$8 Million Airport Heist That Inspired Goodfellas | Daring Capers Marathon

[Music] when a shipping Clerk's Idol scheme turns into the biggest heist in US history no one's more surprised than he is but sudden wealth can have lethal consequences [Music] [Applause] Friday December 8th 1978 New York's Kennedy airport it's business as usual at the luans overseas cargo [Music] terminal each year billions of dollars in cash and merchandise clear this room from all over Europe The Lure of this Untold wealth can be intoxicating andal tanza shipping clerk named Lewis Warner fell deeply under its spell deep enough to be in way over his head when he wasn't gambling

away his paycheck Lewis Warner and his best friend and co-worker Peter Grunwald thought up ways to rip off Lanza years earlier they even Drew floor plans and copied employees schedules I think in fact they devised what seemed like a perfect plan except for one crucial detail the only thing that required the plan to work were robbers which grinwald and Werner had terrible difficulty finding they fought over what to do next and their friendship disintegrated the plan sat nearly forgotten as months passed Warner went further into debt he began receiving threats from his bookie a man

named Marty Krugman Marty Krugman hung out at a bar called Robert's Lounge which lay just outside the airport and just outside the law Robert's Lounge is one of those places you wouldn't want to be caught dead in though for the guys who come here being caught dead is an occupational hazard it was the haunt of a gang of hoods and cronies known predictably as the Roberts Lounge gang their lives was a series of scores scores meaning a job criminal job whether it be an armed robbery or to beat somebody out of money a local uh

uh proprietor or a scam they went from one to another getting there Werner hopeless l in debt realized he had something that would erase his obligations to Krugman and make himself a little money besides the heist plans the call come on now what's the call all right Krugman shared the idea with his boss Jimmy Burke a mob enforcer who owned the lounge and the Gang let's go in the back Burke had an incredible violent reputation in one case uh Jimmy was known to have broken every single bone in the face of someone who was late

on a payment now Burke was in trouble himself the mob demanded he keep the cash flowing he needed a lucrative plan he needed Warner's plan [Music] New York's major crime families had their hooks in Kennedy Airport Burke would have to have their blessing [Music] first let me tell you I got something lined up we got an inside name Brook told the plan to his boss Paul vario a captain of the lucazi crime family Burke promised him the lion share of the profits the entire Hall was expected to be around $2 million permission granted armed with

wner and grunewald's plan Burke and the Roberts Lounge gang hammered out the details they'd go in late when only a skeleton crew of 10 was on striking while the graveyard shift was at lunch the gang would break into two teams team one would capture employees in the lunchroom team two would secure the cargo terminal it was a brilliantly simple plan last night remember these guys aren't they're not Cowboys necessarily they don't want to go in shooting up a place because puts tremendous amount of pressure on them afterwards law enforcemen will tend to be much more

um uh dedicated sometimes when you people get hurt or killed so they they don't want to do that they want to make it simple lowkey here to to ensure Simplicity the mafia hedged its bets they sent along a mob Soldier to act as their eyes ears and if necessary they H Gun so Burke felt the pressure for the plan to succeed it wasn't just a matter of Pride or money it was a matter of life and death the scheme moved forward put the van there was no turning back no room for mistakes a I think

that's an interesting thing this one piece will make 52 layers watch on mobile devices or the big screen all for free no subscription required download V now Monday December 11th 1978 just before 3:00 a.m. Burke's team pulled into the Lanza Air Cargo tle right on schedule once they arrived the team split team one rushed into the building team two pulled the van into [Music] position clearing the security gate they moved toward the loading dock where they would wait for the all clear signal team one headed toward the lunchroom on their way they split up to

sweep for any employees who weren't at lunch don't move don't look guys where the other guys in the lunchroom they surprised the cargo agent in his office he went home come look at us get off did you stay with him y one man down nine to go inside the van The Waiting was becoming unbearable take this off can't and so were the heavy ski masks jeez what is going on here I don't know team two away from the action was lulled into complacency plan team one made its way to the lunchroom werner's floor plan told

the men where to find it there's five they made their [Music] move I'll wife they handcuffed everybody so that nobody could move they all had masks on so that there would be no issue of uh being recognized uh in the sense it was fairly uh proficient professional don't get hurt the goal was to capture the supervisor had the key to the high value room catching him and the other roving employees would present more of a challenge this was the most dangerous part of the plan if just one person evaded their net the whole scheme could

crash down around them and during the the robbery uh there was one glitch a worker for Lanza who was doing his rounds came back and and he noted the van and noted that something was suspicious when he got out they grabbed him hearing the commotion the warehouse manager stepped out to see what the problem was come here come here come here I got one right here I got one right here get in let's go let's go let's go let's go let's go both men were forced into the van got stay down stay down get your

face down don't even look at me stay down realizing that they had been seen without their masks the robbers took the captives ID and read their addresses you give me your wallet give me your wallet to see what Tak okay give me your wallet turn around I didn't say you look at me you a rat out on me I'm going to come after and find you they threatened to kill them if they went to the police I'm going to come after and kill you understand me you understand me yes get down there you don't move

don't move all right the supervisor unaware he was being tricked answered an urgent call to come to the lunchroom don't be afraid and fell into the hands of his captors won't get hurt you Ry you they demanded to know where the security guard was I don't know Li me the supervisor didn't know they didn't trust him so they took him along on their hunt for the guard the security guard the only only one on the graveyard shift had been employed at Lanza less than 2 weeks he was still trying to learn the procedures and already

grappling with the stultifying boredom of late night security go go go hands on the Head Hands on the head get out down get out down don't make don't say a word don't move man your brains be on a ceiling FL light now you got him you got him I got him we're coming to you come on hands on your head hands on your head once the guard was subdued team began looking for the two missing employees they could be anywhere don't lie to me don't know watch these the garage door rolled open and they learned

that team two is under control you got two how many you got I got two where's everybody else at where they in lunch room we got two down here get those two in here get those two down here come on get out let go come on come on get out get get get out get out get out get out everyone was accounted for get out get out they then forc the supervisor to hand over his alarm keys where is it where's the alarm it's right there wait a minute let him do it at the last

moment they had second thoughts and had the supervisor turn off the alarm himself in case there was some trick involved don't screw up [Music] is that it that's it that's it don't lie to me the manager was uh uh did the right thing and said look take the money just don't hurt anybody so everything went as smooth as it possibly could come on let's go around here hurry up go go go go come on on to the high value room where the most valuable items were held until they could be shipped out faster Rudy you're

not moving fast come on get in there go get the other guys open it up I don't have all night back up hands on your head move get him out of here come on get out of here get [Music] out on this night the high value room held unmounted gems and a shipment of currency and rout to Chase Manhattan from Germany most were used bills collected from American [Music] tourists money that's impossible to trace invigorated by their success the men loaded 72 boxes in a matter of minutes they kept unloading and unloading and unloading and

before they knew it they they were Lo unloading boxes of money and jewelry until they just filled the the van to the brim and had a leave stuff there it was time to move out a little over an hour after they arrived the Roberts Lounge gang left richer for the experience they kept to the speed limit the van was followed by a Chase car driven by accomplice who would try to distract any pursuing police it wasn't necessary the getaway was clean and quick it was just after 5:00 a.m. when the van pulled into a warehouse

garage and out of sight B the men began the happy task of unloading their Hall they'd each get their cut but only after Burke and the mafia DS got [Applause] theirs though the hall looked larger than the thieves had anticipated it would never make them Rich that's not how it works in the up the top guys get the money the workers don't get a lot they weren't getting more than 50,000 each that was it 50 60,000 they weren't going to get a million dollars brke asked one of his henchmen Stax Edwards to get rid of

the van a car crusher was already reserved there would be nothing to tie Burke's gang to the crime for so it seems because Burke immediately took control of the money his men had to learn about the size of the hall by hearing it on the news at approximately 345 this morning what it was reported To Us by Lanza Airlines was a arm robbery of approximately according to LT hanza $3 to5 million which has not been verified at this time the whole country was talking about it final estimate around $7 million in unmarked currency and a

million in unmounted gemstones and gold the loot was virtually untraceable the hall unprecedented the timing imp impeccable and then they realized how big it was and you know um bottom line was it was too much it was too big and that's what caused their undoing that's what everybody they crumbled because of it it was just too big for them the men's fee now seemed like peanuts it PED in comparison to what the FBI was offering for information about the crime not going to be problem some of the gang hinted to Burke that they'd need more

money to keep his name out of it Works according to plan the magnitude of the Caper assured that the authorities weren't going to give up until it was solved the FBI Knew by how smoothly it went that it was an inside job when they questioned the Lanza employees two names kept coming up we had people saying that grinwell and War were involved in this we had uh uh enough people saying it but not enough evidence nobody to testify that they knew any of the details and so but we keep an eye on eye on these

people is that what you think take when Werner arrived at work the next day Peter Grunwald confronted him right away he knew that Werner had stolen the plan and betrayed him now not now Grunwald told him he wouldn't get away with it Warner was confident he already had FBI investigators knew that wner and Grunwald couldn't have pulled it off by themselves they had another suspect when this happened everybody in law enforcement was taking claim to it because everybody you know Port Authority at JFK had knew Jimmy Burke they they knew of his involvement at the

airport it was just a matter of connecting Burke with the crime all right let's see The Courier and the warehouse manager gave police descriptions of the two men who held them in the van the warehouse manager got the best look but it was only a glimpse and he was too terrified to remember much this could have been the FBI's big break but that's not how it turned out we tried to uh uh do an artist conception with him we came up with something but it it really never we couldn't do anything with it 3 days

after the heist a parking officer in Brooklyn spotted a van matching the one the victims described the van had been reported stolen a warrant was granted and it was searched and dusted for fingerprints prints found in the van LED nowhere but detectives did find the the wallet belonging to one of the victims this was definitely the van used in The lianza Heist the van that Stacks Edwards was supposed to have destroyed several days later detectives found Stax Edwards shot to death in his apartment we knew that he hung out in uh Robert's Lounge we knew

he was kind of a Knockaround guy soon as he shows up dead with a bullet in back of his head you put two to two together okay he was involved in it clearly he must have been involved in it because we knew Burke was involved at the time meanwhile Lewis Werner began receiving portions of his cut 10% of the total take it arrived a little at a time in a variety of clandestine ways then unable to control his conspicuous consumption Werner bought a new van the FBI didn't failed to notice his new found wealth they

were already watching him and they had learned that his bookie was Marty Krugman of the Roberts Lounge gang Krugman was the connection to Burke that investigators needed but when they paid a visit to Krugman they were only half surprised that he wasn't there when he failed to reappear he was presumed dead his body has never been found the links between Jimmy Burke The Crime Boss and Lewis wner the insid man were breaking one by one every time you got a lead every time you found somebody else that might have been involved in the case he

he would uh uh try to act as quickly as possible so Justice we get one thing the next you turn around another body another dead body another dead end extremely frustrating the FBI thought if they put pressure on Werner he'd give them the connections that would lead to Jimmy Burke you're aware to get to Werner they pressed his old friend Peter Grunwald he was subpoenaed as a material witness got our phone number and that's when everything starts to unravel because once Grunwald is put under pressure uh he folds like an accordion the FBI orchestrated an

accidental meeting between Grunwald and Werner at headquarters you take the heat for the Grunwald had already told authorities about how he conspired with Werner how Werner stole his plan and robbed Lanza without him crazy wner still proclaimed his innocence but I know nothing about even so investigators had everything they needed to charge him with the crime but they were after bigger game Jimmy Burke and the Roberts Lounge gang wner refused to cooperate he demanded to go on trial denied everything they would say Louie listen to us you can't beat this case we're prepared to offer

you a reasonable deal you can tell us who you talk to from Jimmy Burke's gang that's the critical connection we need without you we cannot make that connection investigators say Le Warner is a their pleas fell on deaf ears in to Associates of the wner stood trial and received a 15-year sentence after several months his thoughts cleared he decided to talk to tell authorities who his contact were but he was too late now he's finally going to tell the truth he's going to finally tell the story what's the problem the problem is the guys who

name he mentions is dead because Burke has anti anticipated just that very possibility he was found in the basement there's a saying that three may keep a secret if two of them are dead by killing off most of his gang B had successfully severed his ties to the Lanza Caper leaving police with nothing but the most elaborate American Caper of its kind was also the most feudal nobody involved with the heist lived to spend their money number Burke regretted today that he heard about all his money to be robbed at Lans because he said the

money turned out to be cursed Whoever touched whoever got near that money died or went to prison it was almost as if the money was toxic Jimmy Burke was sentenced to life in prison on unrelated charges Lou Werner was the only person to be charged for the crime none of the $8 million has ever been recovered it's presumed to be in the coffers of organized [Music] crime an impenetrable vault is cracked by an ingenious plan the losses are spectacular and The Mastermind becomes a folk hero even to those he robed [Music] every summer Europe's Elite

flock to the French Riviera to soak up the Mediterranean Sun they spend their millions in the lavish casinos exclusive boutiques and world-renowned restaurants that Adorn the [Music] coastline the affluent citizens and tourists Safeguard their wealth in the vaults of the area's Banks one of the oldest and wealthiest of these fortresses is the Bank of the soete genal in N Monday morning of July 19th 1976 started like every other weekday minutes before 9:00 a.m. the officers of the bank went to open the main Vault to release the money for transactions The Vault not only held millions

of Franks in currency but 4,000 lock boxes but the inner door proved stubborn it wouldn't open direct oh wa to the 75-year-old door had been stuck before and a few drops of oil had always solved the problem inconvenienced customers waited with the assurance that their money and valuables resided in one of the most secure spots in Ni we after all the steel door weighed more than 20 tons and the walls around the Vault were a foot of reinforced concrete by 930 a representative from the company that had manufactured the Vault arrived to work on the

lock mechanism he went through the unlocking procedure again and again with each try the Tumblers moved freely the lock worked fine nevertheless the door remained stuck to its frame and no marks showed that the door had been forced by 11 frustrated customers began to worry they wanted their money they wanted to get to their values and nobody was telling them why they had to wait anxiety Rose All [Music] Around by noon Bank management made the decision to break through the side of the Vault and see what was jamming the [Music] door the crowd outside grew

larger and more [Music] impatient by 300 p.m. the Workman created a small hole through which they could peer inside the Vault The Impossible had happened the bank had been robbed every high- ranking cop and N showed up they knew without being told that this was a really an important crime and that the imagination of the world was about to be stuck on it for a long period of time anyway all these cops come in the customers are still locked out in the street and the smallest of the detectives present was told to go through the

hole and make sure that the the criminals were not still inside the detective found papers and documents covering the floor and among the litter he saw equipment the thieves use to break into the Vault and he says and wait until you see what's written on the walls and what's written is violance a which was translated in English without uh arms without violence and without hate a quick survey of the Vault revealed how the thieves got in and out a hole opened up to a a 30t tunnel it led to the city's underground sewer system from

the quality of the work and the amount of evidence Left Behind the police surmised that more than one man had been responsible for this they were hunting for a gang of Thieves that quickly became known as the sewer rats the thieves had left behind 2500 lb of equipment inside the VA VA more in the tunnel and Sewer the police retrieved 27 acetylene cylinders that had been used to fuel blowtorches there was venting equipment to bring fresh air into the tunnel investigators found a half mile of electrical cable as well as waterproof flashlights the wholesale plunder

of the so genal made International headlines the bank offered A4 million do reward for information leading to the arrest of the sewer rats they began to bring in detectives from all over France the amount of work the detectives now were faced with was staggering authorities estimated that the mysterious thieves had stolen some $10 million in currency jewelry and precious metals at the time it was not only the biggest bank robbery in world history it was as heists go a French work of art the police knew that it was done by real professionals loot itself and

the means used to get it made the investigators realize that it was the heist of the century and that expression would impose itself on everyone get there it took 12 detectives for 4 days to catalog all the vault's contents but they never found a single usable fingerprint police first suspected that it was an inside job they began interviewing present and former Bank [Music] employees they also had to question the thousands of lockbox holders and they still had to trace back each and every piece of equipment the sewer rats Left Behind The Heist of the century

was being being followed by the investigation of the [Music] century it was not only a frustrating amount of work the criminals investigators sought were becoming folk Heroes I think the principal emotion of the detectives at this time was rage at the people who were laughing at the crime laughing and applauding at the crime who went around talking to each other and and instead of saying hello and goodbye they would say with without arms without violence without hatred the det the detectives couldn't stand that while logging the evidence an officer spotted red chisels it wasn't the

first time he'd seen chisels like this days earlier during a routine search this same officer saw identical chisels in the possession of a known criminal Danielle melucci at the time there seemed nothing particularly suspicious about micucci's activities so the officer let his car pass but not before making note of what he saw n detectives spread micucci's name to police throughout the region in the hopes that someone would report back with more information a lead came from a small village where two police officers had encountered miuchi only weeks before the Breakin A woman had called the

authorities to report suspicious activity at an empty Villa in her neighborhood when officers arrived they found a group of men waiting outside they provided reasonable proof that they had permission to hold a party at the residence one of of the partyers had been mauchi days after the crime The Villa visit paid off they got a phone call from an informant interested in the 1 million Frank reward from the societ general he told them you know the people you've checked at the Villa these are the ones responsible for the heist of the century n's police scoured

the premises for evidence among the items they collected there was a watertight flashlight similar to those found in the vault dried mud caked to the bottom match that found in the sewer hello finally the police had a starting point detectives met with the prosecutor convinced that they had stumbled upon members of the sewer rats but investigators felt that none of the suspects so far had the skill to put together this operation they decided to put them under 24-hour surveillance the next big break came in early October when two men tried to cash gold ingots at

a local bank the teller processed the serial of the ingots and saw the they matched those stolen from the bank she notified the police and the two men were arrested authorities added Alain Bard and Francis P to the list of potential sewer rats police began rounding up suspects in hopes of forcing The Mastermind to the surface through the weeks the list had grown to include relatives contact and accomplices all were brought in for questioning in France police have the right to hold any suspect in custody without legal counsel for 48 hours many criminals crack under

the grueling two-day interrogation known as guard ofu somebody gives the police a name and go to arrest a 44-year-old photographer in nce and he says what me the brain you're crazy and the cops must have felt despair close to it because he did not fit the profile either and he certainly sounded innocent his name is Albert spari nothing but the confession of a petty crook suggested Albert was a criminal mastermind from all appearances SP bajari lived a simple life as a photographer and niece friends knew him as a Charming romantic who was above all loyal

especially to his wife Audi the couple preferred living in the country where they were restoring an old farmhouse once he was arrested a battle of wills began between spari and the police detectives for 30 six continuous hours of Relentless questioning spari stubbornly claimed his innocence the detectives tried every trick they knew but spari remained calm while the interrogation continued police raided the cottage spari shared with his wife the search Turned Up illegal weapons and dynamite the discovery gave the detectives the upper hand in the interrogation they tried to make a deal an absolutely illegal blackmail

they told him either you confess that you are the brains behind the heist of the century or recharge your wife with illegal possession of firearms and put her in prison for many years to save his wife spari finally confessed to the crime he detailed exactly how he put together the plunder the idea came to him 2 years earlier a neighbor who worked as a manager at the bank let it slip that the Vault had no alarm spari went to the bank and rented a lock box he photographed the interior of the Vault and made extensive

notes it would take hours to break into to the thousands of lock boxes he he needed a quiet unnoticeable way of getting in fortunately for spari n had an extensive underground sewer [Music] system for 6 weeks he endured the stench of the Rat infested maze trying to find the sewer line that led to the bank to combat the odor he smoked or chewed on a cigar finally posing as a contractor he went to City Hall and obtained a map of the sewer system with this help he found the sewer branch that ran nearest to the

bank at its closest point it still left 30 ft of tunnel to be dug spari now had the plan but not the means to achieve it so he traveled to nearby Marseilles and met with the Ci's organized crime leaders the ambitious plan intrigued the mob bosses in return for a cut of the take they agreed to provide all the equipment and [Music] Manpower some of the sewer rats were engineers others electricians but most of all the rats were diggers every other night in May and June they went to [Music] work during the digging spari set

up an elaborate Lookout system with sentries and radios the tunnelers could be warmed and Escape in just over a minute [Music] it they dug in teams of three it was grueling backbreaking work the tight space was poorly ventilated and hot finally one of the diggers succumbed to the stress and passed [Music] out spari reacted like a good manager he set up a strict schedule each team of tunnelers would work only one day out of three they would dig for 10 minutes then rest for another 10 there was even a doctor on call in case of

[Music] emergencies they strung a half mile of electrical cable to a nearby underground garage they now had electricity in the tunnel with which to run ventilators and lights the sewer rats dug on night after night finally in the first week of July after 9 weeks of digging the sewer rats reached the wall of the Vault [Music] but they still faced 12 in of reinforced concrete they needed jackhammers and drills to break [Music] through spari feared the noise would be heard from the street [Music] above his fears proved groundless they would get halfway through the Vault

wall that night next weekend they would be in Friday July 16th well after the bank had closed for the weekend the rats began to move They Carried their equipment on inflatable rafts through the sewer lines to the tunnel opening they still had 6 in of reinforced concrete to break through these last inches proved to be the toughest the drilling took far longer than spari had planned it was 2: a.m. Sunday morning when the rats finally entered the Vault the first order of business was welding the steel door to its frame this way if someone tried

to enter the Vault spari and his crew would have time to escape what wow then the rats went to work they started cutting into the security boxes one by one and what they found exceeded their dreams jewelry silver goblets and gold in all forms government securities bear bonds cash stock certificates and Bank notes oh wa on Sunday evening they broke for dinner spari provided a gourmet Feast Goose liver pate sausage soups cheese and fish as well as wine and they ate their Delicacies like kings on gold plates found in one of the boxes [Music] [Music]

armed couriers had come to make a night deposit Pennies from Heaven the plunder continued uninterrupted through the night the thieves spent a total of 27 hours in the vault at 5:00 a.m. Monday morning spari declared that it was time to go the bank would open in less than 4 hours when they were ready to leave the Vault spari got a bright idea there we see the poet the artist the lover of books and writing without asking anyone because the gangsters would laugh at it he wrote that famous sentence that helped to build his Legend without

weapons without eight and without violence the sewer rats were long gone by the time the bank officers tried to open the vault they had broken into a little less than 400 es 10% of the 4,000 total but it was more than [Applause] enough no one expected that spari would receive more than a two-year sentence if he fully cooperated with authorities the victims had been reimbursed by the insurance companies and the crime had been nonviolent but spari was determined not to spend a day behind bars for the heist of the century he cooperated with the authorities

giving them most of the details of the crime but he never revealed the names of his accompli for 20 weeks spari met every Thursday with the instruction judge a French court officer that serves as a combination of grand jury and prosecutor on the 10th of May 1977 in the last meeting before his trial SP gave the instruction judge three pieces of paper with drawings of the N sewers mer when the judge looked confused spari offered his assistance attorney jacqu perra presently the mayor of nce represented spari during this time he just naturally he walked around

the jud's desk got behind him and he said voila we started from here we did this this and that and finally arrived there the Jud said good very good not bad very calmly started back for a seat then all of a sudden he opened the window and in went of a second he disappeared the authorities never recaptured Spar nor did they recover any of his share of the money he did however send $600 in cash to the owner of the car whose roof he landed on and spari has now topped the crime of the century

with the Escape of the century of his accomplices three were acquitted and three found guilty and sentenced to 5 years spari himself lived the rest of his life on the Run taunting the police with letters and appearances in magazines his wife Audi didn't join her husband in Exile she remained in niece where she continued to work as a nurse in the end The Mastermind behind the heist of the century died of lung cancer in 1989 World War II England a German pilot defies All Odds concocting a oldold and risky plan for escape before he could

fly he has to [Music] [Applause] [Music] crawl on October 12th 1940 the normally Serene hillsides of England's Lake district resounded with the Barking of dogs and the tramping boots of the local police and the British army they were looking for a German an escaped prisoner of war the Battle of Britain had raged throughout the summer and into the fall as Hitler's LOF wafa tried Des desperately to rest control of the Skies from the RAF the Battle of Britain was just in the simplest terms a matter of air superiority for the Germans to uh stage the

invasion of Britain they needed air superiority over the beaches and until they could establish that there was no way that they could [Music] proceed however the British were proving much tougher than Hitler's High command had [Music] anticipated before the battle was over the Germans would lose more than 1700 aircraft nearly twice as many as the British and while RAF Airmen bailed out over friendly soil thousands of lwfa crewman were captured interrogated and imprisoned the prisoners fell into two distinctive camps one group were fairly happy to accept imprisonment and wait for their release others the men

of action if you like to call them that were uh about wanting to get out and uh cause problems one of these troublemakers was first lieutenant France Von Vera a 27-year-old fighter pilot he had been captured September 5th 1940 after being shot down during a bombing raid Von ver was a notorious showoff whose charismatic charm made him a darling of the German media he kept a lion c as his units mascot and claimed to be a disenfranchised Bearer wearing a large signate ring which bore his family's coat of arms and this this picture of course

got to British intelligence so as soon as he was picked up it was pretty clear who he was right right from the word go vanon Vera had escaped from the gdale hall p camp and had been on the run for 5 days but now his pursuers had him surrounded with nowhere left to run he had tried to hide in the underbrush I Surrender fron Von Vera was finally recaptured [Music] after serving 19 days in solitary confinement Von Vera was transferred to officer Transit Camp number 13 near the village of swanwick north of [Music] London right

he found many former comrades in arms among the prisoners including urick steinhilper a fellow fighter pilot whom he knew from Flight Training School Von Vera immediately asked him if there was a way to escape we didn't even have time enough to talk to each other about how we were shut down I said don't you know England is an island you cannot get home from here he said I will try I have tried once I will keep on Blackout is a 10 two obstacles stood in his way the first was getting out of swanwick the second

was getting out of England still he was determined to succeed gentleman will be a special mail this morning Red Cross packages you can pick them up in the corporal's office his confidence and conviction inspired his fellow officers and even those of higher rank deferred to his leadership all right then roll call FR Oscar here he quickly assembled a crew the first was Lieutenant Walter manhard yeah followed by lieutenants Hans vham here and Doc Vagner yeah the fifth man was Major Hines ker we were walking around the B and didn't find that there was any opportunity

we couldn't could imagine anything else so we just turned to the classic way to build the tunnel here helmet here roll call was taken at breakfast and twice in the evening but not at lunchi here all right then so by skipping the midday meal the men were able to work un interrupted from roughly 10 until 4: right then dismissed Von Vera jokingly named their group the swanwick construction [Music] company although only five men would be escaped the entire Camp was involved in the effort an elaborate network of Lookouts was set up so that warning signals

could be passed quickly to the men doing the digging [Music] an unused room in the north Wing was the starting point from there it was less than 15 yd to the barbed wire the excavation would pass mere feet from the base of the Guard Tower but it was a risk they would have to take a carefully cut section of floor disguised the entrance [Music] their tools were provided by the British scoops and fire buckets meant for disposing of incendiary bombs made short work of the dirt beneath the barracks with a jam jar and bits of

wire they rigged a makeshift work lamp G it often gave them nasty shocks two men took turns digging while the others concealed the evidence by dumping the dirt in a sister on the Barrack's lawn passing so close to the guard Tower any heavy labor in the tunnel could potentially be heard above ground tell to Hal [Music] so the lamp also served as a warning signal the network of men stationed in the hallways could pass the alarm quickly enough [Music] so although the entrance could be hidden in seconds the telltale signs of digging could not if

the British had come to investigate they would have found the prisoners covered in fresh dirt it was so close to the ground level that it was dangerous that the guards inside or outside might even see at least hear it so it was always decided to make [Music] [Music] noise from that point on whenever the men were digging diversion Crews went into action arguing singing and playing the gramar [Applause] while the team spent their days tunneling at night they discussed their plans to get out of England Vagner and Vil decided to head for Liverpool where they

would attempt to stow away on a neutral ship grar and manhard would try for glasow where they also hope to stow away but Von Vera had something much more audacious in mind he planned to find the nearest airfield Bluff his way onto the base and steal a plane his idea was to make contact with the RAF directly or through the police and to maintain that he was a Dutch pilot Captain fan lot who'd been flying a Wellington bomber with an experimental bomb site and that they had to put the the aircraft down but he needed

to get back to his base in Scotland very quickly to report and it was all top secret what is we knew that Dutch Pilots had escaped to England he knew that Dutch Pilots were flying for the RF he was suspicious that his German would come through but Dutch is quite similar to German so he decided with l wise touch with to equip himself for this charade Von Vera borrowed articles from other prisoners a flight suit from one boots from another a pair of flying gloves from a third he would also need some kind of ID

on the pretext of settling a v he tricked a British Corporal into showing him his identity tag while the men joked about the bet they they examined the disc noting the look and feel of it one of the forges took an imprint of its exact size by pressing the disc against the palm of his hand what did I tell you what did I tell you thank you very much now they just needed to find some way to copy it in the meantime a problem was developing with the Dig they were running out of air going

up to the face and back was like swimming the length of a pool underwater work had slowed to a near standstill and they were only halfway to the barbed wire so what we going to do then fate dealt them another blow they were digging the tunnel close to the fence they were meeting with a sewage pipe a large sewage pipe trying to go on underneath it wasn't possible because water collects it below the pipe so they had to go over it going over the pipe would bring the tunnel dangerously close to ground level dramatically increasing

the risk of detection or even worse collapse but it was their only option they retreated a few precious yards and started sloping the tunnel carefully upward toward the surface there was so little oxygen a man could only stay at the far end of the tunnel for a minute or two it's Walter manhard was working the face when the unthinkable happened there was a c v v still was the prisoner's Escape tunnel had collapsed and it seemed Lieutenant Welter manhard had been buing the alive although shaken manhard was uninjured by the cave [Music] when fron Von

Vera returned to assess the damage he found the lamp was still working and the disaster was a blessing in disguise the British had buried rolls of barbed wire along the perimeter of the camp to keep prisoners from digging under the fence at ground level but they never imagined someone might come up on it from underneath the buried wire supported the ground above it allowing much needed air to filter down to the tunnel the swanwick construction company was back in business work now progressed at a rapid rate on December 17 while the others watched manhard tested

the exit Point by poking a stick up through the last few inches of dirt it appeared outside the barbed wire the tunnel had taken an entire month but they were through they decided to make their break the following Friday [Music] as fate would have it a bombing raid was launched that night the sound of the LOF waa bombs was music to the Germans ears it was a perfect diversion and the forc blackout would give them better [Music] cover it was time for Von Vera to become Captain Von lot his only props were some British cigarettes

and the camp copy of the times with little more than charm and bravado to bolster story he prepared to leave the safety of the camp in search of an enemy Airfield then you change from the Tull life of P to try to escape you are changing your life completely because now you are back at War because now you are going to be shot at [Music] and there we were the badre behind us the five of us cleaning from the reddish dust and uh we promised each other Christmas at choon [Music] the five men were out

but there was no time for celebration the tunnel exit was camouflaged so that if undiscovered others could use it at a later date their Escape from Camp was a success but now they face the real challenge avoiding capture and getting out of England Cromer and manhard went north towards Scotland and Vagner and vhm Northwest toward Liverpool while fron Von Vera headed right into the arms of the enemy he had convinced a railroad worker that he was Captain Von lot a downed Dutch pilot and persuaded the man to call an Airfield he he was a very

outward going person very able actor and probably able to read the way people's thoughts were going and to to guide them in his own way he was picked out from the Railway Station by an RAF driver in a vehicle and because he approached the the Air Force Base in the vehicle he would have automatically been allowed in the duty officer at the airbase had sent a car to pick up Captain Von lot the Dutch pilot but he found one thing strange there was no r of Captain in the RAF the duty officer wanted to get

a look at Captain Von lot in [Music] person sir this is Von Vera repeated his story for the duty officer he said he was part of the mixed special bomber Squadron based at Aberdine I there was no such squatter but Von Vera hoped it would sound cryptic to be believable uh Air Force our plane crashed into F here the officer placed a call to Aberdine to verify the story may I have the command Duty post for aine yes there you go tell Von Vera knew it was now or never yeah you EXC he casually excused

himself to go to the washroom yes certainly where he quickly scrambled out a window and hurried across the tarmac no I can barely hear you he spotted a mechanic working on a hurricane fighter hello he presented himself as Captain Von Loot and said he had been sent to make a practice flight Pilots of many nationalities were serving with the ra and the mechanic didn't find this request unusual he told Von Vera that he needed to complete some paperwork before he could take the plane what then Von Vera signed the log book as Von lot but

when he listed his nationality he nearly gave himself Away by making a Telltale German style stroke over the youu in Dutch good but no one in the office noticed and they signed over a brand new British plane to a German [Applause] pilot now that he was finally sitting in the cockpit Von Vera's impatience to be airborne was almost uncontrollable surely the duty officer had discovered his rooms by now the mechanic gave him a quick briefing on the controls thank you then climb down to hook up the battery much yes no aine every passing second was

Agony he tried to calm himself by making sense of the English indicator panel mil hour would have to be converted to kilomet feet to meters very good thank you [Music] is he yes stop and get out of the plane but just as he was about to start the engine his luck ran out the duty officer had tracked him down had he been only a minute or two later Von Vera could have been Airborne instead he surrendered and claimed the protection of the Geneva Convention all five escapes were recaptured you are under arrest shortly thereafter most

of the prisoners at swanwick including Von Vera were transferred to a p camp in Canada but Von Vera never reached it he escaped again this time to freedom on January 24th 1941 1 11 months before Pearl Harbor he crossed the Canadian border into the then neutral United States while the diplomats were trying to decide his fate the German Embassy smuggled him out of the country through South America and back to Germany where he rejoined his unit on October 25th 1941 he was leading a patrol of three Fighters up the coast of Holland when his engine

appeared apparently failed he was in radio contact at the time his uh last words where friends I think I have to take a bath I would appreciate you to look after me this was a the end of his life he had kept his a special style to the end no trace of France van Vera or his aircraft was ever found [Music] [Music]