No doubt all of you have some knowledge of the Great Escape WWII even if its the fictionalized Hollywood story with Steve McQueen riding the stolen German motorcycle across the countryside...an inspiring story in any case..

But I bet not many of you are familiar with a couple of 'reverse' stories of German POW's escaping Allied prisons..

Most famous, of course, has to be that of Oberleutnant Franz Von Warma who made it all the way back to Germany after escaping from Canada...not likely to be made into a movie anytime soon..

But, I thought this tale worthy of a mention from the archives of Camp 30, the remains of which are soon to be torn down to allow for re-development - the sad but inevitable march of progress..

Anyway, it involved Oberleutnant Peter Krug who ended up in Camp 30 after being shot down over England in his Dornier bomber and sent to the colony after a period of convalescence.. [ about 37,000 German servicemen were shipped to Canada as POW's during the war ].

Camp 30 is a 110 acre site consisting of several buildings used for housing, lush green grounds and a multitude of sports facilities. [ a far cry from the German camps for Allied prisoners ]...Still, like all good soldiers, Krug was duty bound to attempt an escape and so he, and a friend, Erich Boehle, hatched a plan.

On April 17th, 1942, the two men, with the help of the entire camp, started to walk toward the double barbed wire fences. The men were, of course, being guarded by one of their own men wearing a Canadian army uniform, which had been thoughtfully provided by the local theatrical group to aid the German soldiers' morale..

Through the German Abwehr's agents in Canada, they had been smuggled forged documents and Canadian and US currency and maps. To distract the real guards, a boisterous game of soccer had been arranged with the high point coming at the moment the men made their escape.

Pretending to be fixing the barbed wire fencing, and marking the spots with paint, the two men climbed the fence using a ladder and went over the top..they made it to the second fence 15 yards away and, again, put the ladder in place..Surprised and delighted at not being spotted, they climbed over, rested a bit and then simply walked away from the camp.

they made it to Union Station in Toronto [ about 1 hour away by car, these days ] and split up. Boehle was captured on the Lewiston Road, near New York State, only one mile from freedom.

the Niagara Falls police called the camp commandant, Col. Bull, and asked him if he was missing any prisoners. Colonel Bull assured them he wasn't, but they insisted saying they had one Erich Boehle in custody. Col. Bull admitted that the name was on his roll, but he wasn't missing as he had been present for roll call... A double check was ordered.

If Boehle hadn't been snagged so quickly, there is no doubt that the scheme would have worked for others and not been detected for some time.. Seems that the prisoner theatrical troupe had made paper mache dummies, and put Boehle's uniform on it, then stuffed it with more paper. It was hauled out for each roll call and held up in the ranks by two men standing on each side. It was only when an inspection of the ranks and a command that each prisoner respond to his name, that the ruse was discovered and, additionally, that Krug was missing as well.

Boehle was returned to camp and given 28 days in solitary, while a warrant was issued for Krug's apprehension.

Krug arrived in Windsor on April 17th [ across the river from Detroit ], after convincing a priest that he needed some cash for bus fare to get to a job he had waiting there. On the morning of the 18th he scoured the shoreline and found a rowboat, and, after making some makeshift oars, rowed across to the US. He celebrated his 22nd birthday in neutral territory.

With some names supplied by the Abwehr, he made it to a safe house where a Mrs. Bertelmann introduced him to restaurant owner Max Stephan.. they supplied him with food, lodging a change of clothes and some more money so that he could get to his final destination. Mexico.

He made it all the way to San Antonio and checked into a hotel. Unfortunately for him, the keen eyed manager recognized him from an FBI alert photo and he was arrested. After two hours of interrogation he admitted who he was and that he was trying to swim the Rio Grande to get to the German Embassy in Mexico.

Found on him were maps, a gun he had purchased in a pawn shop and, stupidly, the names and addresses of his contacts, Mrs. Bertelmann, Mr. Stephan and a Theodore Donway.

Krug became a bit arrogant after this encounter with US authorities. He caused a stir when he appeared in court dressed in his Luftwaffe uniform and belittling American authorities for not catching him after he had passed forged documents to different levels of authority on no fewer than 7 occasions without suspicion. for their part, Mrs. Bertelmann was interned as an 'enemy alien ', Donway was fined and imprisoned and Stephan was sentenced to death!, later commuted to life in prison.

Krug was returned to Canada and Camp 30 where, after processing , he was transferred to a more 'secure' compound.

However, his tale doesn't end there..on Nov 29, 1942 he was convicted of "conduct to the prejudice of good order among prisoners of war" for attempting to escape by cutting a hole through the dining room floor of the mess hall. and on Aug. 2, 1943 he was cited again for conduct prejudicial for escaping a swimming party and being absent from custody until the 5th of August when he was caught some 100 miles away.

can't keep a good man down or blame a guy for trying..