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89 Tom Fordy Mon, June 19, 2023 at 8:02 AM CDT Steve McQueen in The Great Escape Steve McQueen in The Great Escape - Alamy In the opening minutes of The Great Escape, “the Kommandant” (Hannes Messemer) of the Stalag Luft III prisoner-of-war camp warns Captain Ramsey (James Donald) against trying to escape. Ramsey’s rabble of captured Allied airmen are prolific, well-known escapers – but the Kommandant wants a quiet life. Ramsey, however, is having none of it. As the senior British POW, he tells the Kommandant straight: “It is the sworn duty of all officers to try to escape.”...

The son of a Bomber Command pilot whose plane exploded in a fireball in Nazi Germany has revealed his father's incredible story of survival during the war. Gerald Sherwood, 80, from St Austell, Cornwall, told how Wing Commander John 'Flap' Sherwood took part in a daring mission before being captured in his new book. He also highlighted how the RAF hero was chucked in Stalag Luft III - the Luftwaffe-run prisoner of war camp made famous by the Great Escape.