Bertram "Jimmy" James, one of the 76 men who escaped from Stalag Luft III in what is now known as The Great Escape has died. 50 of the men who escaped with him were executed by order of Adolph Hitler after being recaptured. James was sent to the Sachsenhausen concentration camp instead – where he promptly escaped yet again.
The British officer's adventures in Germany began in May 1940 when his Wellington bomber was shot down over the Netherlands, which had recently been overrun by the Nazis.
The military historian Howard Tuck, a close friend of the veteran, said that James had dug the first RAF escape tunnel of the war, at Stalag Luft I, in Bart, in 1941.
"He was the country's greatest living war hero. He had a truly remarkable life," said Mr Tuck. "This guy was truly unique and he was the finest gentleman anyone could ever meet. To me, he represented not only an era, but a type of Englishman you rarely meet. He was honest and funny, and I used to talk to him like he was 25."
When James was sent to Stalag Luft III, he immediately joined the group of Allied officers planning what eventually came to be known as the Great Escape.
More than 100 men were involved in digging the 365ft tunnel, codenamed "Harry". James was in charge of a team dispersing the excavated soil.
In total, 200 camp inmates were selected to make the attempt, with 76 escaping before a sentry discovered the mouth of the tunnel.
James had been allocated place number 39 and joined a group of 12 men who posed as foreign workers going home on leave. They had planned to head for Czechoslovakia, where they hoped to make contact with the local resistance, but were arrested while attempting to change trains.
At first, Hitler ordered that all those recaptured be shot but, allegedly due to pressure from Hermann Goering, who feared reprisals against Luftwaffe prisoners, the order was changed to "more than half to be shot". Of the 76 who escaped, three – a Dutchman and two Norwegians – reached freedom; the rest were recaptured. Fifty were executed, 15 returned to Stalag Luft III and eight, James among them, sent to Sachsenhausen.
But he remained undeterred. Using a table knife, he soon tunnelled his way out again, but was caught 14 days later. He was awarded the Military Cross and mentioned in dispatches for his escape attempts.
Paul Brickhill's wonderful book about the escape was one of my favorites when I was growing up. The movie is a real classic, although it was highly fictionalized and many characters were actually composites of several people. This website has a section comparing the real escape with the movie. (The movie actually fares quite well, possibly because the screenplay was written by James Clavell, who was himself a prisoner of war in the Pacific.)
Rest in peace, Jimmy.
Great post! Thanks. Another prisoner of war book that is quite good, is P.O.W. by Douglas Collins. He was a Tommy bagged outside of Dunkirk and escaped numerous times. He eventually made it home. I am sure the book is long out of print but copies do occasionally appear on ebay.
Gaius -
One of my all time favorite movies, “The Great Escape” … Was a huge MacQueen fan as a kid.
Thanks for the link to the website that compares the movie to the real thing. I linked and saved it.
I read this book as a child and it was a favourite of mine. Another true story that you might enjoy is “Escape From Colditz” by PR Reid, truly amazing stuff. These guys were a breed apart, it is sad that we are losing them.
I have a copy of that book, dianainusa. Yes, it is an amazing story. They considered it their duty to try to escape and they did, over and over – even after the murder of the Stalag Luft III escapees.