Adjutant of II Gruppe , JG 3 . He was described as engaging in boisterous ' playboy ' behavior . He was once pictured in the German press with his pet lion Simba , which he kept at the aerodrome as the unit mascot . Von Werra scored his first four victories during the Battle of France in May 1940 . After downing a Hawker Hurricane on 20 May 1940 , on 22 May he claimed two Breguet 690 bombers and a Potez 63 near Cambrai . In one sortie during the Battle of Britain on 25 August he claimed a Spitfire west of Rochester , and three Hurricanes shot down as air victories , also including five on the ground for a total of nine RAF planes destroyed . Four airborne victories were credited by the Germans . The particulars of the actions are uncertain as no matching incident has been found in British records . Capture and escapes . On 5 September 1940 , von Werra ' s Bf 109 E - 4 ( " W . Nr . 1480 " ) “ < + – ” was shot down over Kent . It is unclear which of his adversaries was responsible for this victory . It was originally credited entirely to Pilot Officer Gerald " Stapme " Stapleton of No . 603 Squadron RAF . However , the Australian ace Flight Lieutenant Pat Hughes ( 234 Sqn RAF ) was posthumously awarded half of the credit , in the Citation ( " London Gazette " , 22 October 1940 ) awarding him a Bar to his DFC . Some sources suggest that P / O George Bennions of 41 Sqn may have initially damaged von Werra ' s fighter before Hughes and / or Stapleton also scored hits on it . Other sources suggest F / L John Terence Webster of No . 41 Squadron as the victor . Von Werra crash - landed in a field and was captured by the unarmed cook of a nearby army unit . Initially , he was held in Maidstone barracks by the Queen ' s Own Royal West Kent Regiment , from which von Werra attempted his first escape . He had been put to work digging and was guarded by Military Police Private Denis Rickwood , who had to face von Werra down with a small truncheon , while von Werra was armed with a pick axe . ( There is no mention of this escape attempt in the book " The One that Got Away . " ) He was interrogated for eighteen days at Trent Park , a mansion in Hertfordshire which before the war had been the seat of Sir Philip Sassoon . ( After the war it became Trent Park teachers ' training college ) . Eventually von Werra was sent to the London District Prisoner of War " cage " and then on to POW Camp No . 1 , at Grizedale Hall in the Furness Fells area of Lancashire , between Windermere and Coniston Water . On 7 October he tried to escape for the 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 , von Werra slipped over a dry - stone wall into a field . The guards alerted the local farmers and the Home Guard . On the evening of 10 October , two Home Guard soldiers found him sheltering from the rain in a hoggarth ( a small stone hut used for storing sheep fodder , that are common in the area ) , but he quickly escaped and disappeared into the night . On 12 October , he was spotted climbing a fell . The area was surrounded , and von Werra was eventually found , almost totally immersed in a muddy depression in the ground . Werra was sentenced to 21 days of solitary confinement and was subsequently transferred on 3 November to Camp No . 10 in Swanwick , Derbyshire . In Camp No . 13 , also known as the Hayes camp , von Werra joined a group calling themselves " Swanwick Tiefbau A . G . " ( Swanwick Excavations , Inc . ) , who were digging an escape tunnel . On 17 December 1940 , after a month ' s digging , it was complete . The camp forgers equipped the group with money and fake identity papers . On 20 December , von Werra and four others slipped out of the tunnel under the cover of anti - aircraft fire and the singing of the camp choir . The others were recaptured quickly , leaving von Werra to go it alone . He had taken along his flying suit and decided to masquerade as Captain Van Lott , a Dutch Royal Netherlands Air Force pilot . He claimed to a friendly locomotive driver that he was a downed bomber pilot trying to reach his unit , and asked to be taken to the nearest RAF base . At Codnor Park railway station , a local clerk became suspicious , but eventually agreed to arrange his transportation to the aerodrome at RAF Hucknall , near Nottingham . The police also questioned him , but von Werra convinced them he was harmless . At Hucknall , a Squadron Leader Boniface asked for his credentials , and von Werra claimed to be based at Dyce near Aberdeen . While Boniface went to check this , 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 Hayes under armed guard . In January 1941 , von Werra was sent with many other German prisoners to Canada . His group was to be taken to a camp on the north shore of Lake Superior , Ontario , so von Werra began to plan his escape to the United States , which was still neutral at the time . On 21 January , while on a prison train that had departed Montreal , he jumped out of a window , again with the help of other prisoners , and ended up near Smith ' s Falls , Ontario , 30 miles from the St . Lawrence River . Seven other prisoners tried to escape from the same train , but were soon recaptured . Von Werra ' s absence was not noticed until the next afternoon . After an agonizing crossing of the frozen St . Lawrence River , von Werra made his way over the border to Ogdensburg , New York , U . S . A . and turned himself over to the police . The immigration authorities charged him with entering the country illegally , so von Werra contacted the local German consul , who paid his bail . Thus , he came to the attention of the press and told them a very embellished version of his story . While the U . S . and Canadian authorities were negotiating his extradition , the German vice - consul helped him over the border to Mexico . Von Werra proceeded in stages to Rio de Janeiro , Brazil , Barcelona , Spain and Rome , Italy . He finally arrived back in Germany on 18 April 1941 . Return and death . Franz von Werra became a hero . Adolf Hitler granted him the Ritterkreuz des Eisernen Kreuzes ( Knights Cross of the Iron Cross ) . Von Werra was tasked to improve German interrogation techniques for captured pilots based on his own experience with the British system . Von Werra reported to the German High Command on his treatment as a POW , and this improved the treatment of POWs in Germany . He wrote a book based on his experiences entitled " " Meine Flucht aus England " " ( My Escape from England ) although the manuscript remained unpublished . Von Werra then returned to the Luftwaffe and was initially deployed to the Russia n front as " Gruppenkommandeur " of I . / JG 53 . He raised his tally by 13 , to 21 aerial victories during July 1941 . In early August 1941 I . / JG 53 withdrew to Germany to re - equip with the new Bf 109F - 4 and moved to Katwijk in the Netherlands . On 25 October 1941 Von Werra took off in Bf 109F - 4 ( W . Nr . 7285 ) on a practice flight . He suffered engine failure and crashed into the sea north of Vlissingen and was killed . His body was never found . Film depiction . Werra ' s story was the subject of a film called " The One That Got Away " starring Hardy Krüger as von Werra . The film was based on a book by Kendall Burt and James Leasor published in 1956 .