War hero: Frank Stone demonstrates using a trolley at the entrance to a recreation of the famous 'Harry' escape tunnel originally built by RAF airmen at a prisoner of war camp, for a Channel 4 programme in 2011
Posted on 10/26/2013 7:19:00 AM PDT by NYer
One of the few remaining British survivors of a German prisoner of war camp immortalised in The Great Escape film has died aged 91.
Royal Air Force gunner Frank Stone, of Hathersage, Derbyshire, was taken to Stalag Luft III in Zagan as a teenager during the Second World War after his bomber crashed in Mannheim in 1940.
He was in hut 104, home to 76 airmen who tried to escape via a 348ft tunnel in 1944. But the alarm was raised before Mr Stone, who had helped dispose of soil from the tunnel, could join them.
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War hero: Frank Stone demonstrates using a trolley at the entrance to a recreation of the famous 'Harry' escape tunnel originally built by RAF airmen at a prisoner of war camp, for a Channel 4 programme in 2011
Of the 76 men who attempted to make a break for freedom using the tunnel, known as Harry, 50 were later shot after being recaptured - and only three managed to get away successfully.
Mr Stone - finally freed towards the end of the war - returned in 2009 to the camp in Poland, which was originally German territory and held about 10,000 RAF crew at the height of its occupation.
The escape from the camp was the single greatest freedom attempt by POWs in the war. Among the 50 who were shot was Roger Bushell, the mastermind of the plot which hoped to free over 200 men.
(Excerpt) Read more at dailymail.co.uk ...
Digging for victory: Frank Stone is pictured second right at Stalag Luft III in Zagan, where he was taken as a teenager during the Second World War after his bomber crashed in Mannheim in 1940
True to life, honest to God heroes Mr. Stone and all his cohorts were. He is being rewarded as we type.
Thanks Mr. Stone. Though that ain’t enough gratitude for what you all did.
Great movie. I recommend it to everyone.
5.56mm
What? No expose? No gossip about his life?
It must drive journalists crazy to investigate the WWII veterans and find that they lived good, non corrupt lives, probably 99% of them.
RIP Mr. Stone. You deserved at least one of our most loved actors as your portrayer, and that’s the way it happened
Some POW camp, it even had a makeshift golf course.
I hope your comment was sarcastic, if not, it shows an immense lack of knowledge of what life in a StalagLuft camp was like. I recommend you find some of the memoirs written by those who were interned in the camps and read them.
Ya’, but that golf club executed 50 of his mates for quitting their membership.
My dad was in that camp until the Death March through the snow and then cattle cars to Moosburg. After his liberation, at the end of April 1945, he spent the next month in the hospital recovering from his ‘country club’ lifestyle of the previous year.
RIP, Mr Stone. The world thanks you for your service.
Great movie. I recommend it to everyone.
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I agree. It’s gotta be up there as one of my all time favorite movies. I watch it at least once a year. I don’t FF thru any of it...just sit there with a bowl of pop corn and watch and cry at the end...every time...when it get’s to the dedication...To the Fifty.
Anyone who thinks it was a golf club atmosphere really needs to grab a clue and read some history books.
While life in a camp was not pleasant, I would point out that the Germans were far more hospitable to British and American prisoners than the Japanese were by a wide margin. Allied POW’s held by the Japanese were held in brutal conditions as were Axis POW’s held by the Russians.
In the end, the Great Escape was a horrible waste of men, but I honor their courage and effort to rejoin their mates in the fight for the survival of their nation. It made for a great movie, but one can’t help but wonder how much humanity was lost in such a futile effort when you study the lives of the survivors, their children, grandchildren, and great-grandchildren.
Every time I have been blessed to meet WWII veterans (my Grandfather and Uncles included) I find it sobering to remember the beautiful cemeteries I saw throughout France with the seemingly endless rows of crosses. Each of those represents potentially countless Americans who don’t exist considering the typical family tree for WWII veterans.
While I served in the Army (not nearly as exciting as these men) I always looked at my troops and wondered what my generations defining moment would be, but I still can’t point to one for the grandchildren of these men. I recently trained with young soldiers again, almost 20 years later, and wondered the same for my children, the great grandchildren of these men.
The older I get the more I understand the real impact of war and when you get beyond the great movies and all of the historical interests, it is humanity and the loss of people that is the real story. Even as I understand how this war propelled a generation/nation to greatness I wonder how many great people never existed because of the foolishness of men. May he rest in peace.
God bless ‘em all.
My dad ‘arrived’ at Stalag Luft III in the summer of 1944. The monument that says ‘To the 50’ was there already. It is still there. You can actually go there, it is in Poland, and see the remnants of the tunnels. Overgrown with trees and fauna, it is still open to see and feel the past..
The biggest problem with the movie was Steve McQueen and his motorcycle riding. I have nothing against motorcycle riding, but it was out of place in the movie. I didn't particularly like the James Garner stealing of the airplane either. The story was dramatic enough without having these fake "dramatic touches."
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