The interesting story of Franz von Werra

[67Dart273]

Just saw the tail end of an old movie, "The One that Got Away", B&W, 1957, the story of German WWII pilot Franz von Werra

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Franz_von_Werra

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_One_That_Got_Away_(film)

http://spitfiresite.com/2010/09/battle-of-britain-1940-franz-von-werra.html

http://www.ww2incolor.com/german-air-force/Franz+von+Werra+and+the+Gruppe+mascot+Simba.html

 

[smlveightis]

I watched that same movie this afternoon! Interesting and yet amazing, how he managed to make it all the way back to Germany for WWII.

 

[67Dart273]

And of course the irony is, if he'd just accepted his fate and sat out his time as POW, he might have lived a long life!!!!

Ya ever heard of the Farragut Naval installation. It was up here in the back woods of northern Idaho, and was a HUGE installation. Even today, there are still old buildings that were bought and moved from Farragut when it was closed after the war. The beginnings of our home town hospital were sections of those buildings!!!

http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_Ts6E5xtqYWg/TIp9KrAhV0I/AAAAAAAAA48/V79M1kdUkLw/s1600/B%26WAriels1.jpg

http://ancestorpictures.blogspot.com/2010/06/world-war-ii-united-states-naval.html

Anyway, the point is this:

There were many POWs interned at Farragut, and some of them were trusted by a huge amount. There are stories that some of them had almost free reign of the base, and were used to maintain the grounds and lawns, or clean buildings and so on. They were not chained and guarded heavily, a far far cry from the Allied POWs in Japanese or even German camps.

An old photo of our hospital back then, with the tell--tale flat roof building in the background. I was born before this hospital was opened!!!

A section of a building being hauled across Lake Pend Oreille to Sandpoint from Bayview