German pilots returned from French camps 1940?

I saw a document on the western front battles 1940, and it was mentioned that the French would not give their German POW´s to the British (?) so they could have been taken to Canada etc. So once France surrendered these pilots returned to active duty in the Luftwaffe. Anyone know more about this, how true this is, and any figures of the POW´s returned? Thanx!

 

I had read somewhere that German POW's captured by the French were returned to the Reich after the fall of France. Some returning in time to participate in the Battle of Britain. As to why, one confusion on the French side, two simple beuracacy friction, and lastly their desire not to have French POW's held up because Germany was ticked off because their people were lost to them.

 

Kai.

I too have seen and read this. IIRC it was a sizable ammount of personel from the Wehrmacht that were recycled from the french pow cages.

 

One well known pilot who returned was Werner Moelders.

 

Interesting. One, He would not have participated in the Battle of Britain and rack up kills. Two, he would still be alive at war's end.

 

It's a fact. France did not "refuse" to send the Lw pows to Canada because of pride, but because the HQ thought it was riskier to send them all the way accross the ocean during the Spring of 1940 rather than keep them "safely" in southern France. You have to keep in mind that until late May, Early June no-one even though tthat these men could fall into enemy hands again.
Of course with our 2010 knowledge it is easier to say that they would have saver in Canada, but scenarios about the attack of pow convoys have been mentionned including sinking allied ships and rescuing the pows. We should think about this with a 1939 phoney war perspective (German pows being captures almost daily as early as September 1939.
When the French realized their mistake it was already too late . (I have the figure somewhere but the 1000+ men were returned to the LW , including some famous aces to be....) Mölders is one famous example. I have the story of the combat in which he was taken pow by the French near Compiegne. The Gentleman who shot him down did not survive the battle. Mölders was very galant about his capture and wanted to meet the men who beat him in a chevalric way ,but he was sad to learn the pilot paid the ultimate price minutes later after returning to combat with no amno left, and flew towards the Germans nonetheless so his wingman would have time enough to escape.

 

Found this after looking for details after a while:

French hand over of downed Luftwaffe crews in 1940 - Luftwaffe and Allied Air Forces Discussion Forum

Some pilots at least who became aces/were aces:

Lt Paul Stolte Stab I./JG 54 (KIA 18/10/43, 43 victories, all after his release)

Lt Albert Walter 1./JG 54 (too common name for me to find what he did after, a pilot with the same name scored 37 kills with JG 51)

Oblt Wolf-Dietrich Wilcke Stake 7./JG 53 (KIA 23/3/44, 162 victories, 3 before his capture by the French)

Uffz Ludwig Reibel 1./JG 53 (1 kill in May 1940 before his capture, KIA 20/12/42, 38 victories)

Uffz Artur Beese 9./JG 26 (KIA 6/2/44, 22 victories, all after 1940)

Fw Willi Roth 4./JG 26 (4 kills in May 1940 before his capture, survived the war, 20 victories, including 5 in BoB)

Uffz Josef Keil 8./JG 3 (4 kills in May 1940 before his capture, 3 in BoB, survived the war with 16 victories)

Uffz Rudlof Saborowski 8./JG 3 (3 kills in May 1940 before his capture, 3 in BoB, KIA 8/7/42, 39 victories)

Hptm Werner Mölders Kdr III./JG 53 (25 kills in 39-40 before his capture, KIFA 17/11/41, 101 victories (+14 in Spain))

Fw Hans Galubinski 7./JG 53 (9 kills in May 1940 before his capture, KIA 13/1/44 with 28 kills)

Lt Klaus Mietusch 7./JG 26 (1 kill in May 1940 before his capture, 1 in BoB, KIA 17/9/44, 76 victories)

Oblt Otto Böhner Stab II./JG 53 (survived the war, 9 victories, all after his release)

Total: 43 pilots, who claimed at least 549 victories ( all mentioned on that site ) after their release...

 

I will try to find the exact figure which is much higher , I might even have pictures of LW pilots when they were pow . I also know some ME-109s were displayed as trophees in Paris before they were examined on airbases and later send to Britain who in turn send at least one to Dayton Ohio.

In the meantime I have found details for Mölder's capture :

Mölders was shot down by Sous Lieutenant Pomier-Layrargues on June 5th 1940 . He also shot down another Me-109 the same day.



René Pomier Layrargues - Wikipédia