Oberleutnant Gunther Pluschow was the sole enemy servicemen to make it off the British mainland after breaking out of a PoW camp in Derbyshire, it can be revealed.

The airman displayed incredible effort and determination and enjoyed amazing good fortune during his daring escape in the summer of 1915.

After hoodwinking the authorities, changing his appearance and swimming across the Thames Estuary, Pluschow stowed away on a Dutch steamer ship at Tilbury docks.

He talked his way past a Dutch policeman before travelling to Germany by train. Upon his return home he received a hero's welcome and was presented with the Iron Cross First Class.

His astonishing story has now fully emerged after a British author spent seven years researching German archives to uncover details of the escape before publishing Pluschow's biography....