A Scot who is believed to be the last survivor of the "Great Escape" from a German prisoner of war camp has died, at the age of 97.
The mass escape from Stalag Luft III was an astonishing achievement, the tragic consequences of which could not have been foreseen by those who undertook it. The ingenuity and resourcefulness of the Allied PoWs involved still stand as a lesson to us all.
If all you know of it comes from that film with Steve McQueen on a motor bicycle (a scene which never happened in reality), I exhort you to find out more, whether from PoW Paul Brickhill's book (on which the film is based to the extent that Hollywood would allow it to be) or from one of the other books on the subject that have since been published.
Ave atque vale to Jack Harrison and his comrades.
The mass escape from Stalag Luft III was an astonishing achievement, the tragic consequences of which could not have been foreseen by those who undertook it. The ingenuity and resourcefulness of the Allied PoWs involved still stand as a lesson to us all.
If all you know of it comes from that film with Steve McQueen on a motor bicycle (a scene which never happened in reality), I exhort you to find out more, whether from PoW Paul Brickhill's book (on which the film is based to the extent that Hollywood would allow it to be) or from one of the other books on the subject that have since been published.
Ave atque vale to Jack Harrison and his comrades.
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