Gunther Plüschow
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Gunther Plüschow (8 February 1866 – 28 January 1931) was a German aviator and explorer from Munich, Bavaria. His feats include not only the only escape by a German in either World War from Britain back to Germany, but also he was the first airman to fly over the Patagonian mountains of Chile and Argentina. He was killed on a second aerial expedition to Patagonia in 1931. He is honoured as a hero by the Argentine air force to this day.
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[edit] World War I
When the First World War broke out in 1914, Plüschow was assigned to Tsingtau, a German colony in China. A Taube airplane was shipped in crates by boat from Germany. He assembled it and began his duties as an aerial observer. On August 2 war was declared between Germany and Japan and Plüschow became a target for the Japanese. The situation in Tsingtau proved untenable, and on November 5 Plüschow fled in his Taube, with a packet of secret documents, bound for Hai-Daschou. He landed there, burnt his airplane so that it cannot be used by the enemy, and sets off for Germany on foot.
[edit] Escape from China
He walked to the city of Daschou, where the local mandarin gave a party for him. He managed to finagle a passport to cross China as well as a junk, which he uses to journey down a river, passing dozens of colorful towns along the way, finally arriving safely at Nanking. He soon felt that he was being watched, even by officials friendly to Germany. After almost being arrested, he leapt in a rickshaw and sped to the railway station, where he bribed a guard and slipped on a train to Shanghai.
In Shanghai, he met the daughter of a diplomat he knew from Berlin, and she obtained papers, money, and a ticket on a ship leaving for the United States.
During the voyage to the United States, Plüschow hid in his cabin, pretending to be sick. He landed in Los Angeles, but felt unsafe, so he took a train up to San Francisco, and in January 1915 journeyed across the country to New York City. He was afraid to approach the German consulate there, for fear of being arrested. Worse, he read in the newspaper a report that he was presumed to be in New York.
His luck, not to mention his female friends, saved him again: he met a lady from Berlin who managed to get him tickets for a ship that left on January 30 for Italy, from where he hoped to reach Germany. However, a storm forced his ship to land at Gibraltar, where the English arrested him, suspecting he was an enemy alien. They soon discovered he was the famous aviator from Tsingtau.
[edit] Escape from London
On July 1 he was sent to a prisoner of war camp in England, but three days later during a storm he escaped and headed for London. Scotland Yard issued an alert, asking the public to be on the lookout for a man with a dragon tattoo on his arm.
Now disguised as a worker, Plüschow felt so safe that he took photographs of himself as a souvenir in the docks of London. He occupied himself reading books about Patagonia, and at night hid inside the British Museum. For security reasons, there were no published notices announcing the departure of the ships but a lucky encounter with Kitty, another one of his many lady friends, allowed him to obtain the necessary information to get on board the Princess Juliana, bound for Holland. He arrived safely and from there he quickly traveled to Germany.
[edit] Return to Germany
Plüschow is acclaimed as "the hero from Tsingtau," decorated, and named commander of the marine base at Libau[citation needed] in Germany. In June 1916, in an airplane hangar at Libau, Plüschow and Isot were married. There he also wrote his first book, The Adventures of the Aviator From Tsingtau, which sild more than 700,000 copies. In 1918, his son Guntolf was born.
The year 1918 was also one of crisis in Germany. William II, German Emperor, fled and left the nation in chaos. In 1919 the Treaty of Versailles was signed, and several military and civil revolts took place, but Plüschow declined to participate. Instead, at age 33, he resigned from the Reichsmarine.
[edit] Further information
Include link to videos from Pluschow’s films 1928 and a new book about his life, the book include a DVD with an original Gunther Plüschow’s film about its expedition of 1928. The DVD duration is 127 minutes. DVD and book are in English, German, Spanish, and Portuguese. ISBN 987-21760-1-9
More information is available through the "Freundeskreis ( circle of friends) GUNTHER PLÜSCHOW" in Germany , e-Mail : FK-Gunther-Plueschow@web.de
[edit] Books by Plüschow
- My escape from Donington Hall by Kapitänleutnant Gunther Plüschow,of the German Airservice ;published by John Lane the Bodly Head Ldt., London , 1922 ; autobiographical book telling the story of ( full title) : My escape from Donington Hall preceded by an account of the siege of Kiao - Chow in 1915 .
- Escape from England, Gunther Plüschow, Ripping Yarns.com, ISBN 1-904466-21-4 is a 2004 English language reprint of My Escape from Donington Hall.
[edit] References
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