Heinz Schnabel and Harry Wappler escape attempt information

Shap Wells prison camp

Scratby, where the pilots landed

Heinz Schnabel and Harry Wappler were two Second World War German prisoners of war who escaped from a British prison camp and attempted to fly to the continent in a stolen aircraft on 24 November 1941.

Leutnant Schnabel and Oberleutnant Wappler were German Luftwaffe airmen who had been shot down during the Battle of Britain. Schnabel's aircraft was damaged by British fighters. He crash-landed in Kent on 5 September 1940; Wappler's bomber had hit a barrage balloon over Newport one week later and crashed. The two were taken as prisoners of war (POWs) to Shap Wells, where they were held for a year. On 23 November 1941, the aviators, equipped with fake Dutch uniforms and forged identity documents, escaped from the prison camp and made their way to the British air base at RAF Kingstown. The next day they stole a trainer aircraft, with the intention of flying to the German-occupied Netherlands. However, this flight would have stretched their machine's fuel range to its maximum, and unknown to the German escapees, their plane's fuel tanks were only half full. The pair decided to land in eastern England when they realised that they would run out of fuel over the North Sea if they continued. They were caught on the ground, and returned to prisoner camps.