Vranov let (The Flight of the Crow)
Vranov let velja za enega izmed največjih pobegov iz nemških taborišč v drugi svetovni vojni, zgodil pa se je ravno na tem mestu, v Ožbaltu ob Dravi. Poimenovan je po avstralskemu vojaku Ralphu Churchesu, vranu. Ta je bil 6. maja 1941 zajet v Grčiji, ko je s tremi kolegi poskušal prijadrati do Krete. V zaporu je zbolel za malarijo in dizenterijo (grižo), ter komaj preživel naporno 4 dnevno potovanje z vlakom za živino do Maribora. Naslednja tri leta je bil v nemškem taborišču za vojne ujetnike Stalag XVIII-D (znan tudi pod imenom Stalag 306). Hitro se je naučil nemškega jezika in postal “predstavnik zapornikov”. Vsak dan so bili zaporniki z vlakom odpeljani na delo v okolico Maribora. Ena izmed njihov nalog je bila tudi ponovna gradnja železnice pri Ožbaltu. Nemški vojaki so zapornikom dovolili da na tem delovišču dobivajo pitno vodo od bližnje koče, pri kateri so zaporniki izkoristili priložnost in prišli v stik s partizani. Churches je tako s še šestimi kolegi začel načrtovati pobeg in kopičiti zaloge Rdečega križa v bližnjem gozdu. 30. avgusta 1944 je napočil dan pobega, sedem zapornikov je zapustilo delovišče. V gozdu so jih čakali partizani, ki so jih v zavetju dreves vodili do nedavno osvobojenega Lovrenca na Pohorju. Za trenutek so postali najsrečnejši ljudje na svetu, a pomislili so na svoje kolege zapornike, saj jih je bilo strah maščevanja Nemcev. S partizani so sklenili da bodo rešili tudi njih. Že 31. avgusta je skupina 100 partizanov onesposobila stražarje na železniški progi pri Ožbaltu, le nekaj minut po tem, ko so prispeli na delo. Pri svoji akciji niso sprožili niti enega naboja. Tako so osvobodili okoli 105 vojnih ujetnikov (70 Britancev, 12 Avstralcev, 8 Francozov, 9 Novozelandcev). Naslednjih 14 dni se je skupina več kot 200 junakov podala na dolgo pot proti Semiču. Pot so si utirali čez hribovja, goste gozdove, reke, da so se izognili Nemcem, ki so jih zavzeto iskali. Pri pobegu so jim po svojih močeh, predvsem s hrano pomagali domačini. Po 285 kilometrih so prispeli na cilj, v majhno vas ob hrvaški meji, ki je postala letalska baza zaveznikov. Pet dni kasneje, 18.9.1944 so bili s 4 letali Dakota DC-3 odpeljani v svobodo, v Bari (v Italijo). Vsak zapornik je lahko svojim domačim poslal telegram s tremi besedami. Churches je ženi sporočil: »pobegnil varen dobro«.
The Flight of the Crow, however, remains the biggest single escape from a German POW (prisoner-of-war) prison, and it happened just on this location, in Ožbalt ob Dravi. It is named after Ralph Churches, an Australian soldier nicknamed Crow. He was captured by Germans on May 6, 1941, while he and three others were trying to sail a dinghy to Crete. After a spell starving in a prison cage in Greece, where he contracted dysentery and malaria, he barely survived a four-day journey on a cattle train to Maribor. He would spend the next three years as a prisoner of war in the Stalag XVIII-D prison (also known as Stalag 306). Churches carefully learned the German language until he was fluent in colloquial Viennese German, and as the elected camp leader. Each day men were taken by train to work sites, assigned - among other tasks - to the job of re-laying train tracks in Ožbalt. Germans allowed prisoners to get the water from a hillside cottage, where they got opportunity to get in contact with Partisans. Churches and six others started planning the escape and gathered Red Cross stores and smuggled them out to a growing getaway stash in the forest near the work site. On August 30, 1944 came the day of the escape and the group of seven left the work site. Deep in the forest, they were met by armed guerillas and led through meadows to a village named Lovrenc, recently captured by the guerillas. They were, at least for the moment, gloriously free. Into this heady atmosphere Churches introduced a proposal to the Partisans. Would they be prepared to mount a raid to free all the other POWs on the work site outside Maribor? And so, on the morning of August 31, Churches, Laws and almost 100 Partisans ambushed guards and all the prisoners minutes after they’d alighted from the train that had brought them to the railway work site. Without a shot being fired they got away with more than 105 prisoners (70 British, 9 French, 12 Australians, 9 New Zealanders). Over the next two weeks, with German troops on their trail, the band - a column of around 200 at its peak - trudged up and down mountains, almost freezing at night, fording rivers and keeping to the shelter of forests to avoid German patrols and surveillance flights. Farmers and villagers sympathetic to the Partisans prepared stews in steaming coppers for the travellers at night. After two weeks and a journey of 285 kilometres, the escapees and their protectors reached Semič, a village almost on the border with Croatia which had become an outpost Allied base with an airstrip. Five nights later, they were taken out by four DakotaDC-3 aircraft and delivered to freedom in Bari, Italy on September 18, 1944. Each man was offered a three-word telegram. Churches sent “escaped safe well” to his wife.
Dokumentarec o pobegu (documentary about the escape): https://www.dailymotion.com/video/x6smblb