International conventions stated that a POW escaping into a neutral country should not be interned but should be allowed to be repatriated usually by his own embassy. Sweden certainly honoured this and flights in British civilian Mosquitos were used. Spain tended not to and MI9 officers often had to smuggle escapers in car boots into Gibraltar or Portugal. But what happened in Switzerland? From mid 1940 to latish 1944 she was surrounded by Axix controlled or Axis friendly territory. How were they got out? Or did they have to loaf around eating chocolate and admiring cuckoo clocks?
To the best of my knowledge there were dozens of Brits using the Singen Route to reach Switzerland and later Gibraltar. Stefan
POW Hell in Switzerland TD Switzerland’s Prisoners of War during two world wars and beyond. | Global Geneva
airey Neaves, the first British officer t to escape Colditz also went via the Singen route, Switzerland and Gibraltar Stefan
‘’They also got a great deal on Swiss watches when they left as long as they obtained a guarantor in the UK.’’ Seriously a Swiss report says those arriving were in a ‘’bad mental and physical state’’ in dads case ‘’He was shot at by the Swiss guards as he crossed the border as he mistook them for Germans as he dived for cover as their uniforms were very similar in the colour of slate grey’’ You can imagine the feeling that must have been following the trek over the Italian part of the Alps as reports indicate bad weather conditions including snow. He was with an Yugoslavian officer at one stage in a hail storm which so disfigured their faces you would not have recognised them Told an aunt that he did not want to see any potatoes and cheese again as that was the basic diet in Adelboden with little meat. He was repatriated by coach and train from Adelboden to the French port of Marseilles then by ship to Newcastle arriving late October 1944. The Adelboden site shows a small video clip of one of the repatriations Trevor
Trevor, I know of these cases as well. Another strange case is the one of an officer walking across the border, but walking too far and walking back to The Reich. In some parts the border line was and still is "snake like" Stefan.
That was 122441 F/O Dennis Herbert Cochran, MiD of No. 10 OTU, one of the 50 in the "Great Escape". Dennis Cochran Regards, Dave
This book, recently published, describes the trek many Australian PoWs took over the Alps to Switzerland, and their internment thereafter: Shooting Through – Echo Books
