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9.25.2 Unsuccessful Escapes. POWs who do not escape successfully retain theirentitlement to POW status upon recapture. In particular, the wearing of civilian clothes does notdeny escaping POWs their status as POWs. 602A number of rules limit the punishment of POWs who do not escape successfully. Bylimiting the punishment in respect of the act of escape, the GPW recognizes that POWs maylegitimately try to escape from their captors. 603 In some cases, POWs may even be under anobligation to escape. 604 For example, U.S. military personnel have a duty to make every effort toescape captivity. 6059.25.2.1 Handover of a Recaptured POW to Competent Military Authority. APOW who is recaptured shall be handed over without delay to the competent militaryauthority. 606 For example, if recaptured by private persons or by civilian law enforcementauthorities, POWs should be handed over to competent military authority without delay. Thisrule makes certain practices used by Germany during World War II clearly unlawful. 6079.25.2.2 Only Disciplinary Punishments in Respect of an Act of Escape. A POWwho attempts to escape and is recaptured before having made good his or her escape in the sense602 GPW COMMENTARY 454 (“Additional difficulties have sometimes arisen from the wearing of civilian clothing;during the Second World War, some Detaining Powers stated their intention of considering prisoners of war incivilian clothing as spies and no longer as prisoners of war. This matter is settled by the present provision: aprisoner of war retains that legal status until such time as he has made good his escape.”).603 GPW COMMENTARY 445 (“A prisoner of war can legitimately try to escape from his captors. It is evenconsidered by some that prisoners of war have a moral obligation to try to escape, and in most cases such attemptsare of course motivated by patriotism. Conversely, in its own interest, the Detaining Power will endeavour toprevent escape whenever possible. This results in the paradox of escape to which A. R. Werner refers: an attemptto escape is considered by the Detaining Power as a breach of discipline and therefore punishable, while the adverseParty considers it as an act which cannot be held to be a crime. Attempted escape is therefore liable only todisciplinary punishment, and not to judicial proceedings.”).604 Rex v. Guenther Krebs (Magistrate’s Court of the County of Renfrew, Ontario, Oct. 7, 1943), reprinted in 38AJIL, 505, 507-08 (1944) (“This accused owes no allegiance to the Crown. He is an open and avowed enemy of theCrown, a man taken in war and a man who, if it is not his duty, may quite reasonably feel that it is his duty to escapefrom the domains of his captor state, and, if he can, return to the state to which he owes allegiance and perform hisduty to that state. Whatever may be finally decided in this matter, my opinion is that a prisoner of war is notpunishable for anything he may reasonably do to escape, or having escaped, to preserve his liberty. My opinion alsois that what the accused did was done with a view to facilitating his escape. He, therefore is not guilty of anycrime.”).605 Refer to § 9.39.1.3 (Code of Conduct – Article III).606 GPW art. 92 (“A prisoner of war who is recaptured shall be handed over without delay to the competent militaryauthority.”).607 1958 UK MANUAL 240 note 1 (“One of the purposes of these articles [of the GPW] is to render clearly unlawfulthe practice resorted to by Germany during the Second World War of handing over recaptured prisoners of war tonon-military agencies such as the German Gestapo or the concentration camp service.”).593