A while back on Facebook blogger Pattinase asked friends to name 15 authors who had influenced them one way or another. One stipulation was that they were named without thinking about it.
Straight away there are, to me anyway, Charles McCormac, Guy Gibson, Patrick R. Reid and Paul Brickhill. Not exactly household names now but back in their day their stories were very influential.
Charles McCormac wrote a book called 'You'll Die In Singapore' - but he didn't. He escaped from Singapore and island hopped his way through Java to Australia. It was one long, harrowing journey that saw his friends die along the way.
Guy Gibson told the story of his life, in 'Enemy Coast Ahead' as a bomber pilot up to and including the destruction of the Moehne Dam that flooded the factories in the Ruhr Valley. After his death while attempting to breach the final dam, Paul Brickhill took up the story in 'The Dambusters'.
It was not just 'The Dambusters' that Paul Brickhill was known for. He had organised the stooges that kept watch over the forgers of the X organisation behind 'The Great Escape' from Stalag Luft 3. It was his book that inspired the movie.
One of my 'heroes' when I was young was Douglas Bader, the legless Battle Of Britain fighter pilot and subject of Brickhill's 'Reach For The Sky'. Like Brickhill, Bader spent time at Stalag Luft 3 and that other 'escape proof' prison camp Colditz Castle.
Colditz Castle was not as escape proof as many thought as Patrick R Reid was to prove and related in the book 'The Colditz Story'. This was followed by 'The Latter Days At Colditz'. In 1984 Pat Reid brought out a third volume 'Colditz:The Full Story' that added the 'secret' stuff that he had not been able to reveal in the first two books.
Four authors who influenced me in my younger years.
Not that they encouraged me to write but more to 'imagine' and 'see' what they were writing about. And to understand.
The common thread to these books is about never giving up; armed with determination, self-belief and hope (in some cases) what seems to be impossible can be achieved.
Although the list showed just four non-fiction writers there were so many others like Richard Hillary's 'The Last Enemy'; a fighter pilot shot down and was disfigured with burns but who climbed back into the cockpit.
These and other wartime true stories became my staple reading diet from (believe it or not) the age of eight - and would be read and re-read over the years. The first book that I bought cost 2/-d (two shillings or 10p). It was Pat Reid's 'The Colditz Story'. That Pan edition still exists today tucked away in a bureau - the pages are brittle and tanned and the spine taped up.
My wife reckons that I will be buried with it - well, I hope so otherwise I would have to plan my own escape.
Showing posts with label Paul Brickhill. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Paul Brickhill. Show all posts
Friday, 9 May 2014
Tuesday, 25 March 2014
THE GREAT ESCAPE: 70 years on
On the night of 24th/25th March 1944 76 airmen made their way to a tunnel nicknamed 'Harry' in what was to become one of the most famous escape stories of the Second World War. Of the 76 escapers from Stalag Luft 3 fifty three would not return. Of those two Norwegians and one Dutchman made home runs while the other fifty were executed on the orders of Heinrich Himmler.
Stalag Luft 3 was reputed to be escape proof but even as Roger Bushell (Big X) was planning for the mass breakout another escape was under way. Overshadowed by later events the amazing escape by Eric Williams, Michael Codner and Oliver Philpot using a roughly made vaulting horse made what is regarded as the first successful escape from the east compound the previous October.
The original plan for the great escape itself was designed to cause the greatest amount of disruption to the Germans as possible. Yes, 250 men just walking down the road was Bushell's vision. Roger Bushell had been a British ski champion and barrister - a ski-ing accident had left him with a scarred drooping eye. He had been shot down near Dunkirk in May, 1940 and was a thorn in the enemy's side ever since.
The escape took over 600 men to organise - from forging, scavenging, digging, dispersal and security. The author, and Australian pilot, Paul Brickhill who wrote the book 'The Great Escape' in 1950, was in charge of the 'stooges' that protected the forgers. Although offered a place in the escape he was declared unfit due to his claustrophobia.
However, the tunnel was just a few yards short of the trees when the first escapee broke out this resulted in a hastily contrived contingency plan. In the end only 76 men made it out and fifty of those were destined to die.
Yet, 70 years on and The Fifty are still remembered.
In the woods near Zagen (Sagen back then) there are still remains of the hut foundations, the cooler (made famous by Steve McQueen in the movie) and the line of the tunnel can be seen and a newly erected guard tower shows how close it was to the tunnel.
The Great Escape was a mammoth achievement in both engineering and organisation - and Bushell's plan to cause disruption worked but it cost him his life and that of 49 others. But those who ordered and carried out those executions ended up at Nuremburg, several others have been caught up with over the years.
Stalag Luft 3 was reputed to be escape proof but even as Roger Bushell (Big X) was planning for the mass breakout another escape was under way. Overshadowed by later events the amazing escape by Eric Williams, Michael Codner and Oliver Philpot using a roughly made vaulting horse made what is regarded as the first successful escape from the east compound the previous October.
The original plan for the great escape itself was designed to cause the greatest amount of disruption to the Germans as possible. Yes, 250 men just walking down the road was Bushell's vision. Roger Bushell had been a British ski champion and barrister - a ski-ing accident had left him with a scarred drooping eye. He had been shot down near Dunkirk in May, 1940 and was a thorn in the enemy's side ever since.
The escape took over 600 men to organise - from forging, scavenging, digging, dispersal and security. The author, and Australian pilot, Paul Brickhill who wrote the book 'The Great Escape' in 1950, was in charge of the 'stooges' that protected the forgers. Although offered a place in the escape he was declared unfit due to his claustrophobia.
However, the tunnel was just a few yards short of the trees when the first escapee broke out this resulted in a hastily contrived contingency plan. In the end only 76 men made it out and fifty of those were destined to die.
Yet, 70 years on and The Fifty are still remembered.
In the woods near Zagen (Sagen back then) there are still remains of the hut foundations, the cooler (made famous by Steve McQueen in the movie) and the line of the tunnel can be seen and a newly erected guard tower shows how close it was to the tunnel.
The Great Escape was a mammoth achievement in both engineering and organisation - and Bushell's plan to cause disruption worked but it cost him his life and that of 49 others. But those who ordered and carried out those executions ended up at Nuremburg, several others have been caught up with over the years.
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