He Stole a Nazi Bomber and Flew Home
Category: Survival Stories 12th July 2026
When the camp on Usedom smelled of rocket fuel and bad management, Mikhail Devyatayev decided the polite thing to do was leave. He was a Soviet airman captured by the Germans and billeted uncomfortably close to Peenemunde, the place where the Nazis were testing V2 rockets. Prison work there was cheerful in the way a thunderstorm is cheerful: loud, dangerous and likely to ruin your life.
Instead of plotting a slow, dignified escape involving forged papers and a bicycle, Devyatayev and a handful of comrades hatched a plan that reads like a pub bet someone actually took seriously. They would seize a serviceable aircraft from the Luftwaffe and fly it to Soviet lines. Yes, really: they planned to steal a Heinkel bomber and use it as a taxi to freedom.
Their chance came in 1945. In a move equal parts audacity and desperation, the men overran the airfield, got aboard a Heinkel He 111 and shoved the throttle forward. It was chaotic, ridiculous, and absurdly effective. Under anti-aircraft fire, with navigation muddled and fuel a worry, they crossed the Baltic and landed in territory held by their own side. Eight prisoners walked off that plane and out of captivity. If you like your heroism with a side of cinematic lunacy, this qualifies.
As with many brilliant wartime stunts, the aftermath was complicated. Back home the Soviet authorities were not instant fans; returning in a German aircraft looked, on paper, dangerously like fraternising with the enemy. Devyatayev endured suspicion and interrogation before the inconvenient truth - that he had escaped by stealing enemy hardware - could be admitted and grudgingly celebrated.
There is a perverse elegance to the tale: a captured pilot turned thief of a bomber, ripping a hole in the neat lines of war and flying his mates out like it was a cheeky Sunday drive. It is one of those survival stories that prefers petrol to plotting, and insists that sometimes the best plan is to borrow a plane and not ask questions until you are miles away.