Vyvyan Howard

From the BBC:

“Great Escape prisoner Vyvyan Howard, dies aged 102”

(Vyvyan Howard celebrated his 100th birthday in 2019)

A World War 2 pilot, who was a prisoner of war at the camp made famous by the film The Great Escape, has died aged 102. Captain Vyvyan Howard, from Banbury, was captured and held at the German Stalag Luft III camp after his plane was shot down in 1941. During that time, he aided attempts to dig tunnels under the perimeter fences. His family paid tribute to his "quiet wisdom" following his death at a nursing home in Banbury, Oxfordshire.

(Captain Howard had 36 years' service with the Royal Navy before his retirement)

Mr Howard joined the Royal Navy as a pilot shortly before the start of World War 2 and was shot down and captured in the ill-fated Kirkenes raid in the north of Norway. He spent two-and-a-half years at the Nazis' Stalag Luft III POW camp in Lower Silesia, now part of Poland. During that time, he helped in escape attempts immortalised in the films, The Wooden Horse and the Great Escape. In the wooden horse attempt, he and others continuously jumped over a vaulting horse which covered the trap door to an escape tunnel.

(This photograph shows the moment Vyvyan Howard and others were captured in 1941)

While not among those who made it clear of the camp during the 1944 Great Escape, he used his fluent German to engage the guards in conversation to distract them from covert digging of tunnels - codenamed Tom, Dick and Harry. In January 1945 the camp was marched westward in treacherous winter conditions in the so-called Long March, before being liberated by British forces at Lubeck in May.

Mr Howard later said he owed his life to advice from a Polish soldier who told him "don't ever take your boots off", to prevent his feet from swelling. After the war, he continued his career in the Fleet Air Arm after the war and was awarded the Distinguished Service Cross (DSC) for gallantry during the Suez Crisis. His knowledge of Polish, picked up in the POW camp, led him to become a naval translator and he eventually became the British Naval Attaché in Bonn, West Germany. Recalling his wartime experiences on his 100th birthday in 2019 he said: "It was bloody awful but you were in it and that was it - you couldn't just walk out of the door." His son, also called Vyvyan, said: "In common with a lot of people of that generation, a lot of the war experiences only came out later in life. "He had a quiet wisdom - family came first. He was a wonderful man," he added. A funeral service for Captain Howard is due to be held at Mollington Parish Church on 30 September.

The Great Escape Stalag Luft III opened in spring 1942, and held air forces personnel only. At its height it held 10,000 prisoners of war, covered 59 acres and had 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 were recaptured by the Germans within three days. Fifty were executed on Hitler's orders. Steve McQueen, James Garner and Richard Attenborough later stared in the film, The Great Escape, released in 1963

^ This is sad. I remember watching “The Great Escape” and liked it even more since I knew it was based on actual events. ^

https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-oxfordshire-62924112