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128depth in his Failed to Return (Patrick Stephens; 1988). What follows is amuch condensed version of that account.Wearing mocked-up uniforms and carrying forged papers thatidentified them as Dutchmen, Ltn Heinz Schnabel and Oblt HarryWappler escaped from Camp 15 (the erstwhile Shap Wells Hotel, nearPenrith) on 24 November 1941 (not 1942 as I had it). They reachedCarlisle by stowing away on a train and made their way from there to No15 EFTS%u2019s aerodrome at Kingstown. Arriving at night with a bunch ofpersonnel wending their way back to camp from the cinema, they wereadmitted with only a cursory challenge. Having laid low, they walked tothe flight line after the initial flurry of morning activity had died downand approached a mechanic working on one of the Magisters (R1967)that had not taken off and easily persuaded him to help start it up for %u2018ataxying test%u2019. This is not quite as surprising as it might seem, because theunit routinely trained Polish pilots so guards and groundcrew alikewould have been quite accustomed to dealing with foreigners having arelatively limited command of English. Nevertheless, the alarm wasraised shortly after the aeroplane actually took off.The fugitives were over the North Sea before being reluctantly forcedto accept that they lacked the fuel to reach Holland. Forced to turn back,they put down near Great Yarmouth. Their cover held up for a while yetand they were taking a bath in the Officers Mess at Horsham St Faithwhen the penny finally dropped. They were promptly arrested andreturned to Camp 15 where they were sentenced to 28 day%u2019s solitaryconfinement. That was the nearest that any Luftwaffe personnel ever gotto escaping successfully from the UK; Franz von Werra, the famous%u2018One That Got Away%u2019, began his home run in Canada.EdTESTIMONY FILMSTestimony Films is a TV production company which is preparing, fortransmission in 2005, a six-part documentary for HTV to be called TheWest At War. They are seeking Servicemen and Women who came fromthe Gloucestershire%u2013Wiltshire%u2013Somerset region who would be preparedto share their global wartime experiences and/or veterans who served inthat area and have an interesting local tale to tell. If you are interested,contact Clair Titley at Testimony Films, 12 Great George St, Bristol,BS1 5RS or via clair@testimonyfilms.force9.co.uk