I’m sure most of the Western population
have seen the American epic film The
Great Escape featuring many big names - Charles Bronson, James Coburn,
Steve McQueen, James, Garner, Richard Attenborough, etc. It was based on the
true story of the attempted mass escape of 200+ British Commonwealth prisoners
held in German Prisoner Of War camp Stalag Luft III in Poland. Here I am in a quiet graveyard in
Shrewsbury where above the bones of Bertram James who was one of the men who
escaped (he liked to be called Jimmy.) If you've watched the film Steve McQueen
played Virgil Hilts who repeatedly tried to escape. He was thrown into solitary
confinement and became the "Cooler King". Jimmy who is six feet under
this soil was the Cooler King.
Though he lies in Shropshire soil he was born
4700 miles away in India to a dad who was a tea-planter. After his mum died they
returned to England and Jimmy worked with his dad running a business importing
tea. The economic collapse in the 1930s killed the business and Jimmy’s dad,
too. Desperately lonely he worked on a coal ship to reach America where he had
relatives. The economic crisis had hit America too so wearing just the clothes
he wore the poor lad went north, riding cattle cars across vast mid-America. Living
like a tramp he eventually made it to Canada and worked as a security guard for
a local bank. It was all to no avail though and he returned to England.
He joined the Air Force and by age 24 had been
promoted to pilot officer. It was 1939 and the Second World War had started. By
25 he was sent to RAF Honington but his aviation
skills were a complete waste of time. He was second pilot of a Wellington
bomber that was shot down over the Netherlands on 5th June 1940. He jumped out
with his parachute, landed and buried his equipment. Sadly he was caught, taken
prisoner, interrogated and paraded through central Berlin with other prisoners.
He was taken to the famously bleak Stalag Luft I in on Germany’s northern coast. Within days he and
Wing Commander John Shore were digging an escape tunnel through the camp
incinerator. John Shore actually escaped but Jimmy was caught in sent to the
cooler (solitary confinement.)
Over five years he made thirteen efforts to
escape from various prisons and camps. He was in Stalag
Luft III in 1944 when the so-called Great Escape
occurred. The plan was for over 200 men to escape but that was only half of it.
Capture and death was likely so credible disguises and identities had to be manufactured.
On the night of the escape Friday 24th March 1944 Jimmy - now 28 years old -
was partnered with a pilot officer called Sotirios.
They were ready, dressed as Yugoslav workers and with the paperwork that would
show officials they were trying to get home. It worked - they escaped - and
walked for fives mile to a rail stop. From here they walked at night through
deep snow to reach Hirschberg to board a train. All efforts were wasted though
as they were caught by the police trying to buy tickets and taken to the
Gestapo HQ in the town.
In The
Great Escape film trucks of escapees were taken to a rural location,
unloaded and executed. This happened: in total 73 escapees had been captured
and the Chief of the Gestapo had instructed his men to kill fifty of the
prisoners. Sotirious who Jimmy had escaped with was
shot. Jimmy wasn’t and was lucky enough to be sent to the Sachsenhausen
concentration camp. James (now 29) and four other prisoners used cutlery knives
to dig an escape tunnel over 110 metres long and on Saturday 23rd September
1944 they escaped - but only for a few weeks. Jimmy was arrested, returned to
the camp and thrown into the cooler. It was tough - for four months he was
almost starved to death and mocked by the guards who pretended they were about
to execute him. The Germans were losing the war and the prisoners were moved
south to another prison. After a torturous journey via Dachau and Flossenburg concentration camps Jimmy was eventually
liberated by American army troops in May 1945. He'd just turned 30 years old.
He was awarded the Military Cross for his
repeated escape attempts. After the war the Squadron Leader married a nurse
called Madge who he’d me in an Officer's Club in Germany (for their honeymoon
they drove to Norway in a former German Army VW Beetle.) He joined the
Diplomatic Service and held offices in Africa, Europe and London. He retired
aged 60 but was a well-known public speaker, touring the world to tell of his
wartime experiences. He died aged 92 at the Royal Shrewsbury Hospital.
Here I am at his grave and he was carried here by
a party of gunners from RAF Honington. Hundreds of
local people from Ludlow lined the procession route to pay their respects. Four
Tornado GR4s performed a flypast in the missing man formation. Jimmy wrote a brill book called Moonless
Night about his escapades. There was a multi-coloured deck of flowers over
the grave. Who had put them there? I did a hearty salute and left.
A Wellington bomber which Jimmy was
in. It was hit over the Netherlands and he parachuted out but was caught and
taken prisoner...
He's buried with his wife...
Jimmy was - like Hilts - the
original Cooler King...