The great escaper: The life and death of Roger Bushell

Squadron Leader Roger Bushell masterminded the ‘Great Escape’ from Stalag Luft III, immortalised in Paul Brickhill’s book and the epic film.

But there was far more to this flawed hero than the character moulded in Hollywood fifty years ago. Bushell, the son of a South African mining-engineer, was bold and brash, loved by women and revered by men, a multi-lingual barrister, a fighter pilot – and an intelligence asset.

Driven by a sense of duty, Bushell waged an unconventional war on the Nazis. He led an international brigade of prisoners and became one of the most belligerent, imaginative and mischievous ‘armies’ ever to confront Hitler’s ‘monstrous tyranny.’

Shot down in 1940, Bushell escaped three times. He came within sight of the Swiss border in 1941. Four months later he reached Prague, where the Gestapo suspected him of involvement in the assassination of Reinhard Heydrich, the architect of the Holocaust. After his third escape, Hitler demanded his execution.