Ancient history

The story of the only prisoner to escape from a British camp in both world wars

The cinema has given us multiple stories of prisoners who escaped from German and Japanese camps, mainly during World War II. However, I do not remember any film in which the escape of a German prisoner from a British camp was narrated. Not that there was much to choose from, because in both world wars only one prisoner got it . This is his story.

His name was Gunther Plüschow and before the Second World War he was already a famous and internationally known man. He had been born in Munich in 1886 and, at the age of 10, entered the military academy as a naval cadet. At some point during his years of training he chanced upon a postcard from Tierra del Fuego, which became his lifelong obsession. But to get there he would have to live many adventures.

His first military assignment was the naval base that the Germans had in Tsingtao (today Qingdao, China). Tsingtao was a German colony leased to the Chinese for a period of 99 years, just like the British Hong Kong. There he was flying as a naval reconnaissance pilot aboard a Rumpler Taube , Germany's first mass-produced monoplane.

Until the First World War it broke out and the Japanese and British attacked Tsingtao. His plane shot down in August 1914 while carrying secret documents for the German command, he survived and managed to reach Shanghai, more than 700 kilometers away, where, using a false name, he boarded a ship that took him to Nagasaki, Honolulu and finally San Francisco. On January 30, 1915, he was already sailing from New York to Italy, when inclement weather forced the ship to seek refuge in Gibraltar.

What he did not know is that his name was on the list of fugitives from Tsingtao managed by the British, who could not believe his fate when they saw him disembark in Gibraltar. He was arrested and sent to the Donington Hall prison camp in Leicestershire, England.

One fine day in May 1915 he observed a deer roaming the lost prison camp. It occurred to him that if the deer had managed to get in, he could still get out. On July 4, 1915, under a heavy storm, he slipped over the barbed wire and fled to London . There he hid for three weeks disguised as a longshoreman, with ragged clothes and coal-stained face. He decided to read books about Patagonia hidden in the British Museum and to take photos of the city.

He eventually stowed away on a Dutch ship that returned him to the continent and his country, Germany. The incredible story of his escape did not convince the authorities, who arrested him on suspicion that he might be a spy. Once the whole thing was identified and cleared up, he became a national hero. Nine months had passed since his escape.

Once the war was over he published his first book, The Adventures of the Tsingtau Aviator, which was a true best-seller at the time, selling 700,000 copies. And he achieved his dream of going around Cape Horn and visiting Tierra del Fuego. Taking advantage of his prestige, he convinces several businessmen to create an aeropostal company, which he calls AeroLloyd. He himself made the first airmail flight between Berlin and Weimar. That company will later change its name, being known today as Lufthansa.

He would return in 1927 aboard his own ship, the Feuerland (Tierra del Fuego), together with Ernst Dreblow, who had made the journey in a Heinkel HD 24. They would be the first to explore and film Patagonia from the air. The result was a documentary entitled The Silver Condor over Tierra del Fuego .

In 1930 both were again in Tierra del Fuego with the aim of exploring the Perito Moreno glacier. Unfortunately, on January 28, 1931, his seaplane suffered an accident when one of the wings breaks. They both jumped but Plüschow's parachute did not open. Dreblow landed in a lake and froze to death on the shore. Thus ended a life full of adventures.