[Andreas Brekken]

Hi, all.

As Rune says, and I tend to agree, there seem to have been little time to train Knier as a spy. If he was lying, we have to assume that by this time in 1942, there was a known fact amongst german aircrew that spending time in soviet captivity would mean that they would not be fighting on the eastern front anymore.

Also, I do not know if the eastern front was such a bad place to be for a pilot before end of 1942, seems several of the pilots on the western coast of Norway was quite eager to get to the Eismeer in order to participate in the action.

This will remain speculations, maybe the paper trail of Knier's exploit will be clearer in the future, and maybe it will not. The only thing we have this far is the fact that he returned after being shot down and stated that he had been in soviet captivity. For all we know he might have been captured by some kind of patrol, decided to kill his captors or run away from them, succeded and thus escaped to the german lines. The spy thing might have been something that have been added to the story later.

Regards,
Andreas