Posted on 06/17/2017 6:33:50 PM PDT by DFG
The architect of the Second World War prison break immortalised by The Great Escape is to be honoured with a plaque on the spot where Gestapo officers murdered him in 1944. Daredevil skiier, ladies' man and multilingual Cambridge-educated barrister Roger Bushell helped 76 prisoners of war escape from Stalag Luft III, a Nazi camp in occupied Poland. Just 33 at the time of his death, Squadron Leader Bushell - played by Richard Attenborough in the classic 1963 film - had been in enemy hands since his first day of combat, when he was shot down in a Spitfire during the Dunkirk evacuation.
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Roger Bushell was an amazing man. Sensation-seeking, compulsive, driven.
...yeah but could he jump barbwire fences with a motorcycle
Anyone can jump barbed-wire fences on a motorcycle, if the physics align.
One of two movies shown at my elementary school. ‘Forbidden Planet’ the other.
Still remember them using the matches and cigarette for a fuse. If the day ever comes...
...and the landing?
Gravity: 9.8 meters per second per second.
They were both great movies. Altira was really, really hot.
Not everyone can land a motorcycle after jumping a fence.
What good does it do, if the Nazis shoot you anyhow?
I don't remember that from "The Great Escape". It was, however, a key plot element in "Stalag 17" as the method Dunbar used to blow up the Nazi ammunition train.
Roger Bushell was called “Bartlett” in the movie and played by Richard Attenborough. Steve McQueen’s character ‘Hilts’ was purely fictional. There were no Americans in the camp or the escape. The motorcycle scene was added at McQueen’s insistence because he was into motorcycles at the time.
In the movie, the Krauts didn’t shoot the motorcycle jumper. He ended up back in solitary with his baseball.
Yes, you’re right.
Iirc, the Americans were separated from the UK forces soon after their arrival at the camp.
Hitler ordered all the escapees shot but Goering pleaded with him and most were spared. I think 50 were actually shot but could remember wrong on that.
McQueen also did not make that jump.
An accurate depiction by the same name was done on TV. By GE (General Electric) Theater narrated by Ronald Reagan a year earlier. I don’t believe any Americans were involved. At the time the film was released the Brits raised hell about the modified story line because of that fact.
> It was, however, a key plot element in “Stalag 17” as the method Dunbar used to blow up the Nazi ammunition train. <
Shhh...Price might be listening in.
Jim Garner did play a Canadian-American flier.
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