Flight from captivity

[Monaco]

Hello,
as I remember there were two soviet pilots escaping from german captivity by using german aircraft.

Nikolay Kuzmich Loshakov from 14 GIAP on 11.08.43 using probably a german fighter (maybe from the Riga area) and Mikhail Petrovich Devyatayev from 104 GIAP using an He.111H-22 Werknummer 13013 (according to Bergström probably from II./KG.53) on 08.02.45 with 9 other prisoners from the Heeresversuchsstelle at Peenemünde.

My questions to the experts are:
a) Which were the units of the aircraft and the Werknummern.
b) Are there similar cases of other allied pilots (US, RAF...) of escapes via aircraft.

Greets

Michael

[shooshoobaby]

Michael-
F/O Robert A. " Bob " Hoover , 52d FG , was shot down Feb. 9 , 44.
Spitfire 883 WD R
He was Captured and sent to Stalag I. In April 1945 , He and 2
other Prisoners escaped , Fearing they would be executed.
They found an abandoned Luftwaffe Airfield with FW 190s in
Revetments. They found one with Sufficient Fuel and while His
Companions held a Pistol on some German Ground Crewmen, He
figured out how to get it started and Took Off.
After awhile he saw the Zuider Zee and knew he was in Friendly
territory. Worried he would be shot down trying to land at an Air -
field , he landed in an open field. Some Dutch Farmers with Pitch-
forks surrounded Him and He kept telling them he was an American.
They finally took him to a small town and turned Him over to the
British.
Bob Hoover went on to a Great Career as a Test Pilot and Air Show
Performer. He was recently inducted into the Aviation Hall of Fame.
The above Information is from His Excellent Autobiography ,
FOREVER FLYING.
Mike

[Monaco]

Hi Mike,
thanks for responding....I didn´t know that. BTW was Hoover shot down by the German ace Ofw. Siegfried Schnell (1./JG.2)?

Cheers

Michael

[shooshoobaby]

Michael -
In Hoover's Book - He got a letter stating that a German Publishing Company
had done Research for a painting of Hoover getting shot down.
They located and interviewed the Luftwaffe Pilot that shot him down ,
Siegfried " Bamm " Lemke.
Mike

[mars]

Originally Posted by Monaco

Hello,
as I remember there were two soviet pilots escaping from german captivity by using german aircraft.

Nikolay Kuzmich Loshakov from 14 GIAP on 11.08.43 using probably a german fighter (maybe from the Riga area) and Mikhail Petrovich Devyatayev from 104 GIAP using an He.111H-22 Werknummer 13013 (according to Bergström probably from II./KG.53) on 08.02.45 with 9 other prisoners from the Heeresversuchsstelle at Peenemünde.

My questions to the experts are:
a) Which were the units of the aircraft and the Werknummern.
b) Are there similar cases of other allied pilots (US, RAF...) of escapes via aircraft.

Greets

Michael

According to Carl-Fredrik Geust's "Under the Red Star:Luftwaffe aircraft in the Soviet Airforce", there were 1 more cases:On 4 Oct 1943 the ADD pilot Arkadiy Kovyazin of 212 ODAP DDescapted from Riga-Spilve in a Fi 156 Storch, landing at Lipovka(50km NW Rzhev)

[DavidIsby]

Devyatayev got lots of press in the Soviet Union in the late 1950s because he did hard time in the Gulag as a reward for his heroism.

The Heinkel was the air-launched V-1 prototype, which set back that program.

At the USAAF's base Air Depot 1 at Burtonswood, near Liverpool, an MP saw a match being lit in the cockpit of a parked B-26. Figuring its was some GIs smoking, he entered to chase them out. He found instead four Luftwaffe PoWs, escaped from a camp in the Lake District, trying to figure out how to get it started.

[mars]

Originally Posted by DavidIsby

Devyatayev got lots of press in the Soviet Union in the late 1950s because he did hard time in the Gulag as a reward for his heroism.

.

In this particular case, even a fiction writer could not make up his escape story, it was so bizare, you can hardly blame NKVD not believing him