German managed to escape Otranto (4)
I believe the answer is:
otto
'german' is the definition.
(I've seen this before)
'managed to escape otranto' is the wordplay.
'managed' becomes 'ran' (I've seen this before).
'to escape' suggests deleting specific letters.
'otranto' with 'ran' taken out is 'OTTO'.
(Other definitions for otto that I've seen before include "Possibly a German" , "A man" , "Palindromic German boy's name" , "Essential oil from flowers - German boy's name" , "Oil made of rose petals" .)