Garros ended up in German captivity in 1915. During a raid on the Courtrai railway station in German-controlled territory, a fuel line in his plane became clogged, forcing him to land. Garros was captured by the Germans and sent to a POW camp at the fortress of Magdeburg, where he spent three years.

Before being captured, Garros managed to set fire to the fuselage, but the plane's cannon and armored propeller were preserved and ended up in the hands of the Germans. The remains were given to the brilliant aircraft designer Anton Fokker for inspection.

Fokker, however, did not find Garros' invention effective or reliable, and soon designed a suitable synchronous transmission, which was installed in the German Fokker E.I. aircraft. Thus began a period of German dominance in the air that lasted until about the end of 1916.