Volume 8 , Issue 7

1944 - Escaped Nazis Caught Wed. Near Emporia, Kansas...

This 1944, April 7, newsclipping from a NW Oklahoma newspaper was sent in by Ila Wessell, concerning the Alva POW Camp escapees.

Officers Believe Two Make Get Away In Car Stolen at Jet Monday

Two Nazi soldiers who escaped Monday from the Alva prisoner of war camp were captured late Wednesday near Emporia, Kans., as they attempted to escape afoot from an abandoned automobile, Kenneth Logan, special agent in charge of FBI of Oklahoma, announced.

Lyons county Sheriff Ernest T. Owens and Butler county Sheriff Walt Covert caught the Germans in a field where the pair ran after fleeing from a motor car which Logan said had been stolen.

The pair, Karl Heinz Zigann and Teinz Aulenbacher, escaped early Monday after cutting the compound wire at the camp at Alva. They fled in an automobile stolen in Alva, but abandoned it three and a half miles south of Cherokee after they had sideswiped another car. A large detachment of guards from the POW camp spent the day scouring the southwest sector of the county looking for the escapees.

Late Monday night a car belonging to Rupert Jenlink was stolen at Jet (Oklahoma) and later found abandoned at Caldwell (Kansas) where another car had been stolen. It is presumed by some officers the Nazis took the stolen cars to further their escape.

Bill Large, highway patrolman now stationed at Enid, visited Cherokee (Oklahoma) Wednesday and told how he and two dozen members of the State Auxiliary patrol, "stomped out" the country between Enid and Carrier after a farmer had reported seeing two men who fit the description of the two escaped Germans had been seen in that vicinity. "We walked the entire distance and thought once we had them," Large related. "We saw a fire burning on the south side of a high bank along the railroad. I crawled more than 100 yards through freshly burned grass stubble only to find a railroad tie burning brightly."   |  View or Add Comments (0 Comments)   |   Receive updates ( subscribers)  |   Unsubscribe

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