RIP Dick Churchill, last of the "Great Escape" men

[ronn47]

https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-devon-47257570

The Great Escape

• Stalag Luft III opened in spring 1942, and held air forces personnel only
• At maximum it held 10,000 prisoners of war, covered 59 acres, with five miles (8km) of perimeter fencing
• Some 600 prisoners helped dig three tunnels, which were referred to as Tom, Dick and Harry
• The "Great Escape" happened on the night of 24 to 25 March, 1944
• Seventy-six men attempted a getaway through tunnel Harry, which was 102m (336ft) long and 8.5m deep
• Seventy-three of them - including Mr Churchill - were recaptured by the Germans within three days. Two-thirds of them were executed on Hitler's orders
• The camp was liberated by Soviet forces in January 1945

 

[Diablos]

Watched the movie in 5th grade, we were all assigned characters to gets us more interested in the movie. I was the scrounger.

 

[Combat Diver]

RIP old warrior. One of my favorite movies and stories. Still listen to the soundtrack weekly.

CD

 

[jimmyjames8]

Just finished reading about this in Masters of The Air. Near the end of the book now where a lot of the POW camps were being relocated away from advancing US and Russian troops.

 

[tanstaafl72555]

My favorite escape stories of WW2 were

1) some guy who spoke fluent German (hid it in the POW processing, of course) MADE himself an officer uniform with stuff stolen from prison laundry, shoe polish, tin foil etc, and walked right out of the prison, stopping only to dress down some enlisted guard, bawling him out and giving an expletive laden tirade for giving him a sloppy salute

2) Three guys who were able to get a clipboard, pencils and measuring tape, a few hand tools..., along with some peasant clothing. They walked right up to the front gates, measured the gates for several dimensions, commented on the problems with them being out of plumb, and recorded data on paper and just NODDED at the guards, who let them out. They actually measured their way all the way across France, busily recording info on whatever was handy..., building walls, doorways, curbs, signposts..., whenever German soldiers appeared. The underground got them to the coast and they made it to England.

RIP Dick Churchill. Human ingenuity at its best.