A question for the forum. Did WW2 German POWs ever attempt to seize their ship?

[Draconis]

I've never heard of such a thing until now. I recently saw a Youtube video where some German POWs had believed that an Australian freighters' crew and guards had been overpowered by German POWs in the Indian Ocean and they had taken the ship to Japan. So because of this story the POWs were planning on attempting something similar on their prison ship. But they later abandoned the plan as unfeasible.

Does anyone here know of any story, apocryphal or not, about German POWs attempting this during WW2? Was there some German propaganda claiming this had happened? Perhaps the German POWs were misled by rumours?

 

[Draconis]

The Youtube video was about a German stuka pilot named Heinz Migeod recounting his experiences after being shot down and captured near Tobruk in November 1942. While being shipped to a Canadian POW camp the German POWs had considered trying to take the ship they were on inspired by a belief that it had been done before.

This is why I brought up this topic here. Because there is a wealth of knowledge among the membership. So, did any POWs in WW2 try to seize their ship?

 

[Killer in]

Well it would have to most likely be a boat carrying Kriegsmarine prisoners since they'll know how to sail the ship the best.

 

[Carl Schwamberger]

Closest I know of was a Italian cargo ship hauling Allied officers & NCOs prisoners from Tunisia to Italy. The ship was bombed and damaged, whereupon the Italian crew abandoned ship. Some of the guards were left behind & they lost control of the PoW. As I understand the ship drifted aground on the Tunisian coast and the prisoners found their way ashore.

 

[DrakonFin]

There was a case on Lake Ladoga where Latvian sailors (who had been practically drafted into the Soviet military when their freighter, the Ilga, was taken into Soviet use) overpowered their Soviet officers/keepers, raised a makeshift Latvian flag and sailed the ship to a Finnish port. But then again they were technically not POWs but rather civilian sailors forced to work as the ship's crew for the Soviet military.