Posted on 08/07/2008 2:52:17 PM PDT by mware
Eric Digger Dowling, who forged passports, made maps and helped to dig the one tunnel that the Germans did not discover before the Great Escape from Stalag Luft III, has died, aged 92.
On March 24, 1944, 250 prisoners lined up to await their turn to crawl through the tunnel to freedom. Many of them were equipped with documents that had been forged by Mr Dowling, who learnt to speak five languages fluently during his three years in the prison.
(Excerpt) Read more at timesonline.co.uk ...
Impossible. Bronson's character was hardly fluent in one language.
Sad to hear.
Holy typecasting, Batman, that’s a real zinger!
Donald Pleasance played the man responsible for the forging.
It did have a bloody good musical score.
Actually, I believe his name was Donald Pleasence. But, then again, I am just being unpleasant....
Steve McQueen ... Capt. Hilts “The Cooler King”
James Garner ... Flight Lt. Hendley “The Scrounger”
Richard Attenborough ... Squadron Leader Roger Bartlett “Big X”
James Donald ... Group Capt. Ramsey “The SBO”
Charles Bronson ... Flight Lt. Danny Velinski “The Tunnel King”
Donald Pleasence ... Flight Lt. Colin Blythe “The Forger”
James Coburn ... Flying Officer Louis Sedgwick “The Manufacturer”
Hannes Messemer ... Col. von Luger
David McCallum ... Lt. Cmdr. Eric Ashley-Pitt “Dispersal”
Gordon Jackson ... Flight Lt. Sandy MacDonald “Intelligence”
John Leyton ... Flight Lt. William Dickes “The Tunneler”
Angus Lennie ... Flying Officer Archibald Ives “The Mole”
Nigel Stock ... Flight Lt. Denys Cavendish “The Surveyor”
Robert Graf ... Werner ‘The Ferret’
Jud Taylor ... Goff
Aw...too bad. The Great Escape was a terrific book. What those guys had to go through!
79 men got out. Three were caught at the mouth of the tunnel, 50 were murdered at various times and places, and three made it. Of the remaining 23, not all were returned to Stalag Luft III. These escaped: Bergsland, Muller, van der Stok. These were caught at the mouth of the tunnel: Langlois, Reavell-Carter, Trent. These were recaptured and survived: Armstrong, Bethell, Brodrick, Cameron, Churchill, Day, Dodge, Dowse, Dvorak, Green, James, Marshall, McDonald, Neely, Nelson, Ogilvie, Plunkett, Poynter, Royle, Shand, Thompson, Tonder, van Wymeersch.
I’m sorry he didn’t like it, but it was a movie not a documentary. I loved it (but I was a huge Steve McQueen fan).
susie
Donald Pleasence had actually been a World War II prisoner of war. When he kindly offered advice to the film’s director John Sturges, he was politely asked to keep his “opinions” to himself. Later, when another star from the film informed John Sturges that Pleasence had actually been a RAF Officer in a World War II German POW Stalag camp, Sturges requested his technical advice and input on historical accuracy from that point forward.
I read the book when I was twelve.
Dowling hated the movie. The biggest problem of course, was that us Yanks did not get to participate, having been moved to a separate camp earlier. I recall that recent History Channel special when they actually dug up the site and exposed the tunnel path before covering it back up. The digging conditions were absolutely hellish.
My favorite scene in the book was when our heros hoarded their raisin and sugar rations from their Red Cross parcels for little experimental home-brewing in preparation for a Guy Fawkes day blowout. It’s been thirty years since I read it but the occasion was sufficiently memorable that the ranking officers decided that the effort should not be repeated in the interest of discipline...
It sounds as though “Digger” had a long life after he was freed. He deserved it. God bless him. RIP.
During production, Charles Bronson met and fell in love with David McCallum's wife, Jill Ireland, and he jokingly told McCallum he was going to steal her away from him. In 1967, Ireland and McCallum divorced, and she married Bronson.
“In a related story, director Spike Lee criticized John Sturges for filming “The Great Escape” with no African American characters.....”
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