by Barris, Ted
28. weary of inspecting the horse: Edward Patrick Nurse, The Last Glorious Flight of Halifax Bomber Lima Quebec Papa 741: A chronicle of the wartime experiences of Edward Patrick Nurse (unpublished manuscript, 2012, with permission), p. 48.
29. “heavens beyond the wire”: Williams, p. 122.
30. had been killed in action: Ian Crofton, Great Escapes (Quercus, London, UK, 2009), p.145.
chapter five: servant to a hole in the ground
1. Eastern Townships of Quebec: Betty Sorensen, family wartime letters transcription, 1939, courtesy of Vicki Sorensen.
2. “Roskilde boys”: Frank Sorensen address to Denmark via BBC Radio Free Europe, October 15, 1942, courtesy of Vicki Sorensen.
3. “driven out of Denmark”: Ibid.
4. thirteen operational sorties: Mikkel Plannthin, “Fra Roskilde Katedral Til Stalag Luft III—Og Den Store Flugt”/“From Roskilde Cathedral School to Stalag Luft III—and the Great Escape,” published in Flyvehistorisk Tidsskrift/Journal of Aviation History, Dansk Flyvehistorisk Forening/Danish Aviation Historical Society, Forening, December 2011.
5. “Bay of Tunis”: Frank Sorensen letter to brother Eric Sorensen, July 23, 1945, courtesy of Vicki Sorensen.
6. “home on the deck”: Ibid.
7. “Hands up”: Ibid.
8. “is reported missing”: letter to Mrs. M. B. Sorensen, from F/L W. R. Gunn, RCAF Casualties Officer, Department of National Defence, Ottawa, April 17, 1943, courtesy of Vicki Sorensen.
9. “a prisoner of war”: letter to Mr. M. B. Sorensen, from S/L A. B. Matthews, Air Officer Commanding-in-Chief, RCAF Overseas, London, May 11, 1943, courtesy of Vicki Sorensen.
10. “one of them”: Frank Sorensen letter to parents, April 19, 1943, courtesy of Vicki Sorensen.
11. “’round the perimeter”: Frank Sorensen letter to parents, May 8, 1943, courtesy of Vicki Sorensen.
12. “taught a horse”: Frank Sorensen letter to parents, July 21, 1944, courtesy of Vicki Sorensen.
13. “thesaurus dictionary”: Frank Sorensen letter to parents, May 18, 1943, courtesy of Vicki Sorensen.
14. insurance company: Vance, p. 172.
15. advance his studies: Linda Tweddell, correspondence with Vicki Sorensen, February 13, 2012.
16. in political science: George Sweanor, interview Colorado Springs, Colorado, July 6, 2011.
17. westerns and biographies: Durand, p. 227.
18. “studying it though”: Frank Sorensen letter to parents, August 11, 1943, courtesy of Vicki Sorensen.
19. “wood for shoring”: Floody interview, 1970.
20. rusty gas cans: Brickhill, The Great Escape, p. 57.
21. “tunnel as it was dug”: Bob Nelson, “Tom, Dick and Harry of Stalag Luft III” (unpublished manuscript, 1948, with permission).
22. from the Germans: Vance, p. 125.
23. “thirty feet underground”: Bob Nelson monologue on Great Escape, recorded by family, 1987.
24. “a bit more cautious”: Floody interview, 1970.
25. “trouser bags”: Peter Fanshawe quoted in Brickhill, The Great Escape, p. 52.
26. hole in the ground: Brickhill, The Great Escape, p. 56.
27. “repairs themselves”: Harold Johnstone, preface to unpublished diary of John Colwell, 2001, with permission, p. 2.
28. “jump at 11 p.m.”: John Colwell, unpublished diary, April 3, 1943, with permission.
29. “Room 14, Block 120”: Ibid., April 17, 1943.
30. “they lost”: Ibid., June 17, 1943.
31. “hair all cut off”: Ibid., June 20, 1943.
32. “as a penguin”: Ibid., June 22, 1943.
33. “what was going on”: John Colwell, quoted in Lynn Welburn, “A witness to the Great Escape,” Harbour City Star, May 17, 2001.
34. “deaden the sound”: King interview, 2011.
35. “a matter of minutes”: John Weir, quoted in “The Making of the Great Escape,” Prometheus Entertainment, 2007.
36. “with us separated”: John Weir letter to Frances McCormack, April 30, 1943, with permission.
37. any excess wiring: Brickhill, The Great Escape, p. 94.
38. “South Compound is ready”: Alan Burgess, The Longest Tunnel: The True Story of World War II’s Great Escape (Grove Weidenfeld, New York, 1990), p. 45.
39. “suspicions were aroused”: Nelson, unpublished manuscript, 1948.
40. “very imperceptible”: Nelson monologue, 1987.
41. “British are coming”: George Sweanor, notes on “The Great Escape—24 March 1944,” with permission.
42. “huts with a band”: Colwell diary, July 1, 1943, with permission.
43. “1 and 4 a.m.”: Ibid., July 13, 1943.
44. “in turn and searched”: Ibid., July 15, 1943.
45. “barbed wire used”: Ibid., July 24, 1943.
46. “know fuck all”: Brickhill, The Great Escape, records the exchange with the expletive “damn,” p. 106; several kriegies, including Pengelly, Wallace, and Sweanor, report Pieber used the word “fuck,” making the exchange all the more ridiculous.
47. “in Hut 101”: Colwell diary, August 21, 1943.
48. “my soldering outfit”: Ibid., August 31. 1943.
49. “to inspect it”: Nelson, 1948.
50. “late Tom’s trap”: Ibid.
51. “with the appendix”: Frank Sorensen, quoted in Plannthin.
52. “the winter after this”: Frank Sorensen, letter to family, September 17, 1943, courtesy of Vicki Sorensen.
chapter six: “shysters and crooks and con men”
1. “an only child”: Joan Sweanor interview, Colorado Springs, Colorado, July 5, 2011.
2. “Who Wants War”: George Sweanor interview, July 5–7, 2011.
3. “could walk her home”: George Sweanor, correspondence, February 6, 2013.
4. “looks, poise, and figure”: Sweanor, It’s All Pensionable Time: 25 Years in the Royal Canadian Air Force (self-published, 1967, with permission), p. 36.
5. “life is so temporary”: Ibid.
6. “the office at eight”: Joan Sweanor interview, 2011.
7. “letter for me”: Arthur Morlidge, quoted in George Sweanor, p. 58.
8. “delightfully foul weather”: Ibid., p. 75.
9. “only military targets”: Ibid., p. 103.
10. “get out of here”: George Sweanor interview, 2011.
11. “last ticket home”: Ibid.
12. “not coming home”: Joan Sweanor interview, 2011.
13. “E for Edward”: Sweanor, It’s All Pensionable Time, p. 120.
14. “nerves could relax”: George Sweanor, notes on “The Great Escape—24 March 1944,” with permission.
15. German-English dictionary: Ibid., p. 107.
16. “years of our wives”: Shag Rees, quoted by George Sweanor in It’s All Pensionable Time, p. 121.
17. “worthy of his sacrifice”: Sweanor, p. 112.
18. “mark me down”: Hermann Glemnitz, quoted by George Sweanor in It’s All Pensionable Time, p. 133.
19. “the workman’s tools”: Nelson.
20. inside tunnel Harry: Brickhill, The Great Escape, p. 135.
21. “Luftwaffe ferrets”: Nelson.
22. “by the prisoners”: von Lindeiner, reference in “Sagan,” Royal Air Force Special Investigation Branch report, Report No: WCIU/LDC/1460, JAG Ref: MD/JAG/FS/22/2(2a) War Crimes Interrogation Unit, London, December 1946, p. 17.
23. “impression in the camp”: Ibid., p. 17.
24. “very severe penalties”: von Lindeiner, quoted by John E. (Willy) Williams in Ibid., p. 21.
25. appropriate documentation: Durand, p. 291.
26. Group of Seven: Ken MacQueen, “A Brutal March: Wartime diaries record a trek of 10,000 POWs,” Maclean’s, January 13, 2003, p. 48.
27. “and I did”: Robert Buckham, quoted in Ibid.
28. the library Bibles: Durand, p. 291.
29. “morning to night”: Frank Sorensen, letter home, June 26
, 1943, courtesy of Vicki Sorensen.
30. “an empty belly”: Robert Buckham, diary excerpt quoted in Op cit.
31. the violin case: Brickhill, The Great Escape, p. 122.
32. “some coffee home”: Pengelly, “X for Escape.”
33. “he believed necessary”: Ibid.
34. “than in a prison camp”: Don MacDonald, quoted in Dancocks, p. 112.
35. “orders I don’t like”: Sweanor, p. 142.
36. panel for stage lighting: H. P. Clark, Wire Bound World (self-published, 1946), p. 13.
37. “announcing the play”: Don Edy interview, London, Ontario, March 6, 2012.
38. Mena House resort hotel: Don Edy, Goon in the Block (self-published, 1948, with permission), p. 52.
39. garter snake in its place: Ibid., p. 14–15.
40. “Padula boys, Hey, Hey.”: Ibid., p. 95.
41. “an immediate depression”: Ibid., p. 57.
42. “got to him first”: Ibid., p. 130.
43. a coffee percolator: Ibid., p. 140.
44. “to see the shows”: Ibid., p. 136
45. recorded for posterity: George McKiel, quoted in Doug Pricer, “Survivor of the Great Escape,” Military History, May 2005, p. 30.
46. “out of kriegieland”: Sweanor, It’s All Pensionable Time, p. 141.
47. grease-paint makeup: Durand, p. 243.
48. “create feminine characters”: Edy, Op cit., p. 161.
49. “people doing everything”: King interview, 2011.
50. “walk and talk like a woman”: McKiel, quoted in Pricer, p. 30.
51. “Second World War in drag”: Rick Cluff interview, Vancouver, B.C., May 25, 2012.
52. Red Cross parcels: Durand, p. 77.
53. “organization could use”: Pengelly, “X for Escape.”
54. “along the same route”: Ibid.
chapter seven: the play’s the thing
1. “couple of years ago”: Art Ross, quoted in Brian McFarlane, Stanley Cup Fever: 100 Years of Hockey Greatness (Toronto, Stoddart, 1992), p. 97.
2. men left to play: Kenesaw Mountain Landis, quoted in Time Capsule (Time-Life, 1943), p. 138.
3. “their team over”: Art Hawtin interview, Beaverton, Ontario, January 8, 2011.
4. “landed safely”: Ibid.
5. married men against bachelors: John E. Dreifort, “Anything but Ordinary: POW Sports in a Barbed Wire World,” Journal of Sport History, Vol. 34, No. 3, Fall 2007, p. 420.
6. “struck out sixteen batters”: Hawtin interview, 2011.
7. “fourteen to one”: Ibid.
8. “let them hit, Bill”: Harold Garland, quoted in Dancock, p. 101.
9. leather boot enthusiastically: Durand, p. 248.
10. “panes are broken”: Art Hawtin, “Grandpa’s Wartime Album: Memories Surrounding the Great Escape” (unpublished diary prepared by Janet Hawtin, with permission).
11. “shot him dead”: Phil Marchildon with Brian Kendall, Ace Phil Marchildon, Canada’s Pitching Sensation and Wartime Hero (New York, Viking, 1993), p. 138.
12. “over the wire”: Frank Sorensen, letter home, June 15, 1944, courtesy of Vicki Sorensen.
13. author Kaj Munk: family letter to Frank Sorensen, March 10, 1944, courtesy of Vicki Sorensen.
14. “the Tin Man”: Hawtin interview, 2011.
15. “a master tinker”: Ibid.
16. “two fire bricks”: John Colwell diary diagrams, September 26, 1944, with permission.
17. “and cooking utensils”: card contained in John Colwell’s diary, with permission.
18. “in Stalag Luft III”: Brickhill, The Great Escape, p. 129.
19. “itching to be home”: John Weir, letter to Frances McCormack, October 31, 1943, with permission.
20. “a friendless room”: Albert Wallace, correspondence, March 15, 2013.
21. “didn’t realize”: Albert Wallace, interview, Toronto, January 5, 2011.
22. “extremely security conscious”: Ibid.
23. “our new chimney”: Ibid.
24. “Your brother, Wally”: Wally Floody, postcard to Catherine Floody, January 26, 1944, with permission.
25. “before roll call”: Hawtin diary.
26. “and out went the sand”: Wallace interview, 2011.
27. theatre’s crawl space: Harold Johnstone, “More Memories of Stalag III Days,” additional notes to John Colwell’s diary, 2001, with permission.
28. “twelve tons of sand”: Pengelly, “X for Escape.”
29. “a severe shock”: Hartnell-Beavis, p. 36.
30. disappear in seconds: Brickhill, The Great Escape, p. 140.
31. “all kinds of weather”: John R. Harris, Serving and Surviving: An Airman’s Memoirs, self-published, 2004, with permission, p. 117.
32. “Germans blitzing England”: John R. Harris, interview, London, Ontario, March 6, 2012.
33. “out of the kite”: Harris, Serving and Surviving, p. 71.
34. RCAF Blues tunic: John Crozier, memoir in Aircrew Memories: The Collected World War II and later memories of members of the Aircrew Association, Vancouver Island Branch, Victoria, B.C. (Victoria Publishing Co., 1999), p. 88.
35. “where he’d come from”: Harris interview, March 6, 2012.
36. “and he apologized”: Ibid.
37. “I was shot down”: Ibid.
38. bottoms of their boots: Dreifort, p. 425.
39. “a lot of work”: Davidson.
40. sticks simply ran out: Dreifort, p. 426.
41. him and his crew: Vance, p. 47.
42. “sooner than expected”: George Wiley, quoted in Vance, p. 210.
43. “before he got back”: Floody interview, 1989.
44. camp at Belaria: Sweanor, p. 156.
45. “a tunnel digger”: Floody interview, 1989.
46. gassed or shot: “Sagan,” Royal Air Force Special Investigation Branch report, Report No: WCIU/LDC/1460, JAG Ref: MD/JAG/FS/22/2(2a) War Crimes Interrogation Unit, London, December 1946, p. 67.
47. and 69 lamps: Johnstone.
48. and Tony Pengelly: H. P. Clark, Wire Bound World, self-published, 1946, p. 32.
49. “in it, or who”: Pengelly, “X for Escape.”
50. about two hundred: Alan Burgess, The Longest Tunnel: The True Story of World War II’s Great Escape (Grove Weidenfeld, New York, 1990), p. 124.
51. “number ninety-three”: Pengelly, “X for Escape.”
chapter eight: “through adversity to the stars”
1. “prisoner of war”: Pengelly, “X for Escape.”
2. “chance at freedom”: Ibid.
3. a sure thing either: Sweanor, It’s All Pensionable Time, pp.156–57.
4. “name was not drawn”: Sweanor interview, July 5–7, 2011.
5. into the tunnel: Jacek Jakubiak, names and escape numbers are published in Guide to the Site of the Former POW Camps in Zagan (Museum of Allied Forces Prisoners of War Martyrdom, Zagan, Poland, 2008) pp. 42–43.
6. though not fatally: Brickhill, The Great Escape, p. 133 (the Canadian’s name was Probert).
7. the other at Luft III: Barry Davidson, A Wartime Log: A Remembrance from Home Through the Canadian YMCA, unpublished, with permission of Barry Davidson Jr.
8. “miracle to get back”: Wallace interview, 2011.
9. “time go any faster”: Frank Sorensen, letter to parents, March 20, 1944, courtesy of Vicki Sorensen.
10. through the tunnel: Vicki Sorensen, Frank’s daughter, has searched for his exact number on the escape list and has anecdotal information to support that he drew a number in the high teens, but forfeited the spot to either James Catanach or Arnold Christensen.
11. Fugelsang and stay behind: Margaret Davidson, interview Victoria, BC, August 13, 2012.
12. “and not go out”: Davidson.
13. “how do I look”: Bob van der Stok, quoted in King interview, 2011.
14. Wiley’s final wish: Vance, p. 214.
15. “the set of maps”: Harris interview
, 2012.
16. “just waiting my turn”: King interview, 2011.
17. to the next three: Brickhill, The Great Escape, p. 185.
18. “rope to shelter”: Ibid., p.179.
19. station and boarding platforms: Mirek Walczak, guide, Museum of Allied Forces Prisoners of War Martyrdom, Zagan, Poland, June 22, 2011.
20. “sand that fell in”: Nelson monologue, 1987.
21. “cold and frosty”: Keith Ogilvie, quoted in Dancocks, p. 130.
22. “when it all ended”: Mac Reilley, “Another Perspective of the Great Escape from Luft III,” The Kriegie Eagle newsletter, January 1995, the National Air Force Museum, CFB Trenton.
23. bed and listened: Edy, p. 158–59.
24. food in his pockets: Sweanor interview, July 5–7, 2011.
25. soon stopped: Sweanor, p. 161.
26. “shot doing it”: King interview, 2011.
27. “Sax’s bum blocking the way”: Rees, Ken, “Stalag Luft 3—The Great Escape: The Wartime Experiences of Wg. Cdr. H.K. Rees,” at Rob Davis website, www.elsham.pwp.blueyonder.co.uk
28. “half the camp down”: Harris, Serving and Surviving, p. 119.
29. “get rid of the lot of you”: Friedrich von Lindeiner, quoted in Sweanor, p. 161.
30. “burn the maps”: Harris, p. 120.
31. “Johnny or me again”: Ibid., p. 120.
32. “provoke them further”: Edy, p. 159.
33. “done that to him”: Hans Pieber, quoted in Sweanor, p. 162.
34. some 70,000 Germans: Thomas Fleming, “The Great Escape,” Boy’s Life, March 1997, p. 46.
35. “broomstick for a cane”: Gordon Venables, from interview by (granddaughter) Katie Bendell, c. 1990, with permission.
36. entry shaft to Harry: Sweanor, p. 162.
chapter nine: the hate campaign
1. run in another direction: Darling, Ian, Amazing Airmen: Canadian Flyers in the Second World War (Dundurn, Toronto, 2009), p. 30.
2. “bloody miserable”: Keith Ogilvie, quoted in Dancocks, p. 133.
3. in his pockets: Darling, p. 31.
4. and pressed on: Vance, p. 240.
5. “whilst trying to escape”: Kriminal Kommissar Peter Mohr, quoted in “Sagan,” Royal Air Force Special Investigation Branch report, Report No: WCIU/LDC/1460, JAG Ref: MD/JAG/FS/22/2(2a), War Crimes Interrogation Unit, London, December 1946, Appendix ‘C’ p. 57.
