by Barris, Ted
6. “linguist”: Hugh A. Halliday, “Flyboys in the Great Escape,” Legion magazine, July 1, 2007.
7. “from the Dominions”: Ibid., p.19.
8. “my duty to escape”: Ogilvie, quoted in Dancocks, p. 134.
9. “will not be so lucky”: transcripts entitled “Testimonies of Prisoners of War who escaped on March 25th from Stalag Luft III,” courtesy Don Young.
10. “back to your camp”: Ibid.
11. “morning you’ll go”: Ogilvie, quoted in Dancocks, p. 134.
12. “interested in that”: Wilhelm Scharpwinkel, quoted in “Sagan,” Royal Air Force Special Investigation Branch report, Report No: WCIU/LDC/1327(a), JAG Ref: MD/JAG/FS/22/2(2a) War Crimes Interrogation Unit, London, December 1946, p. 1.
13. “will happen to them”: Richard Max Hänsel, quoting Scharpwinkel, in “Sagan,” Royal Air Force Special Investigation Branch report, Report No: WCIU/LDC/1221, JAG Ref: MD/JAG/FS/22/2(2a) War Crimes Interrogation Unit, London, December 1946, p. 2.
14. “attempted to escape”: Ibid., p. 2.
15. “attempt an escape”: Ibid., p.3.
16. Porokoru Patapu: Allen Andrews, Exemplary Justice (Harrap & Co., London, 1976), p.49.
17. “around the countryside”: Friedrich Kiowsky, quoted in Ibid., Report No: WCIU/LDC/1450 MFC/GEP, JAG Ref: MD/JAG/FS/22(2a), p. 2.
18. “back of [Kirby-Green’s] head”: Erich Zacharias, quoted in Ibid., Report No: WCIU/LDC/1133(a) MFC/LH, JAG Ref: MD/JAG/FS/22/2(2a), p. 2.
19. “made the attempt”: Kiowsky quoted in Op cit.
20. “to shoot you”: 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.
21. “number of sub-humans”: Johannes Post, quoted in Allen Andrews, Exemplary Justice, p. 10.
22. “the SBO’s words”: Sweanor, It’s All Pensionable Time, p. 163.
23. “they could re-escape”: Keith Ogilvie, quoted in Dancocks, p. 135.
24. “to exemplary justice”: Anthony Eden, in House of Commons Hansard, May 19 and June 23, 1944, quoted in Andrews, p. 211–13.
25. “a deliberate massacre”: Sweanor, p. 166.
26. “families after the war”: Sweanor, p. 167.
27. “we sang it and felt better”: Pengelly, “X for Escape.”
28. “one red and one black”: Edy interview, 2012.
29. “ring drawing ever tighter”: Pengelly, “X for Escape.”
30. “they shoot each day”: Sweanor, p. 172.
31. “the approaching Russians”: Harsh, p. 177.
32. “The Handbook of Modern Irregular Warfare”: poster quoted in Sweanor,
p. 174.
33. “the United States of America”: poster quoted in Sweanor, p. 175.
34. “one man volunteered”: Sweanor, p. 173.
35. “leaving weapons behind”: George Sweanor interview, 2011.
chapter ten: long road home
1. “out into the woods”: Crighton interview, 2012.
2. “quite an impressive service”: Wally Floody, letter to his wife, Betty Floody, December 6, 1944, with permission.
3. “we’re officers”: Crighton interview, 2012.
4. “it will be soon now”: John Weir, letter to Frances McCormack, December 5, 1944, with permission.
5. “this letter home to you”: Ibid., June 28, 1944.
6. “the occasional circuit”: Op cit., December 5, 1944.
7. “eyes betray his hunger”: Robert Buckham, Forced March to Freedom (Canada’s Wings Inc., 1984), p. 10.
8. “becomes a reality”: Ibid., p. 12.
9. “everyone is sewing”: John Colwell, unpublished diary, January 25, 1945, with permission.
10. The Wind and the Rain: Harris, p. 127.
11. “for us now,”: conversation recorded in Edy, p. 166.
12. he was ready to go: Colwell.
13. Hut 104 caught fire: Durand, p. 328.
14. 2.5 million cigarettes: Ibid., p. 329.
15. “from inside the camp”: Buckham, p. 18.
16. “a great instrument”: Crighton interview, 2012.
17. “wire fences and Goon boxes”: Colwell.
18. “many fine human beings”: Sweanor, p. 180.
19. “and keep moving”: Bartlett, quoted in Soward, p. 136.
20. same doomed Halifax bomber: Nurse, p. 31.
21. “appreciate their solicitude”: Brown, p. 195.
22. his jacket with newspapers: Hehner, p. 99.
23. “beef we were wolfing”: Harsh, p. 214.
24. “souvenir of my prison years”: Brown, p. 196.
25. “I think the cost was worth it”: Floody interview, 1970.
26. “truly Götterdämmerung”: Harsh, p. 216.
27. over twenty miles of road: Stuart Gardner Hunt, Stuart Gardner, Twice Surreal: A Memoir of World War II and Korea (self published, 2005), p. 123 (author reports the column as 20 miles long).
28. safety in numbers and better identification: Durand, p. 330.
29. “wave your arms”: John Weir, quoted in Crighton interview, 2012.
30. “on my straw bed”: Crighton, p. 19.
31. “when I promptly fainted”: Harris, p. 133.
32. “endurance was our only resource”: Buckham, p. 37.
33. “I want my mother”: officer quoted in Brown, p. 208.
34. “own personal miseries”: Harsh, p. 219.
35. “loaded with bread”: Brown, quoted in Harsh, p. 220.
36. “to the wind and rain”: Buckham, p. 40.
37. water pail and stew pot: Colwell, diary, February 5–6, 1945, with permission.
38. “powdered milk was gone”: Edy, p. 173.
39. “take first prize in density”: Buckham, p. 43.
40. “directly over the camp”: Edy, p. 177.
41. “where the armistice is”: Colwell, diary, March 21, 1945, with permission.
42. “R.A.F. and P.O.W.”: Ibid., April 9, 1945.
43. “sides of our boxcars”: Sweanor, p. 195.
44. “see our Red Crosses”: USAAF pilot, quoted in Sweanor, p. 196.
45. “Yanks for the ventilation”: Sweanor, p. 196.
46. twenty-nine kriegies: Hugh Halliday, correspondence, November 2007, with permission.
47. May 8, 1945: Sweanor, footnote p. 134.
48. “it was the end”: Colwell, diary, April 21, 1945, with permission.
49. “arrived at noon. FREE!”: Colwell, diary, May 2, 1945, with permission.
50. “Santa Claus parade”: Edy, p. 184.
51. “yelling and crying kriegies”: Frank Sorensen letter to family, May 15, 1945, courtesy of Vicki Sorensen.
52. “It continued for minutes”: Buckham, p. 92.
53. generally weakened state: Floody, journal February 8, 1945, quoted in Hehner, p. 104.
54. US Army had liberated: Harsh, p. 221.
55. “By God, we made it”: Ibid., p. 222.
56. “we were totally contaminated”: Pengelly, quoted in Dancocks, p. 207.
57. “most absurd scene”: Ibid., p. 209.
58. best friend Pat Porter: Sweanor, p. 200.
59. “and rather childish”: Edy, p. 186.
60. summer of 1943: Hawtin, unpublished diary prepared by Janet Hawtin, with permission.
61. “Sunday dinner until Thursday”: Peter Larlee, quoted in “Son recalls his father’s fight for freedom,” Vancouver Sun, c. 1995.
62. “war had never happened”: Marchildon, p. 152.
63. “their duty twice over”: quoted in documentary The Great Escape: The Canadian Story, 2004, courtesy of producer Don Young.
chapter eleven: “a proud, spectacular distraction”
1. “freedom in a hurry”: Philip Gray, Ghosts of Targets Past: The Lives and Losses of a Lancaster Crew in 1944–45 (MPG Books, England, 2005), p. 166.
2. “I was thunderstruck”: Ibid., p. 167.
3.
“never be told in full”: Ibid., p. 168.
4. “a little blurred”: Brown, p. 262.
5. RAF Sunderland flying boat: Vern White, “The Sunderland Caper,” RCAF 427 Squadron Association website, 2007.
6. “and this proves it”: Kingsley Brown, quoted in correspondence from Ethel (Brown) Alle, Barrie, Ontario, March 19, 2013.
7. “an encyclopedia”: Ibid.
8. “a birthday kiss”: John Weir, letter to Frances McCormack, January 21, 1945, with permission.
9. “two in the morning”: Frances Weir (née McCormack) interview, June 19, 2012, Toronto.
10. “love is blind”: Ibid.
11. “did you bounce”: McKim interview, 2011.
12. “air force like I was”: Ibid.
13. “in fours and sixes”: transcripts entitled “Testimonies of Prisoners of War who escaped on March 25th from Stalag Luft III,” courtesy of Don Young.
14. “exemplary justice”: Anthony Eden, House of Commons, Hansard, May 19 and June 23, 1944, quoted in Allen Andrews, Exemplary Justice (George H. Harrap, London, 1976), p. 211–13.
15. “courage and devotion to duty”: Member of the British Empire citation, October 1946.
16. “see their faces”: Wally Floody, quoted by Ron Lowman, “Airmen still see the faces of comrades slain by Nazis,” Toronto Star, March 25, 1984.
17. “terrible nightmares last night”: Hehner, p. 122.
18. “about the tunnels”: Wally Floody, quoted in Arthur Moses, “Prisoners and guard from Stalag Luft III reminisce about war and the Great Escape,” Globe and Mail, August 1970.
19. “degrading their manpower”: George Sweanor interview, July 5–7, 2011.
20. “my alma mater”: Ibid.
21. “in every culture”: George Sweanor, “Bomber Command, 1939–1945,” 971 Air Marshal Slemon Wing, RCAF Association Newsletter, November 2011.
22. “the war in jail”: Nick Dumonceaux, quoted in email correspondence with his mother, Anne Dumonceaux, Port McNeill, BC, September 12, 2012.
23. “as we all grew up”: Stephen Sorensen, interview, Howe Island, Ontario, August 13, 2011.
24. “why did you stay”: Vicki Sorensen, interview, Howe Island, Ontario, August 13, 2011.
25. “when I was a teen”: Glenn Sorensen, interview, Howe Island, Ontario, August 13, 2011.
26. “a visual perspective”: Barbara Edy, correspondence from Calgary, Alberta, April 6, 2013.
27. “Germany’s war effort”: Ibid.
28. “organize to be successful”: Pengelly, “X for Escape.”
29. “bravery, spirit, and talent”: Op cit.
30. “these wonderful machines”: David Pengelly, interview, Dundas, Ontario, June 19, 2012.
31. “do you have a little more”: Ibid.
32. “watched it all the time”: Chris Pengelly, interview, Milford, Ontario, May 8, 2011.
Photograph Credits
* * *
first section
page
1. Whitley interior and barracks room, Tony Pengelly collection; four POWs, Imperial War Museums hu-1604; Roger Bushell, US Air Force Academy, McDermott Library, Stalag Luft III Collections.
2. East Compound, Imperial War Museums hu-21013; Sentry tower interior, Barry Davidson collection; North Compound, US Air Force Academy, McDermott Library, Stalag Luft III Collections.
3. Barry Davidson, Barry Davidson collection; Dick Bartlett, courtesy Anne Dumonceaux; Keith Ogilvie, courtesy Keith Ogilvie Jr. and Jean Ogilvie; Kingsley Brown, 1945 sketch by Lieut. John Lundquist, USAAF, courtesy Ethel Alle.
4. Sketches of digger, workshop, and trap entrance to tunnel, sketches by Ley Kenyon, Royal Air Force Museum, Hendon, UK.
5. German guard and prisoner assembly at Stalag Luft III, Imperial War Museums hu-21043; Biewer and Lindeiner, Imperial War Museums hu-21052; German “ferret” guards, Imperial War Museums hu-21190.
6. John Colwell POW card, courtesy Harold Johnstone; Frank Sorensen, courtesy Vicki Sorensen; Canadians at North Compound, Tony Pengelly collection.
7. Aerial intelligence photo of Stalag Luft III 1944, Don McKim collection.
8. George Sweanor and Joan Saunders, courtesy Sweanor family; Don Edy in desert, courtesy Barb Edy and Jane Hughes; George Harsh, courtesy W. W. Norton & Co., New York.
second section
page
1. Theatre sketch by Ley Kenyon, courtesy Barry Davidson Jr.; Tony Pengelly in female role and theatre interior seating area, Tony Pengelly collection; Arthur Crighton conductor from Wire Bound World by H. P. Clark.
2. Baseball team “Clare’s Cards,” courtesy Art Hawtin; hockey game, Barry Davidson collection; boxing match, Imperial War Museums hu-21164.
3. Don McKim, courtesy Al McKim and Wendy Johnson; Albert Wallace, Albert Wallace collection; Red Cross parcel, Wire Bound World by
H. P. Clark; wireless radio, photographer Harold Kious, US Air Force Academy, McDermott Library, Stalag Luft III Collections.
4. Sketches of February purge to Belaria and March escape from tunnel “Harry,” sketches by Ley Kenyon, Royal Air Force Museum, Hendon, UK.
5. Guards show off trolley, Imperial War Museums hu-21219; guards and ventilating pump, Imperial War Museums hu-21215; guard with sand-dispersal sacks, Imperial War Museums.
6. Massey and Pieber, Imperial War Museums hu-1603; Arthur Nebe, courtesy documentarian/filmmaker Don Young.
7. The Great Escape 1962 movie publicity stills, Catherine (Floody) Heron collection.
8. POWs marching from Sagan, Poland, courtesy Marilyn Walton, US Air Force Academy, McDermott Library, Stalag Luft III Collections; British POWs sign, Wire Bound World by H. P. Clark; Ley Kenyon sketch, Frank Sorensen collection, courtesy Vicki Sorensen.
Copyright © Ted Barris, 2013
All rights reserved. No part of this work may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means—graphic, electronic, or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, taping, or information storage and retrieval systems—without the prior written permission of the publisher, or in the case of photocopying or other reprographic copying, a licence from the Canadian Copyright Licensing Agency.
Library and Archives Canada Cataloguing in Publication
Barris, Ted, author
The great escape : a Canadian story / Ted Barris.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
Issued in print and electronic formats.
isbn 978-1-77102-272-9 (bound).—isbn 978-1-77102-474-7 (epub).—
1. Stalag Luft III. 2. World War, 1939-1945—Prisoners and prisons, German.
3. Prisoners of war—Canada—Biography. 4. Prisoners of war—Germany—
Biography. 5. Prisoner-of-war escapes—Poland—Zagan. 6. World War,
1939-1945—Personal narratives, Canadian. I. Title.
d805.5.s73b37 2013 940.54'72430922 c2013-902860-9
c2013-902861-7
Jacket and text design: Gordon Robertson
Jacket image: Tony Pengelly Collection
Endpaper illustrations: Lightfoot Art & Design Inc.
Published by Thomas Allen Publishers,
a division of Thomas Allen & Son Limited,
390 Steelcase Road East,
Markham, Ontario l3r 1g2 Canada
www.thomasallen.ca
We would like to acknowledge funding support from the Ontario Arts Council, an agency of the Government of Ontario.
We acknowledge the support of the Canada Council for the Arts, which last year invested $157 million to bring the arts to Canadians throughout the country.
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