'I owe my life to the Nazis who foiled the Great Escape' says the last survivor Read more:

London Daily Mail ^ | 28th January 2010 | Jonathan Margolis

[iowamark]

Marching along the frozen roads of Poland and northern Germany this week, a hardy group of young RAF recruits - accompanied by relatives of the survivors of the famous Great Escape of 1944 - are commemorating a legendary moment in history.

Sixty-five years on, they are recreating the deadly 1,000-mile march which the Nazis forced captured Allied airmen to undertake at the end of World War II.

It is a fitting commemoration of the bravery and toughness of a remarkable group of British, American and Canadian airmen, dozens of whom were involved in the previous year's escape from the notorious Stalag Luft III prison, immortalised in the 1963 Steve McQueen film.

Fifty of the escapees were murdered by the Nazis, as the film showed. Later, the forced march to escape the invading Russians saw men trekking in temperatures as low as -25C, with many having no winter clothing. It killed another 200.

Sadly, only one British survivor of the Great Escape team is still alive.

Ken Rees, who will be 90 next week, was one of the tunnellers who helped burrow an escape route out of the camp - and was also in the elite party of 76 selected for the escape after being recaptured. He also took part in the Long March out of Stalag Luft III on Hitler's orders.

Ken is frail, having recently suffered a fall and breaking a leg, but is following news of this week's march from the village in North Wales where he lives.

And his memories of the Great Escape and the punishing forced march - which he typically dismisses as 'nothing much' - are still fresh in his mind...

[iowamark]

Misleading title. Rees never said those words.

[mgstarr]

For the Fifty.

And everyone else.

[mamelukesabre]

He’s gotta be more than 4 foot 3.

[Cacique]

btt

[iowamark]

I think that was a self deprecating joke.

[Maverick68]

Incredible story, incredible movie

[tomatomaster]

I’ve been a lurking freeper for many years, with a handful of posts to my name, but hundreds of hours of reading.

Just to comment: my father’s cousin was one of these same airmen, on a B-17 that was shot down at age 18 over Kiel in October ’43. He was a POW for 16 months, culminated in a forced march for 18 days, until liberation by Patton’s 3rd army.

He finally wrote a book on his experiences, published last fall. He describes participation in tunnel building, how they would hide dirt in their pockets to spread it, but they never made it as far as those on the Great Escape movie. His book is amazing. Magnificent. Gripping and sweeping. His story is so inspiring, from training to first combat missions, to surviving when the wing of his B-17 was blown off, and then the POW and liberation experience. You feel like you are right there, and you get a sense of the Yankee spirit of the day, a sense of pride and country, what we feel a bit of on Free Republic, and what our country needs to feel again.

I don’t know if I can mention the name of his book here, so I won’t, but would just comment that we can’t salute these men enough, and that applies to our entire military. I’m proud to share the same last name as my second cousin, and anyone could take it from there if interested in tracking down this book.

T. Matheny

[Gigantor]

I would love to know the title of his book!

[Zauber]

Obama’s grandfather was liberating Auschwitz while these guys were living the Hogan’s Heroes high life.

[Cyman]

This generation’s passing will hurt us more than we can imagine.

Hardened by war, joyed by victory, tempered by loss and educated by history.

[iowamark]

I am sure there is no problem with mentioning an historical book here on FR, even if written by a relative.

Is it: “Rite of Passage: A Teenager’s Chronicle of Combat and Captivity in Nazi Germany” by Ray Matheny?

[concentric circles]

Rite of Passage: A Teenager's Chronicle of Combat and Captivity in Nazi Germany

Check out the reviews at the Amazon link above.

There is an extensive interview with the author at KUED

[annieokie]

Thanks, I look forward to reading this book.

[agrace]

Please do divulge the title!

[shoe212]

Mr. Matheny is too modest to mention the name of the book, but if people can post vanities, then surely we can mention the name of an outstanding patriotic book. (Amazon reviewers (6) all give it the highest rating.)

The book is “Rite of Passage” by Ray Matheny.

[ansel12]

Donald Pleasence was a WWII POW: "His acting career began in a production of Wuthering Heights, but was interrupted by World War II. He was at first a conscientious objector, but later changed his stance and was commissioned into the Royal Air Force, serving with 166 Squadron, RAF Bomber Command. His Avro Lancaster was shot down on 31 August 1944 during a raid on Agenville.[4] He was taken prisoner and placed in a German prisoner-of-war camp, where he produced and acted in plays. Coincidentally, he later played Flight Lt. Colin Blythe in The Great Escape where much of the story takes place inside a German POW camp."

"The only actor to have appeared in both The Great Escape (1963) and its TV sequel, The Great Escape II: The Untold Story (1988) (TV). Ironically, he played one of the would-be great escapees in the first film and one of the German executioners in the second. Strangely he even played the role of the SS and Gestapo chief, Reichsführer-SS Heinrich Himmler, in the film The Eagle Has Landed (1976). Heinrich Himmler was the one who ordered the secret murder of "the 50" POW's. Thus, Pleasence is likely to be one of only a few actors to have ever portrayed all three roles of murder conspirator, executioner, and victim! (although technically he was not among the 50. His character died earlier.)."

[tomatomaster]

Yes, that’s the book.

I can’t rave enough about this book. There is so much detail in it, it is incredible. The book is hard to put down. You may want some kleenex towards the end, especially when Ray has a reunion 50 years later with a buddy who had been gravely injured by Luftwaffe cannon on a mission before that final mission when Ray was shot down. Ray presumed he had died, until running across his friend 50 years later.

There are so many memorable scenes in this book. One humorous one: while in the train station on a boxcar en route to the prison camp, one of Ray’s fellow POW’s organized a unique salute to Hitler. Ray and a lineup of other prisoners at the side of the boxcar all at the same time relieved themselves towards their guards, while holding one arm high in mock salute. (Taking care the guards were flunkies and not SS officers).

[philetus]

I don’t think it makes a lot of sense either.

[ReignOfError]

He describes participation in tunnel building, how they would hide dirt in their pockets to spread it, but they never made it as far as those on the Great Escape movie.

According to a documentary I saw a couple years ago, the Americans were transferred to another camp before the escape. The British veterans of the escape didn't mind the dramatic license, because the Yanks did their share of the work in the tunnels even if they weren't there for the end.

[wagglebee]

Ping!