POWs mark 'Great Escape' anniversary

Kyt · Mar 24, 2009

Former POWs mark 'Great Escape' anniversary - Telegraph

Former prisoners of the German POW camp immortalised in the film 'The Great Escape' will return this week to pay homage to the men who were murdered after the breakout.

Adolf Hitler ordered 50 recaptured Allied airmen to be shot as a deterrent to others seeking to escape after their spectacular bid for freedom from Stalag Luft III.

Only three men made 'home runs' to safety through a tunnel which, nevertheless, tied up tens of thousands of Germans, who would otherwise be fighting, in the search for the escapers.

Tuesday will be the 65th anniversary of the spectacular freedom bid and the men involved will be honoured by several prisoners who were in the camp that was formerly in Germany but now lies near the town of Zagan in Poland.

The veterans will gather at exit of 'Tunnel Harry' to remember all those who were held at Stalag Luft III.

Historian Howard Tuck will explain the events leading up to the final moments when the escape commenced from the tunnel before the veterans remember their comrades.

One of six former Stalag Luft III prisoners returning to remember the men who died is Andrew Wiseman of Bray, Berkshire, who was shot down over France and is now 87.

He said: "I spent 15 months as a POW losing a lot of weight and almost all my teeth. Life in camp was tough, the food was lousy, accommodation – 15 people in one room and in three tier beds.

"The only advantage was to be together with other RAF aircrew, help each other, annoy the Germans and count the days towards the end of the war, we didn't know when that was going to be.

"Some of the POWs had assembled a wireless and we listened everyday to one BBC news bulletin, so we knew what was going on and didn't have to rely on German lies."

Another returning survivor of the camp is Bill Fripp, 95, of Bournemouth, the navigator of an RAF reconnaissance flight shot down over Germany in October 1939 and held in a dozen different POW camps during the 5 years and 7 months of his imprisonment.

Although not a Great Escaper, Bill's pilot was among those recaptured and shot by the Gestapo.

A further six survivors from other Nazi POW camps will stand with them at the end of the escape tunnel Harry and drink a glass of champagne to the spirit of the prisoners.

The veterans will be accompanied by personnel from RAF Leeming, Yorkshire, who will be undertaking a project to renovate a memorial to the executed escapers.
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Kyt · Mar 24, 2009

The Calgary Sun - Calgary is set to honour a Second World War legend who kept the orchestra playing as prisoners tunnelled to freedom

Thrilled to be alive and thankful to be conducting a talented orchestra, Arthur Crighton wasn't about to risk it all by crawling down a 60-cm high tunnel, deep underground.

"I would hate to have gone down that tunnel -- it would have scared me to death," said 91-year-old Crighton.

And so, instead of inching his way to freedom down a claustrophobic passage 10 m beneath the surface, the Calgary-born pilot lent his conductor's baton to the legend that would become The Great Escape.

As his fellow prisoners excavated the escape tunnel in secret, Crighton and other POWs in Stalag Luft III helped keep suspicions down by going about business as usual, making the German guards think nothing was amiss.

And on the night of The Great Escape, March 24, 1944, legend has it that Crighton and his band put on a concert to cover the noise made as 77 men crawled down the tunnel to freedom.

It was a moment immortalized in the Hollywood version of the escape, starring Steve McQueen, though Crighton now downplays his role as being any more important than that of others jailed in the camp.

"I believe that's a bit of an exaggeration -- the orchestra and other activities were all important, and we kept them up so everything would appear normal," said Crighton, who now lives in Edmonton.

"We knew the best thing we could do for (the escapees) would be to ignore what they were doing, to not talk about it, and to keep acting as though everything was normal."

Of those who escaped, all but three were recaptured, and 50 were later shot by the Gestapo.

Crighton survived, and continued conducting his band until the war ended in 1945.

The airman-turned-musician returns to Calgary tomorrow, where he'll join two fellow Second World War veterans at a public tribute hosted by The Canadian Aviation Historical Society (Canadian Aviation Historical Society - Celebrating Canada's Flying Heritage).

Crighton and two other members of the storied 419 Moose Squadron -- Flight Sergeant V. L. Doug Hawkes and Wing Commander Cliff M. Black -- will talk about their time flying bombers over Germany, one of the most dangerous allied jobs of the war.

Crighton's relief in finding himself in a prison camp, rather than in a grave, helped him cope after being forced to bail out April 1941.

Aboard Wellington bombers, members of the 419 Squadron had all heard the rumour most men didn't survive ten missions, as they dropped bombs on Germany.

"It was terrifying to think, you'll be dead in ten flights," said Crighton, who trained in B.C.

Already on his eighth run, Crighton knew he was gambling against the odds -- but like many young men, he suppressed his fear by assuming the worst would only happen to someone else.

"Wars are fought by ignorant teenagers -- it has to be that way," said Crighton.

"When you're 20, you think, I'm too smart to get hurt."

The reality of only having enough training to take off and land the cumbersome aircraft became clear everytime flak exploded around the plane and searchlights lit up the sky.

"They sent us up in these old beat up bombers, completely unable and untrained in war -- all we knew how to do was take the plane off the ground and get it back it down."

On that fateful eighth flight, the Wellington's engines burst into flame, forcing the crew to bail.

Crighton managed to parachute to the ground, where he was picked up by German soldiers and sent to Stalag Luft III.

It was a lucky break -- the Germans used the camp as a model for Red Cross inspectors, and conditions there were much better than other POW camps.

Hence, a request for instruments and a stage soon had Crighton, a trained music teacher, conducting other POWs in the camp orchestra.

The Germans were happy that the prisoners were staying active.

"If we were busy playing music, we weren't busy digging tunnels," said Crighton.
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Kyt · Mar 24, 2009

In memory of the 50

Stalag Luft III

Kyt · Mar 25, 2009

Video

BBC NEWS | UK | Veteran POW on the 'Great Escape'

Kyt · Mar 28, 2009

Some great photos in the report

Veteran British POWs visit Stalag Luft III to mark the 65th anniversary of the REAL Great Escape | Mail Online

Kyt · Mar 28, 2009

And The Times have an article with links to their archives from 1944 and 1945

Times Archive Blog: Hollywood lies about WW2; do they matter?

Kyt · Apr 12, 2009

The Great Escape was on tellie again last night (and yep, I watched it for the umpteenth time ). I was also browsing the net and found an obit of one of the real Great Escapers whose experiences was used to create some of the composite characters in the film:

Wartime heroism: The real hero of the Great Escape - Profiles, People - The Independent

Tuesday, 28 March 2006

When Eric Foster, who died at the weekend at the age of 102, found himself in a German prisoner-of-war camp, he not only escaped but gave birth to a movie legend

Had it not been for the Second World War, Eric Foster's life story would have held little interest for Hollywood's film-makers. A trained doctor of trichology approaching early middle age, he spent his days curing the hair loss and scalp problems of the patients at his London clinic.

With the outbreak of hostilities, like many other single men, Dr Foster, 36, did the patriotic thing and volunteered for the Royal Air Force. During the following years, his life was to be transformed from one of respectable middle-class anonymity into a thunderous adventure story that was to provide one of the greatest actors of his generation with perhaps his most enduring screen role.

Mr Foster, who died at the age of 102 at the weekend, was the inspiration for Steve McQueen's character, Captain Virgil Hilts, otherwise known as the Cooler King, in John Sturges' classic 1963 wartime film The Great Escape. Mr Foster escaped no less than seven times from German prisoner-of-war camps. But, although his relentless thirst for liberty inspired the Hilts character, unlike the fictional American who was recaptured amid a hail of bullets as he attempted a motorbike jump to freedom over the Swiss border, the British airman eschewed two wheels.

He achieved his goal by faking what was referred to then as "madness". Mr Foster convinced the authorities at Stalag Luft III, a Luftwaffe-operated camp for downed Allied aircrews, that he had lost his mind and was transferred back to Britain. According to his closest friend, Mike Beresford, with whom he served on Bishop's Cleeve parish council in Gloucestershire for more than 25 years after the war, he replicated the symptoms of mental illness by studying medical textbooks in the Stalag's library.

On his return to Britain, he hit an unexpected problem. "He was very glad indeed to be back home," said Mr Beresford, who discovered his friend dead in the bath at his bungalow home in the Gloucestershire village on Sunday. "But what really upset him was the reception he received. He was immediately put in a lunatic asylum because of the diagnosis - by the German authorities - that he was mad!

"It was then up to him to prove that he was quite sane, which he did, convincing them he had only done this in order to escape." On his release, he was promoted to the rank of squadron-leader.

Mr Foster was a flight-lieutenant with 38 Bomber Squadron when he was shot down over occupied Europe on 14 June 1940. He was the only survivor from the eight-strong crew. As he baled out of the stricken aircraft, his parachute failed to open properly, and he suffered two broken legs in his fall. Captured by the Germans, he was taken eastwards to a camp on the Polish border at Homark.

It was a critical stage in the war. Paris had just fallen to the Nazis and the British Expeditionary Force had just completed its ignominious withdrawal from Dunkirk. Desperate to rejoin the war effort, Flight Lieutenant Foster staged his first crude escape bid. Despite still convalescing from the injuries sustained during his shooting down, he shinned down a fire escape but was soon recaptured. From there he was transferred to Spangenberg Castle, an Offizierslager, or officers' prison, east of Kessel, designated Oflag IXA/H. The castle had been housing prisoners since 1870 and was soon pressed into war service by the Nazis.

Despite its fairytale appearance - the medieval fortress was surrounded by a moat and boasted imposing ramparts and cobbled courtyards - conditions were harsh. Officers shared a long dormitory equipped with little more than a long oak table. They bedded down for the night on mattresses stuffed with straw.

Spangenberg was used as a staging post for inmates bound for Colditz, where many of them were shot. This time the escape effort was more sophisticated. Having managed to steal a uniform belonging to a member of the Hitler Youth, Mr Foster managed to bluff his way out of the castle and even to board a train bound for the Swiss border. There, his true identity was uncovered and after a dramatic chase, he was recaptured.

Mr Foster found himself back in the Oflag, this time at Schubin in Poland. The journey east was notoriously hard. Prisoners were crowded into railway trucks, with only bread and water to sustain them on journeys that could last several days. Dysentery was rife and conditions were appalling. Many British officers died in Schubin, which made escape a matter of survival as well as honour. The former hair specialist now found himself digging tunnels - a mammoth feat of labour which lasted eight months, only to end in failure when the complex system of burrowing was uncovered by German guards.

In 1942, the Germans opened Stalag Luft III to cope with the escalating number of Allied prisoners of war - a total of 200,000 were captured in occupied Europe during the conflict, nearly a fifth of whom died while in captivity. The Germans were convinced that their new camp would be escape-proof - especially from tunnelling.

Barracks were raised off the ground and the camp was sited on bright yellow, sandy subsoil that was easily detected on the clothes of diggers. In a final deterrent, seismographic microphones were placed around the perimeter fence to pick up the sound of any burrowing.

Stalag Luft III was to be the inspiration for The Great Escape, inmate Paul Brickhill's novel about life as a PoW. (Eric William's The Wooden Horse detailed another escape attempt and also spawned a classic film.) By 1943 up to 30 escape attempts had been made - all failures.

In what became known as the Great Escape, British PoWs made three tunnels - Tom, Dick and Harry - culminating in an escape hole which came out just short of the forest. After more than a year of preparation, on a moonless night in March 1944, 76 men made it through the tunnel. The 77th was shot as he emerged into the dawn by a German guard. Only three of the escapees made it to safety, the rest were recaptured.

Fifty were shot, the remaining 23 - on the orders of Himmler - were spared and sent to other camps. Mr Foster was not part of the ill-fated mass escape, concentrating his efforts on convincing the camp authorities that he was mentally unfit to be held. He chronicled his exploits in his autobiography Life Hangs by a Silken Thread, which was published in 1992. The book, now out of print, also tells the story of meetings with Churchill, the formation of his own flying school and the time he built his own plane inside a church crypt in Chelsea and flew it to Heston, west London.

Before 1939, the young trichologist had successfully scaled the Eiger before falling down a crevasse to lay undiscovered for a day after suffering several broken ribs. After the war he put his love of the mountains to good use. Following demobilisation, he met and married his French-born wife Mignonne in London. The newlyweds moved to the West Country, establishing a successful travel agency specialising in alpine holidays.

Mr Foster devoted his life to local politics, becoming chairman of the Bishop's Cleave parish council - a post he was to hold at the age of 100, making him the oldest elected politician in Britain. According to his friend, Mr Beresford, he regarded his greatest achievements as those while a councillor. He helped secure a playing field for the local youth and in 1956 secured the first village hall, a tithe barn being sold off by the Church.

In later years the couple, who had no children, moved to Almeria in Spain but Mignonne died of food poisoning in 1983. Mr Foster was devastated by her death and eventually returned to Britain in 1998, at the age of 95, driving himself all the way in his car. He returned to local politics, once again becoming parish chairman. He became ill late last year and was in and out of hospital after collapsing at his home in November.

The RAF yesterday paid tribute to their late hero. "We are deeply saddened by the loss of one of the many great RAF heroes who fought bravely against Nazi tyranny," said a spokesman. A Royal Air Force ensign, complete with the names of the crewmates who died when his plane was shot down in 1940, will be placed on his coffin at his funeral.

Until his death, he retained his sense of mischief. Mr Beresford recalls how he used his wartime ruse to tease people. "He was given a certificate by the War Office confirming he was not insane. He used to tell anyone who argued with him, 'I can prove I'm not mad - can you?'"
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Antipodean Andy · Apr 14, 2009

A heck of a survivor. RIP.

Eight crew seems a lot in a Wimpey but I guess we're talking the time of second pilots etc.

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POWs mark 'Great Escape' anniversary

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