The Only One Who Got Away: The Adventures of a German Aviator During the Great War

An outstanding story of the aerial war and a daring escape from captivity







For the uninitiated this book's original title, 'My Escape from Donnington Hall,' gave few clues as to the astonishing and unique nature of its contents. Its author was a young German, Gunther Plüschow. As an airman in German service at the outbreak of the First World War he was, unusually, serving in China flying a Rumpler-Taube aircraft from the East Asia naval station at Tsingtau that became besieged by joint Japanese and British forces. Plüschow's attempt to fly to safety, as it became obvious the position would fall, ended in a crash in rice paddies. He set out to walk back to Germany and the many adventures that followed would alone would qualify his story as a remarkable one. However, he was eventually captured and became a prisoner of war. Stories of wartime escape abound, but those who have been incarcerated in England have always been confounded by the difficulties of quitting an island.' In Plüschow's case this was exacerbated since in the east he had acquired a distinctive dragon tattoo; yet Plüschow he succeeded and is the only prisoner of war to escape from Britain and make the 'home run.' His remarkable narrative of his wartime adventures makes absolutely essential reading and is certainly beyond compare.



Leonaur editions are newly typeset and are not facsimiles; each title is available in softcover and hardback with dustjacket; our hardbacks are cloth bound and feature gold foil lettering on their spines and fabric head and tail bands.