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This is an account of Franz von Werra [1914-1941] , a German fighter pilot in the Luftwaffe who escaped from the Prisoner of War Camp at Swanwick.

 BACKGROUND

On 5 September 1940 Werra’s Bf109E-4 fighter was shot down over Winchet Hill, Kent. His aircraft crash landed and Werra escaped serious injury,  was captured and became a prisoner of war. After two attempted escapes, von Werra was transferred on 3 November to Camp 13 at Swanwick [also known at the time as “The Hayes” camp]. An escape tunnel was dug at the camp and on 20 December 1940 Werra and four others escaped. Despite the four being quickly apprehended, Werra, dressed in a flying suit and pretending to be a Royal Netherlands Air Force pilot who had been involved in a crash landing, made his way to Codnor Park Railway Station, where a local clerk became suspicious but agreed to arrange transport to RAF Hucknall. The clerk contacted the RAF Base and the local police. Werra was taken to the RAF base and eventually caught at the controls of an aircraft. He was returned to the camp under armed guard.

In 1941 Werra was sent with other prisoners to Canada, where he eventually did escape. After a tortuous journey he arrived back in Germany on 18 April 1941 to a heroes’ welcome and was awarded the Knights Cross of the Iron Cross by Adolf Hitler. Returning to his duties he fought on the Russian front and gained a total of 21 confirmed victories. Ironically, he was killed on a practice flight when his aircraft suffered catastrophic engine failure and crashed into the sea near the town of Vlissingen. His body was never recovered.

THE NARRATIVE, by David Kirk

I set out below the events as they happened on that day in 1956 when the book "The One That Got Away" was being written, and then I follow that with the account that Sam Eaton then told me.

I was 18 years old and my job at Pye Bridge railway station was working in the Booking Office and I was also the customer face who dealt with any members of the public visiting the station. On that morning the Chief Goods Clerk (Sam Eaton), came to me and said that during the course of the morning there would be two people coming to see him and would I advise him as soon as they arrived.

This I did and he asked me if he could have a corner of my office for them to have a short meeting. This then took place and I continued with my work, over hearing a little but as I had no idea what it was all about most of it passed me by. At the end of the discussion Sam was photographed standing in front of the racks of tickets in the Booking Office. After these two people had left, Sam asked if I was aware what it was all about. I said that I did not and then he related to me the following.

He said that during the war he was employed by the LMS Railway Company as a Booking Clerk at Codnor Park Station. As he lived at Langley Mill he had to walk to work in order to book tickets on the first train. His route was on the footpaths over the fields via Stoneyford to Codnor Park Station. On this particular morning he was booking tickets for the people travelling to work when a man dressed in what appeared to be a flying suit arrived and told him that he was a Dutch Pilot and had crashed his plane in the fields to the south. Sam who had only just walked through the fields to the south was surprised that he had not seen or heard anything of it.

The pilot asked him to ring his base in the North Of Scotland to tell them but the number could not be obtained. Sam therefore rang the RAF Base at Hucknall and also the local police. The pilot was not happy when Sam told him that he had advised the police . The RAF said that they would send a car for him and the police also said that they would attend.

The first to arrive was the local police, I can see Sam now describing the rather elderly policeman arriving breathlessly on a push bike and was very much out of his depth confronting the pilot.

The arrival of the RAF car saved the situation and the pilot was taken to Hucknall.

Franz von Werra - The One That Got Away

The reason for the presence of the two men was that a book was to be written and they needed his version of events at the station. The photograph taken of Sam in front of the ticket rack appears in the book. At that time I would have estimated that Sam would have been in his mid 50's. This was the first time that I had heard of this event as I don't think that it was ever made public until this book was produced.

The station where all of this took place was the LMS Codnor Park Station (nearer to Swanwick than the LNER station) and which was sited on the main line between Nottingham Midland and Sheffield and which had 4 platforms and 4 lines and sited in a cutting. The platforms were accessed from the road by flights of steps leading down to the lines. The other station (just further down the road) was sited on the LNER Nottingham Victoria to Pinxton Branch line and had only 2 lines and 2 platforms and was sited on an embankment with steps/slope up to the lines.

It may be that with the passage of time that there will be few people who would know of this detail. I feel very privileged to pass this on for historical accuracy. I have never forgotten it and Sam's role in it which is played by an actor in the film. I feel that I am doing him a service in recounting that day in 1956 when he told me all about it.