Gunther Plüschow
From Kaiserreich
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Gunther Plüschow (born on February, 8 1886 in Munich, Germany is a German aviator, aerial explorer and colonial adminstrator. Known as the Aviator of Tsingtau, he is best known for his incredible escape from China to Germany passing through Britain, and his explorations of Tierra del Fuego and Patagonia, in Argentina.
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Biography
Plüschow's adventure
In January 1896, at the age of 10, Plüschow entered the Military School and in 1901 he joined the German Marines as a naval cadet. Through discipline and conscious effort, he stood out in his studies. During his training, Plüschow came across a postcard of a steamship anchored off the coast of Tierra del Fuego. This awoke his lifelong interest in exploring the southernmost tip of South America and would be the main motive for his subsequent achievements.
In 1905, Gunther Plüschow now a marine in the Imperial German Army, made his first cruise aboard the ship Luitpolt Prince and then the S-87 where he stood out in both duty assignments. His buried daring and restless spirit drove him to enter the Rumpler Aviation School. Upon graduation, he was posted to Tsingtau, China as a Marine Reconnaissance Aviator. After an ultimatum on August 15 Japan declared war on Germany and Tsingtau was besieged by the Japanese, beginning the Weltkrieg in Asia. Soon the situation in Tsingtau proved untenable, and on November 5 Plüschow fled in his Taube, with a packet of secret documents, bound for Hai-Daschou. He landed there, burnt his airplane so that it cannot be used by the enemy, and sets off for Germany on foot.
Escape from China
He walked to the city of Daschou, where the local mandarin gave a party for him. He managed to finagle a passport to cross China as well as a junk, which he uses to journey down a river, passing dozens of colorful towns along the way, finally arriving safely at Nanking. He soon felt that he was being watched, even by officials friendly to Germany. After almost being arrested, he leapt in a rickshaw and sped to the railway station, where he bribed a guard and slipped on a train to Shanghai.
In Shanghai, he met the daughter of a diplomat he knew from Berlin, and she obtained papers, money, and a ticket on a ship leaving for the United States. During the voyage to the United States, Plüschow hid in his cabin, pretending to be sick. He landed in Los Angeles, but felt unsafe, so he took a train up to San Francisco, and in January 1915 journeyed across the country to New York City. He was afraid to approach the German consulate there, for fear of being arrested. Worse, he read in the newspaper a report that he was presumed to be in New York City.
His luck, not to mention his female friends, saved him again: he met a lady from Berlin who managed to get him tickets for a ship that left on January 30 for Italy, from where he hoped to reach Germany. However, a storm forced his ship to land at Gibraltar, where the English arrested him, suspecting he was an enemy alien. They soon discovered he was the famous aviator from Tsingtau.
Escape from London
In May 1915 he was sent to a prisoner of war camp near Derby, England. It was called Donington Hall and it was an officers only camp. They had German servants and fine cuisine. After much planning on July 4th, 1915, during a storm he escaped with Oberleutnant Oskar Trefftz by climbing and going through the wire. They walked off in the dark for Derby. Here they cause a train to Leicester, and headed caught a faster train to St Pancras, London arriving late at around 10.00 am.
Trefftz was excellent at English. He was related to the Tate family famous for the brand of sugar. He was not permitted to meet his English cousins at Donington Hall. Trefftz spoke perfect English with no accent having been in England many times during his youth. He also understood the relatively complex money system. Plushow also spoke excellent English, with a slight American style accent. Pluschow knew London very well, as in 1913 and during his youth he had visited it many times.
Scotland Yard issued an alert, asking the public to be on the lookout for a man with a dragon tattoo on his arm. It is likely that Naval Intellgence would have been quite concerned about his presence in London as there has always been rumours that they thought he was a spy in 1913.
Oskar Trefftz was quickly caught trying to stowaway on a Danish ship in Millwall docks. He complained bitterly about being imprisoned with a China man. Eventually he was gaoled in Cheltenham, and later sent back to a camp just outside London often used for difficult POWs.
Pluschow's book and Basil Thomson of Scotland Yard's accounts differ. In Pluschow's version he disguises himself as a worker, even blackening his hair. This was not necessary and as he mentioned doing hair blackening near London Bridge we can discount it. London Bridge was heavily guarded and no loitering was allowed. In fact Zeppelin raids made these areas very well guarded. Any activity here was an offence as some suspected that people lit fires here that could act as navigation points for raiders. Before the war as noted Pluschow had visited London and had several women he could have purposely met in London. One was Kitty. In his official report he states twice he 'received no help'. This is unlikely. As is the story of joining a union or nearly getting signed up to join the British Army! More likely he met Kitty and other women, including German prostitutes (abandoned by the system due to their menfolk being interned.) The use of prostitutes to obtain shelter for the incessant rain from July 5 to 11 was a point made by Sir Basil Thomson in 1922. If he had used a hotel or boarding house he would have needed to provide verifiable ID e.g. an employers letter. Pluschow lacked ID from a known employer. Thus Pluschow probably stayed with former lovers and prostitutes. This is why he was so adamant he 'received no help' - he was protecting his girlfriends. (None of this information is fully provable, not his account or this account.)
He escaped Britain according to his own account by rowing across the Thames from Gravesend to Tilbury. However, it's much more likely that he either obtained false paperwork (in which case Kitty would have been probably arrested - she wasn't - so this is less likely) or by rowing to the Princess Juliana (much more probable) when it was moored on the Gravesend side (a point often overlooked by the official histories - he didn't have to cross the Thames.) (None of this information is fully provable, not his account or this account.)
Plüschow is acclaimed as "the hero from Tsingtau," decorated, and named commander of the marine base at Libau in Germany. Pluschöw married in June 1916. There he also wrote his first book, The Adventures of the Aviator From Tsingtau, which sild more than 700,000 copies. In 1918, his son Guntolf was born. After the Weltkrieg, he was decorated of the prestigious Pour le Mérite by the Kaiser Wilhelm II. He was awarded the honorary rank of Colonel within the new Luftstreitkräfte by Manfred von Richthofen in 1925.
Exploration in La Plata Also (Argentina)
Having expressed many times in his life the desire to explore Tierra del Fuego and Patagonia, he decided to fulfill his dreams by going to Argentina. On November 27, 1927 Plüschow took the wooden two-masted cutter Feuerland to Punta Arenas, Chile. His engineer Ernst Dreblow brought his seaplane, a Heinkel HD 24 D-1313 aboard a steamer. By December 1928 the airplane had been fully assembled and the inaugural flight brought the first air mail from Puntas Arenas to Ushuaia, Argentina. In the subsequent months Plüschow and Debrow were the first to explore by air the Cordillera Darwin, Cape Horn, the Southern Patagonian Ice Field, and the Torres del Paine of Patagonia. In 1929, to get back to Germany Plüschow had to sell the Feuerland. Upon his return, he published his explorations and photographs in the book Silberkondor über Feuerland and a documentary of the same name.
Return to China
In 1930 Plüschow returned to Patagonia to continue his explorations. There, both he and Dreblow were killed in a crash near the Brazo Rico, part of Lake Argentino, on January 28, 1931.
