Thursday, March 28, AD 2024 4:49am

Last of the Escapees Passes

Everyone here in this room is living on borrowed time. By rights we should all be dead! The only reason that God allowed us this extra ration of life is so we can make life hell for the Hun.

RAF Squadron Leader Roger Bushell, the officer in charge of the camp escape committee that carried out The Great Escape.  He and 49 of the other escapees were murdered by the SS.

 

Sad, but inevitable:

 

Tributes have been paid to the last surviving member of the real-life Great Escape team after his death at the age of 99. Former squadron leader Dick Churchill was one of the 76-strong group who escaped from the Stalag Luft III camp in Germany in 1944. The site is now part of Poland.

Their feat of courage became one of the most famous stories from the second world war, and was immortalised in the 1963 Hollywood film starring Steve McQueen. Churchill, who lived in Crediton, Devon, died on Wednesday.

The chief of the air staff, Sir Stephen Hillier, said: “On behalf of the RAF as a whole, I would like to offer my condolences to the friends and family of Flt Lt Richard ‘Dick’ Churchill, one of the RAF personnel involved in the Great Escape.

“He was from a selfless generation who offered bravery and sacrifice to secure our freedom. He will be sorely missed. Per ardua [through struggle].”

Go here to read the rest.  Rest in peace Squadron Leader, and may you be present now in the Kingdom no one attempts to escape from.

 

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