Page 34 - issue08.03.2019

Royal Air Force News Friday, March 8, 2019 P26

Obituary

Dick Churchill: The

last Great Escaper

QUADRON LEADER
Dick Churchill was the
last survivor of the Great
SEscape that saw 76 men
abscond from Stalag Luft III.
Three men successfully evaded
capture and returned to England
but the Gestapo murdered 50 of
those captured.
Churchill joined the RAF in 1938
on a short-service commission and
trained as a pilot before joining 144
Squadron to fly Hampden bombers
from Hemswell. He flew his first
operation on September 26, 1939,
when he joined a force searching
for shipping in the North Sea. Three
days later his formation attacked
two destroyers near Heligoland but
half the bombers were lost.
During the so-called ‘Phoney
War’ he dropped propaganda
leaflets over Germany and, after
the German invasion of the Low
Countries and France on May 10,
1940, bombing operations over ABOVE: A They were taken to Sagan and then added RAF uniforms to the
Germany began. plan for the locked up with other recaptured portraits so they could be sent home
On the night of September 2-3 Great Escape escapees in the police station. as ‘POWs’ artistic efforts’. This
Churchill took off to bomb the Eventually there were 19 of would prove helpful after the war
oil installations at Ludswigshafen. LEFT: Sqn Ldr them. At midnight they were taken when the RAF Special Investigation
It was his 26th operation. Near Dick Churchill by car to Görlitz, which had the Branch began tracking down the
Maastricht, a night fighter shot always biggest jail in the immediate area killers.
down his aircraft killing two of his wondered if and where those captured near
his famous
crew. In the explosion following the name saved Sagan were being concentrated. ith the return of the survivors
attack, Churchill suffered damage him from There were soon more that 30. Next Wto Stalag Luft III, all escaping
to one of his eardrums before he execution at day they were taken away one by activities were halted. As the Soviet
baled out. He never recovered the the hands of one for Gestapo interrogation, and Army advanced from the east, the
the Gestapo
hearing in that ear. After a brief then put in different cells. camp was emptied at a few hours
period of freedom, he was captured on forging passes, making disguises fat-lamps were placed at intervals. When Churchill’s turn came he notice in late January 1945 and
and started his long period of and manufacturing compasses. Churchill’s disguise consisted noticed “a menacing air in the way the PoWs were forced to march
internment. Churchill was part of the digging of a cut-down and dyed RAF the questions were put.” He was westwards in one of the harshest
He was sent to Stalag Luft I at team – he called himself ‘chief greatcoat, RAF trousers, flying not directly threatened, but he was winters on record. The British First
Barth on the Baltic coast. He lost rabbit’ – and once had to be hauled boots and an extraordinary hat made to understand that “things Army liberated them near Lubeck
no time in joining the nucleus of out after the earth roof collapsed. he had made from the sheepskin were very serious.” Churchill was on May 2 and over the next two
persistent escapers and became On another occasion he was inner lining of another pair of asked, as he had been so many times weeks they were flown back to
involved in numerous bids, dragged out unconscious. flying boots and turned inside out during his captivity, “What is your England.
including a few tunnel projects. Tunnel Harry was finished on – “a sort of Astrakahn-Cossack relationship to Winston Churchill?” Churchill wanted to remain
March 14, when it was decided that style hat”. He and his partner, Flt He replied that he was not required in the RAF but the loss of his
n April 1942 Churchill and his only 200 of the 600 who had worked Lt Bob Nelson, had a good amount to give any information other than hearing in one ear prevented him
Iescape-minded colleagues were on the escape project would be able of food, especially escape ‘fudge’, name, rank and number. Rather to from flying. He served at HQ
transferred to Stalag Luft III, the to get out on the night. The first 30 a concentrated brick-like cake his surprise, they did not press the Transport Command in the air
Luftwaffe’s showcase camp for air out were hand-picked by the escape invented in the camp by a nutrition point. However, Churchill always plans department and left the RAF
force officers and NCOs at Sagan, committee – and consisted of expert, designed to keep them wondered if his name had saved in June 1946.
a town in German-occupied almost all that group and the heads going for about two weeks. him since the head of the Nazi In 1963 he attended the premier
Poland about 120 miles south-east of the various activity departments. When at last Churchill and Criminal Police, Arthur Nebe, who of the film The Great Escape.
of Berlin. By March 1944 it had Nelson’s turn came there was was responsible for the selection He had some reservations and
developed into a large complex of n the night of March 24 the another roof-fall and they had to of the 50 prisoners to be executed commented to the producer, “It
five compounds holding almost Oescapers gathered in Block wait at the mouth of the tunnel on the orders of Hitler, had been was a great film, but it was a long
5,000 prisoners. About 1,500 104 and waited for the tunnel while it was cleared up. They finally ordered to spare any that might be way from the truth”, to which the
occupied the North Compound engineers to break open Harry’s got clear and ran to the nearby wood of further use to the Nazis. producer answered, “Well, that’s the
where the escape committee, under exit. But from that moment on the and set off with snow on the ground film world”.
Squadron Leader Roger Bushell, escape went badly awry. The tunnel and in sub-zero temperatures inally, on April 6, Churchill, Many years later, when
a South African fighter pilot, broke out just short of the woods, heading for Czechoslovakia. FNelson and six others were asked about his experiences, he
and known as ‘Big X’, had been which would have given cover, and Their progress was very slow returned to Stalag Luft III. There, commented, “I’d rather not dwell
preparing for a mass escape since there were blockages in the tunnel and after two days they took refuge Churchill wrote a list of those who on what happened nearly 60 years
April 1943. This involved digging causing considerable delays. in a hayloft. The escape of 76 men had been in Görlitz, along with the ago. I would rather concentrate on
three tunnels, known as Tom, Dick The exodus did not get under had created a massive manhunt. dates they were removed. When it what my five grandchildren are
and Harry. way until 10.30pm – 90 minutes Farmers in the area around Sagan was announced that a large number going to do with their lives.”
Tunnel Tom was discovered in later than planned. Only 20 had had been ordered to search their of the recaptured escapees had Dick Churchill died on February
September 1943. Dick, no longer made their getaway by midnight barns and empty them of hay. On been “shot while resisting arrest 13 aged 99.
tenable as a tunnel, was used to when the entire area between Sagan the third morning, Churchill and or attempting further escape after
store escape equipment – and and Berlin was blacked out owing to Nelson were discovered and taken arrest”, the survivors described and n Win tickets to a live screening
sand from Harry. In the meantime an RAF bombing raid. The tunnel captive. They were only 12 miles drew the Gestapo men at Sagan and of The Great Escape gala event.
escape activity departments carried was without light until home-made from the camp. Görlitz for the camp artists, who See RnR p4.