Apologies - this anecdote is very slight on detail. My grandfather told me this story some years ago. He's now in his mid-90s, is practically deaf, and is a man of few words. My own memory also does no justice here.
My grandfather was stationed at an Air Force base in England, and I believe he later made his way to mainland Europe at some point after the Allied invasion. The story he told involved a German plane approaching the air base where he was stationed, coming in low and aimed directly toward them. This of course quickly raised alarms that had all their surface-to-air defenses attempting to shoot down this plane. Miraculously, the plane survived the barrage and, to their surprise, landed amongst them. Upon securing the pilot from the plane, they discovered that he was not with the German military at all, but was a Jew who had somehow escaped a concentration camp, gained access to the plane and had been able to fly it into friendly territory.
This story seems the stuff of fantasy so I'm willing to consider it a tall tale. On the other hand, my grandfather tends to underplay his anecdotes and isn't really given to exaggeration. I also distinctly remember him saying that the event had even been written up in the news - I believe in Stars and Stripes.
If anyone has encountered this event in any of their studies, I'd be curious to know more about the details. Thanks for any replies.
EDIT #1: I asked my family about this, and apparently my sister who used to teach high school history had a copy of the article I mentioned and even incorporated it into a lesson plan. I've asked her to try to find it and if she does I will have her scan it so I can post an image.
EDIT #2: Okay, so my sister's teaching materials are in storage so that's not realistic to expect to see. However, I spoke to my father who had more familiarity with the story than I do. He became interested enough to track down what we believe to be the article in The Stars and Stripes:
Unfortunately, the resolution of the image is low enough that you can only read the headline: "Jew Flees Nazis in Plane; German Pilot Crash-Lands". I'm hoping that someone out there might have easy access to this issue (appears to be Nov. 3, 1944 - Paris edition). If so, I'd love to see a readable version of the article to learn the finer details.
This is suspiciously similar to an event in the movie Wings (1927) http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0018578/
A series of similar incidents happened in Sweden.
In early 1944, the Germans raised the NachtSlachtGruppe 11, or NSGr 11, or Night Bomber Group 11, out of Estonian "volunteers". These men were equipped with ex-Danish Fokker C.V - a biplane light bomber primarily of wood and cloth that entered serial production in 1924. To say that their equipment was outdated is to bee too kind.
The Estonians were supposed to carry out night attacks on the advancing Soviet armies autumn 1944. Their reaction was to pack the planes with as many refugees they could carry and fly over to Sweden. No less than 11 of the Gruppe's Fokker C.V fler over to Sweden in late September and early October 1944, after which the Germans disbanded the unit for being unreliable.
Edit: It was 11 planes in total with 19 air crew, a few Arados were part of the mix.
If you can provide any information on your grandfather's branch of service, unit, and his job, it would help. I'm assuming from your mention of Stars and Stripes that he was American. Any other details, maybe pictures of his service medals or uniform or anything else he had lying around would at least be a starting point. What's there is just not really enough to look into it, unless you had hundreds of issues of Stars and Stripes lying around.
My feeling is that it is a tall tale. Had something like that actually happened, especially post-D-Day with a strong US media presence on the continent, that the story would have received much more attention than one mention in a military newspaper. But if you have any more info let us know.
Unfortunately, the resolution of the image is low enough that you can only read the headline: "Jew Flees Nazis in Plane; German Pilot Crash-Lands". I'm hoping that someone out there might have easy access to this issue (appears to be Nov. 3, 1944 - Paris edition). If so, I'd love to see a readable version of the article to learn the finer details.
You would appear to be able to read archive copies online at http://starsandstripes.newspaperarchive.com/ - albeit it will cost you $4.95 for the privilege.
Just posted a partial update above...
