This list of prisoner-of-war escapes includes successful and unsuccessful attempts in chronological order, where possible.
Thirty Years' War
In the beginning of the war Hans Ulrich von Schaffgotsch's detachment of 8,000 imperial cavalrymen surprised Jindřich Matyáš Thurn's force in the outskirts of Steinau, taking Thurn and general prisoners. Duwall quickly escaped captivity, organizing the defence of Breslau, where he died from liver failure in April 1634. Former Imperial general Johann Philipp Kratz von Scharffenstein was captured at the Battle of Nördlingen and taken to Vienna, where he managed to escape and fled to Silesia. He was seized again and brought back to Vienna where he was convicted of treason and executed on 26 July 1635. Holy Roman general Federico Savelli was captured by Bernard of Saxe-Weimar in the aftermath of the Second Battle of Rheinfelden (3 March 1638). He managed to escape from his cell after the woman tasked with bringing him food, freed him instead. She was later executed along with seven alleged accomplices.
American Revolutionary War
1781 – Continental Navy officer Joshua Barney escaped from Old Mill Prison in Plymouth, England.
American Civil War
November 1863 – Confederate General John Hunt Morgan and six of his officers escaped from the Ohio Penitentiary. February 9 and 10, 1864 – Libby Prison escape. More than 100 Union prisoners broke out of Libby Prison in Richmond, Virginia. Fifty-nine of them reached freedom, forty-eight were recaptured, and two drowned.
Second Boer War
December 12, 1899 – Winston Churchill. A war correspondent at the time, the future Prime Minister of the United Kingdom was captured by the Boers while accompanying a British scouting expedition. His successful escape made him a minor national celebrity.
World War I
October 1914 – French officer Henri Giraud was captured by the Germans in August and escaped in October. He also escaped in World War II, this time as a general (see next section). July 4, 1915 – Gunther Plüschow escaped from a POW camp at Donington Park, Leicestershire, England, and made his way back to Germany. This was the only successful escape from Britain in either world war. September 2 and 12, 1918 – John Owen Donaldson and another prisoner escaped, but were recaptured. The pair were joined by three others for a second try a few days later. Donaldson reached the Netherlands in October. February 1917 – October 1918 – E. H. Jones, a Welsh lieutenant in the Indian Army, and C. W. Hill, an Australian officer in the Royal Flying Corps, escaped from a Turkish prisoner-of-war camp at Yozgad. Having first pretended to be psychic, the pair spent over a year conning the camp's commandant. Eventually they persuaded their Turkish captors they were insane and, after being moved to a hospital for the mentally ill in the summer of 1918, the two men played their roles as lunatics so successfully they also fooled the doctors and were returned home. February 14, 1918 – French fighter pilot Roland Garros escaped to rejoin the French army after several attempts. July 23/24, 1918 – Holzminden officers' prisoner-of-war camp. Ten of 29 British officers made their way to freedom, making this "the most successful escape from a German prison camp during the First World War". 1918 – US Navy Lieutenant Edouard Izac was taken prisoner aboard the U-boat which sank his ship in May 1918. On the trip to Germany, he learned important information about enemy submarine movements. As a result, he made several attempts to escape, finally succeeding on the night of October 6–7, 1918, with several others. He made his way to Switzerland and then London to pass along the information, though by then the war was nearly over. For his actions, he was awarded the Medal of Honor.
Polish-Soviet War
Merian C. Cooper, better known as a Hollywood screenwriter, director and producer, formed the Kościuszko Squadron, composed of American volunteers fighting on the Polish side. A pilot in the fighter squadron, he was shot down on July 13, 1920, and taken prisoner. He escaped just before the war ended in 1921 (on his second attempt) and made his way to Latvia.
Spanish Civil War
On May 22, 1938, 792 or 795 Republican prisoners of war and political prisoners escaped from Fort San Cristóbal, near Pamplona, Spain. Only three managed to reach the French border. The Nationalists recaptured or killed the rest.