Heinz Schnabel & Harry Wappler escape attempt, 1941

Leutnant Heinz Schnabel and Oberleutnant Harry Wappler were two German prisoners of war (PoW) who made a daring, but unsuccessful attempt, to fly from captivity in England to the Netherlands during the Second World War. They managed to hijack a training aircraft, land and get it refuelled and then attempt to fly to the continent, only to turn back due to lack of fuel.

They were subsequently caught and later transferred to Canada for the rest of the war.^[1]

Initial capture of the German pilots

Heinz Schnabel

Schnabel was captured after his Messerschmitt Bf 109E4 (‘White 6’) was shot down and crash landed in Kent on 5 September 1940 during the Battle of Britain. Schnabel was a member of Jagdgeschwader 3 (1 Staffel (squadron)) and was an ace with six confirmed 'kills' to his name at the time.^[2]

Schnabel had taken off that morning at 0840 to escort Dornier 17 bombers for a raid on Croydon. His aircraft was intercepted by RAF fighters on its return to France and damaged. Schnabel was forced to crash land in a field at Handen Farm near Aldington, Kent, shortly after 10 o’clock in the morning.

After capture, Schnabel was sent to hospital due to a pre-existing chest wound he had suffered during the French campaign. After he recuperated he was sent to the No. 1 POW Camp (Officers) Grizedale Hall and then later to the POW camp from which his escape attempt was to be made at Shap Wells in Cumbria.

Harry Wappler

Wappler was the pilot of a four-man Heinkel He 111 P-2 bomber, identification number 1G+DS, of Kampfgeschwader 27 (8 Staffel (squadron)) which had left its airfield at Rennes at 2230 hrs on 12 September 1940, on a bombing sortie to Ellesmere Port in Cheshire. It was Wappler’s 14th combat sortie.

Restored Fordson Sussex Balloon Winch at the RAF Museum Hendon

After they had bombed their intended target they headed for home. Their return route took the aircraft over Newport, in south Wales, where the bomber ran into cables strung from barrage balloons of No. 966 Balloon Squadron AAF. Close to Tredegar Park and at approximately 6,500 ft (2,000 m), the bomber hit the first cable of several mobile Fordson barrage balloon winches scattered around the park.

The bomber’s starboard wing sliced it the cable and stalled the aircraft. The aircraft though severely damaged flew on and ran into a second cable. Wappler now baled out of the doomed bomber which crashed at 0315 onto a house in Stow Park Avenue, Newport killing the remaining three crew members as well as two occupants in the house (Malcolm Phillips. aged 17, and his sister, Myrtle aged 14).

The three dead crew were Unteroffizier Fritz Berndt (navigator, 25), Oberfeldwebel Johannes Elster (wireless operator, 34) and Unteroffizier Herbert Okuneck (bomb aimer, 25). They were initially buried at St Woolos Cemetery, but were later disinterred and reburied at the German war Cemetery at Cannock Chase in Staffordshire.

Wappler’s aircraft was the first confirmed loss in Britain of an aircraft to a barrage balloon during the Second World War. Wappler was arrested after landing in a tree (and breaking his right arm) in Queen’s Street, Newport. After interrogation, Wappler was sent to No. 13 PoW camp at the Shap Wells hotel located between Kendall and Penrith in Cumbria.

Escape attempt

Prior to their escape, the German pilots had secretly been putting together Dutch pilots' uniforms. They managed to alter their tunic buttons as well as make their uniforms appear like the cut of the Dutch ones. They also had created within the camp false Dutch identification documents.

On Sunday 23 November 1941, Schnabel and Wappler hid within a log pile that camp prisoners had constructed (it was to serve as fuel for the camp during the coming winter but a space had been left inside so that the two Germans could hid there). After dark they carefully made their way to the camp fence which they managed to prise apart. They headed towards the nearby railway line and managed to climb aboard a slow-moving Carlisle-bound freight train which at the time was climbing the steep Shap Bank.

A Miles Magister elementary trainer.

They left the train after it pulled into a yard and then the two escapees spent a few hours in a Carlisle cinema. After the end of the film, they mingled with the rest of the audience which included airmen from the local airfield at RAF Kingstown (later to become RAF Carlisle (No. 15 Elementary Flying Training School)). After entering the camp using their false papers they spent the night hidden behind a hangar. In the morning they bluffed Alan Garydon, an air apprentice, to start up a Miles Magister trainer aircraft. The Germans took off and headed south east.

The trainer was low on fuel and the Germans now tried their luck at another airfield. They again bluffed the ground crew to refuel the aircraft. Now, the German pilots flew out over the coast, across the North Sea, towards occupied Holland. However, the trainer did not have enough fuel to make the journey and both men realised they would have to fly back to Britain, rather than ditching in the dangerous North Sea.

Schnabel and Wappler landed the trainer in a field at Scratby, five miles north of Great Yarmouth. They again showed their false Dutch papers to a local policemen who took them to a nearby pub. There they asked if they could call the local airfield and request fuel be sent to them. Due to the late hour, a car was instead sent to pick them both up and transport them to the RAF Bomber Command base at RAF Horsham St. Faith (now Norwich International Airport). Though both men were still managing to convince everyone they were Dutch airmen (they were put in unoccupied officers' quarters), news of their escape in the Miles Magister had been broadcast across the country. Both men were arrested in the officer's quarters they were in (allegedly one was having a bath at the time).

For their daring, but ultimately unsuccessful escape attempt, both pilots were sentenced to 28 days of solitary confinement and later transferred to a POW camp in Canada were they spent the remainder of their interment.^[3]

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