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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... In North Compound we are concentrating our efforts on completing and escaping through one master tunnel. No private-enterprise tunnels are allowed. Three bloody deep, bloody long tunnels will be dug – Tom, Dick, and Harry. One will succeed! [3]
The simultaneous digging of these tunnels would become an advantage if any one of them were discovered by the Germans because the guards would scarcely imagine that another two could be well under way. The most radical aspect of the plan was not merely the scale of the construction, but also the sheer number of men that Bushell intended to pass through these tunnels. Previous attempts had involved the escape of anything up to a dozen or twenty men, but Bushell was proposing to get over 200 out, each of whom would be wearing civilian clothes and possessing a complete range of forged papers and escape equipment. It was an unprecedented undertaking which would require unparalleled organization. As the mastermind of the Great Escape, Bushell inherited the codename of "Big X". [3] The tunnel "Tom" began in a darkened corner of a hall in one of the buildings. "Harry"'s entrance was hidden under a stove. The entrance to "Dick" had a concealed entrance in a drainage sump. [18] More than 600 prisoners were involved in their construction. [19]
Tom was discovered in August 1943 when nearing completion. Bushell also organized another mass breakout, which occurred on 12 June 1943. This became known as the Delousing Break, when 26 officers escaped by leaving the camp under escort with two fake guards (POWs disguised as guards) supposedly to go to the showers for delousing in the neighboring compound. All but two were later recaptured and returned to the camp, with the remaining two officers being sent to Oflag IV-C at Colditz for attempting to steal an aircraft.
After the discovery of Tom, construction on Harry was halted, but it resumed in January 1944. On the evening of 24 March, after months of preparation, 200 officers prepared to escape. But things did not go as planned, with only 76 officers managing to get clear of the camp.[ citation needed ]
Bushell and his partner Bernard Scheidhauer, among the first few to leave the tunnel, successfully boarded a train at Sagan railway station. They were caught the next day at Saarbrücken railway station, waiting for a train to Alsace.
On March 29, under the pretext of being driven back to a prison camp, the car carrying Bushell and Scheidhauer stopped for a rest break at the side of the autobahn near Ramstein, Germany (just outside today's Ramstein Air Base). It was during this stop that they were murdered by members of the Gestapo, including Emil Schulz, helped by others. This was a breach of the ratified and accepted 1929 Geneva Convention on Prisoners of War and thus constituted a war crime. The perpetrators were later tried and executed by the Allies. Fifty of the 76 escapees were killed in the Stalag Luft III murders on the personal orders of Adolf Hitler.
Bushell is buried at the Poznan Old Garrison Cemetery (Coll. grave 9. A.) in present-day Poznań, Poland. [2] He was posthumously mentioned in despatches on 8 June 1944 for his services as a P.O.W.. [22] This award was recorded in the London Gazette dated 13 June 1946. [23]
Bushell Green in Bushey is named in his honour, one of a number of streets in the area named after Battle of Britain pilots.
Bushell's name also appears on the war memorial in Hermanus, South Africa, where his parents spent their last years and where they were buried. [24] In 2017, a memorial was erected close to the location of his murder outside what is now the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) / United States Air Force military installation of the Ramstein Air Base. [25]
In 1934, Bushell had fallen in love with Georgiana Curzon, but her father forced her into an unhappy marriage with someone else. For years after Bushell's death, Curzon placed an "In Memoriam" advertisement in The Times of London on his birthday, saying "Love is Immortal, Georgie". [26] Words in similar vein are referred to in an article [27] in The Times in 2013, by Simon Pearson, about Bushell's lovers. Pearson remarked that he had some years before, while working at The Times, come:
. . . across a memorial notice in the archive, which marked the anniversary of Roger Bushell's birth and celebrated his life. It quoted Rupert Brooke: "He leaves a white unbroken glory, a gathered radiance, a width, a shining peace, under the night." It was signed "Georgie".
Bushell was the basis for the character "Roger Bartlett" in the film The Great Escape (1963), played by actor Richard Attenborough. [28]
Bushell has been portrayed by Ian McShane in the made-for-TV film The Great Escape II: The Untold Story (1988).
Stalag Luft III was a Luftwaffe-run prisoner-of-war (POW) camp during the Second World War, which held captured Western Allied air force personnel.
Oflag XXI-B and Stalag XXI-B were World War II German prisoner-of-war camps for officers and enlisted men, located at Szubin a few miles southwest of Bydgoszcz, Poland, which at that time was occupied by Nazi Germany.
Harry Melville Arbuthnot Day, was a Royal Marine and later a Royal Air Force pilot during the Second World War. As a prisoner of war, he was senior British officer in a number of camps and a noted escapee.
Bertram Arthur "Jimmy" James, MC, RAF was a British survivor of The Great Escape. He was an officer of the Royal Air Force, ultimately reaching the rank of Squadron Leader.
Stalag Luft I was a German World War II prisoner-of-war (POW) camp near Barth, Western Pomerania, Germany, for captured Allied airmen. The presence of the prison camp is said to have shielded the town of Barth from Allied bombing. About 9,000 airmen – 7,588 American and 1,351 British and Canadian – were imprisoned there when it was liberated on the night of 30 April 1945 by Soviet troops.
Dulag Luft were German Prisoner of War (POW) transit camps for captured airmen from any of the allied air forces during World War II. Their main purpose was to act as collection and interrogation centres for newly captured aircrew, before they were transferred in batches to the permanent camps.
James Brian Buckley, was a Royal Navy Fleet Air Arm pilot who became a notable prisoner of war during the Second World War. He died during an escape attempt on 21 March 1943.
The Delousing break was a mass escape attempt by Allied aircrew officers of British and American nationalities who were held as prisoners of war during the Second World War. It occurred on 12 June 1943 from the North Compound of Stalag Luft III Prisoner of War Camp in Germany.
Flight Lieutenant Sydney Hastings Dowse MC was a Royal Air Force pilot who became a prisoner of war and survived The Great Escape during the Second World War.
Charles Piers Hall was a British pilot who was taken prisoner during the Second World War. He was part of the 'Great Escape' from Stalag Luft III in March 1944, but was captured and subsequently shot by the Gestapo.
Leslie George Bull, known as Johnny, Les or Lester Bull, was a British Vickers Wellington bomber pilot who was taken prisoner during the Second World War. He took part in the 'Great Escape' from Stalag Luft III in March 1944, but was one of the men re-captured and subsequently shot by the Gestapo.
Michael James Casey, was a British Blenheim bomber pilot of Irish descent who was taken prisoner during the Second World War. He took part in the 'Great Escape' from Stalag Luft III in March 1944, but was one of the men re-captured and subsequently shot by the Gestapo.
Ian Kingston Pembroke Cross, was a British Royal Air Force officer and bomber pilot who was taken prisoner during the Second World War. Notable for his part in the 'Great Escape' from Stalag Luft III in March 1944 when he was one of the men recaptured and subsequently murdered by the Gestapo.
Brian Herbert Evans, was a Royal Air Force bomber pilot who was taken prisoner during the Second World War. Notable for his part in the 'Great Escape' from Stalag Luft III in March 1944 he was one of the men recaptured and subsequently murdered by the Gestapo.
William Jack Grisman was a British Vickers Wellington bomber crew member who was taken prisoner during the Second World War. He took part in the 'Great Escape' from Stalag Luft III in March 1944, but was one of the men re-captured and subsequently shot by the Gestapo.
Edgar Spottiswoode Humphreys, known as Hunk, was a British Bristol Blenheim bomber pilot who was taken prisoner during the Second World War. He took part in the 'Great Escape' from Stalag Luft III in March 1944, but was re-captured and subsequently shot by the Gestapo.
Thomas Gresham Kirby-Green was a British Royal Air Force officer, the pilot of a Vickers Wellington bomber, who was taken prisoner during the Second World War. He took part in the 'Great Escape' from Stalag Luft III in March 1944, but was one of the men recaptured and subsequently executed by the Gestapo.
Stanisław Zygmunt "Danny" Król was a Polish Supermarine Spitfire fighter pilot flying from England when he was taken prisoner during the Second World War. He is notable both as a persistent escaper and for the part he played in the 'Great Escape' from Stalag Luft III in March 1944 being one of the men recaptured and shot by the Gestapo.
Thomas Barker Leigh was an Australian-born Handley Page Halifax bomber rear gunner who was taken prisoner during the Second World War. He took part in the 'Great Escape' from Stalag Luft III in March 1944, but was one of the men re-captured and subsequently shot by the Gestapo.
Squadron Leader Anthony Orlando ‘Oscar’ Bridgman, DFC was a bomber pilot of the Royal Air Force during the Second World War. He was awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross in 1940, and, during internment as a prisoner of war at Stalag Luft III, was a contributor in The Wooden Horse escape.