The Swiss Red Cross Commission escape occurred in 1941 at Schloss Spangenberg, involving Dominic Bruce, Eustace Newborn and Pete Tunstall, all prisoners of war (POWs), held at the castle. It has been described as the most audacious escape of World War II. Bruce's Military Cross (MC) citation described it as a "very clever escape."
In late July and early August 1941, Bruce, Newborn and Tunstall, took an interest in the architecture of the building, suspecting there may be escaping materials. The three broke into a flat in the Schloss thought to belong to a forestry principal and inside the flat the trio obtained escape material such as disguises, maps and a compass. After sourcing the escape resources, they carefully crafted an escape plan that took advantage of the incompetent gate security of the castle, intending to walk to Kassel, break into Fliegerhorst Kassel, steal an aircraft and then fly to Basel.
Patiently waiting many weeks for the conditions to be just right for the escape, on 3 September 1941 the trio brazenly walked across the moat bridge, posing as a German officer (Tunstall) and two doctors (Bruce and Newborn) of a Swiss Red Cross inspection team. Upon reaching the bottom of the hill outside of the castle's grounds, they quickly removed their Swiss Commission disguises and then made their way to Kassel, dressed as Luftwaffe airmen, aiming to steal an aircraft.
Subsequently, after a turn of unfortunate events, they were forced to change their plans. As such, the three decided to walk onwards towards the Belgian border. On their tenth day on the road, they were recaptured by an off duty guard from Spangenberg, who recognised Tunstall. Following their capture, Bruce, Newborn and Tunstall were interrogated by the Gestapo and sentenced to 53 days in solitude. The escape by the trio, which revealed the short-comings of the castle's ability to handle prisoners of war, is thought to be a reason why Schloss Spangenberg was evacuated in late 1941.
Prologue to the Swiss Red Cross Commission It has been argued that Bruce and Tunstall are the original innovators of the wooden horse escape technique. Along with Eustace Newborn and Peter Tunstall, Bruce came up with the escape plan now known as "the Swiss Red Cross Commission." Tunstall, also highlights that in 1941, prior to him and Bruce planning an escape with the famed "Swiss Red Cross Commission", he and Bruce had been digging an escape route with a wooden horse tunnel from inside the gymnasium. The wooden horse was placed roughly four feet from the wall that separated the gym from the moat. The digging was a very slow process; it required the removal of spoil, bricks and stone work, and was aided by other prisoners distracting the guards. They were later joined by Douglas "Sammy" Hoare and a syndicate who were promised a second go if they escaped undiscovered. Other members of this syndicate were also named as: Harry Bewlay, John Milner and Eustace Newborn.
When Bruce and Tunstall noted the slow process they began examining the rest of the castle and left the digging to the other team involving Sammy Hoare. The tunnel almost reached completion but unfortunately the digging team got caught when a guard become suspicious at the large stones that were accumulating outside of the gym. The guard then called a search, and then found the escape tunnel. When the guards found the shaft they called an Appell and Hauptmann Schmidt confidently stated to the prisoners, "It is impossible to escape by tunnel or any other way."
This wooden horse gym escape tunnel was two years prior to the famed Sagan wooden horse escape. Tunstall stated that he would like to think some of the watchers and workers who helped on their original wooden horse escape may have mentioned it from time to time; and would like to think that their idea contributed to the success of the effort at Sagan.
Exploration of the castle
Whilst the wooden horse tunnel was being dug, Bruce and Tunstall, were planning, after they had escaped from the castle grounds, to steal an aircraft from Kassel airfield to fly to Basel, Switzerland. To do this they also created Luftwaffe uniforms. As the tunnel was being dug by other prisoners, Bruce and Tunstall were also in the process of exploring the castle and keeping their options open for other escape possibilities in case the tunnel route was found. At this time, Bruce and Tunstall got to know a new prisoner called Eustace Newborn who was in the wooden horse tunnel syndicate. Newborn was a South African airman with plenty of experience flying Junkers Ju 52 and Junkers Ju 86 airplanes. Needing his experience with Junkers Ju 52 airplanes, Newborn joined their escape team. In the escape it was decided Tunstall, who could speak better German, would be a Feldwebel and Bruce and Newborn would be privates.
Bruce, Newborn and Tunstall also wanted to explore a walled off flat. Inside the daily hustle of the castle and at the same time as Bruce, Newborn and Tunstall were planning on exploring a flat, Eric Foster and Joe Barker, who were planning a laundry cart escape, were taking a similar interest in the impressive architecture of the building. Though their interest was for the first floor of the building, not the same flat that interested Bruce, Newborn and Tunstall. At this moment in time, both groups did not know that they each had a keen interest in this area of the castle. Foster claims in his book it was "bad form" for want-to-be escapees to ask upfront questions about planned escapes involving other groups.
The flat that interested Bruce, Newborn and Tunstall had once been explored by a French lieutenant named Merlin, who had broken into the flat in 1939. It was rumoured the previous occupant of this apartment was a forestry school principal who was now at the front for Germany. They eventually found a way into this flat via a chamber found at the top of the staircase which had a plaster ceiling. This chamber led to the attic. They broke through this plaster ceiling in the chamber with a four foot long metal-pole that they claimed could break through anything and that they affectionately pun-named Napoleon. At first sight inside the attic Bruce, Newborn and Tunstall noticed a shadowy silhouette staring back at them, and this frightened them. The silhouette turned out to be a bust of Emperor Franz Josef on a plinth. From the attic they found a staircase down to the principals flat. Bruce and Tunstall picked the locked door at the bottom of the stairs. Inside the room they found escape material such as civilian clothes, officer uniforms, guns including a Luger pistol, maps, a compass, cases and stale cigars. Upon sourcing these materials Bruce and Tunstall then gave up their wooden horse tunnel escape completely and left it all to Hoare. Instead they began solely focussing on the bridge and gate security. Unfortunately the gate security had been increased because of a 1940 escape from the castle by three Canadians, Keith Milne, Don Middleton and Hank Wardle.
Gate security There were three companies working the castle gate. Tunstall called them, "A company", "B company" and "C company". Each company worked shifts. All staff rotated their roles and sometimes a staff member would be the sentry on the castle side of the bridge who opened the gate. There could be ten other posts a guard could be on.
The guard commander was on the other side of the bridge away from the castle. The sentry on the castle side of the bridge was to open and close the gate on command. To let people into the castle the sentry could only open the gate after an order that could only come from the guard commander, and this order would come after the guard commander had signed the people in. To let people out of the castle, the sentry, would blow a whistle, and the guard commander would come through the gate to sign the people out, then following a command, the sentry would then open the gate. Over time, they observed the C company Feldwebel was the least meticulous of the three companies and that there was no chance of escape if A company and B company had a shift, being they followed the protocol to the letter.
They worked out that C company had two big flaws that could be exploited. They noticed the guard commander did not bother with the protocol when the orderlies went to the moat to feed the pigs potato peelings and rubbish from the kitchen, this left the gate open. They also pinpointed the weak link in the C company team. Tunstall called the guard "Blockhead". They believed he would be the least alert enough of the guards to notice their faces when they were in disguise.
Escape plan and the Luger pistol debate They hid all the gear needed for the escape in the sick bay. They decided the escape would revolve around the three being disguised as a visiting Swiss Red Cross Commission inspection team. It was planned that on the day of escape, Tunstall would be dressed as an army Hauptmann. They would carry an ID card which was no more than a touched up fishing license with an official seal, and Bruce and Newborn would be dressed as visiting doctors. Bruce and Newborn would be very well dressed, carrying dispatch cases. Bruce would also be wearing a Homburg hat and smoking a cigar. Newborn would be wearing a Tyrolean hat. Underneath the attire they would be each wearing their Luftwaffe uniforms. They also had a debate about carrying the Luger pistol. Bruce and Tunstall were in favour of carrying the gun for the sake of authenticity. Newborn, along with a prisoner called Joe Kayll were strongly against it, arguing they could not expect the protection of the Geneva Convention while carrying it. The argument was in turn settled by the SBO – Brigadier Somerset who strictly forbade them taking the Luger with them. Bruce, Newborn and Tunstall then settled on building a replica using wood and lead stripped from the roof. They polished and blued the replica until it looked perfect. The escape was planned to be "shit or bust", and as such the cases only carried three rations. More important to the three was boot polish, shaving equipment which would keep them presentable as Luftwaffe airmen, and the local map and compass.
Bruce and Tunstall estimated their escape from the castle grounds depended on these three things, pig feeding time leaving the gate to the bridge open, Blockhead being on the gate and C company being on the afternoon shift. They waited a long time for these conditions to occur, waiting all through August. These conditions in turn rested on Blockhead failing a gullibility test. The plan was for this test to be performed by a prisoner called John Milner who spoke good German. The planned test was to see if Blockhead would bluff. In German, Milner would ask Blockhead if the German officer and the two Swiss doctors had left the castle. If Blockhead bluffed this question, he failed the test and this would probably mean he assumed a Swiss Commission team was inside the castle. If he bluffed, Milner would give a thumbs-up from behind his back and this thumbs-up would mean the escape plan would kick into action. If Blockhead passed the test, Milner would give a thumbs-down signal from behind his back and the escape would not go ahead.
Upon the thumbs-up sign the kitchen orderlies would immediately go to the door with their kitchen rubbish. It was always predicted Blockhead and C company would always open the gate to the orderlies to allow the orderlies to feed the pigs with rubbish from the kitchen. At this point, when the gate was predicted to be left open by Blockhead, they devised to immerse Blockhead in a social orchestration. They arranged for: Blockhead to be blustered and overwhelmed by his perceptions; they scheduled deftly timed goon baiting from the orderlies at the gate to overwhelm him; and timed for a perception of urgency from Swiss Commission inspection team and the Army Hauptmann, to rush him.