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Neville McGarr
Neville McGarr (24 November 1917 – 6 April 1944), was a fighter pilot from South Africa who was taken prisoner during the Second World War. He participated in the 'Great Escape' from Stalag Luft III in March 1944 but was one of the men recaptured and subsequently murdered by the ''Gestapo''. Pre-war life McGarr was born in Johannesburg, South Africa and moved with his family to Durban, in 1923. He began his education there but suffered with poliomyelitis, polio and was paralyzed from the waist down at the age of twelve. McGarr did not give up and working constantly; he managed to recover the use of his legs and by September 1930 was able to start high school. He was educated at Glenwood High School (South Africa), Glenwood High School from 1932 to 1935 and before matriculating he had earned a series of awards for sports and academic achievement and was a member of the first XV Rugby team for his school. He commenced work in the laboratories of Lever Brothers before moving to the ...
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Johannesburg
Johannesburg ( , , ; Zulu language, Zulu and Xhosa language, Xhosa: eGoli ) (colloquially known as Jozi, Joburg, Jo'burg or "The City of Gold") is the most populous city in South Africa. With 5,538,596 people in the City of Johannesburg alone and over 14.8 million in the urban agglomeration, it is classified as a Megacity#List of megacities, megacity and List of urban areas by population, one of the 100 largest urban areas in the world. Johannesburg is the provinces of South Africa, provincial capital of Gauteng, the wealthiest province in South Africa, and seat of the country's highest court, the Constitutional Court of South Africa, Constitutional Court. The city is located within the mineral-rich Witwatersrand hills, the epicentre of the international mineral and gold trade. The richest city in Africa by GDP and private wealth, Johannesburg functions as the economic capital of South Africa and is home to the continent's largest stock exchange, the Johannesburg Stock Exchang ...
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Messerschmitt Bf 109
The Messerschmitt Bf 109 is a monoplane fighter aircraft that was designed and initially produced by the Nazi Germany, German aircraft manufacturer Messerschmitt#History, Bayerische Flugzeugwerke (BFW). Together with the Focke-Wulf Fw 190, the Bf 109 formed the backbone of the ''Luftwaffe's'' fighter force during the World War II. It was commonly called the Me 109 by Allied aircrew and some German aces/pilots, even though this was not the official model designation. The Bf 109 was designed by Willy Messerschmitt and Robert Lusser, who worked at BFW during the early to mid-1930s. It was conceived as an interceptor aircraft, interceptor. However, later models were developed to fulfill multiple tasks, serving as Escort fighter, bomber escort, fighter-bomber, day fighter, day-, night fighter, night-, all-weather fighter, ground-attack aircraft, and aerial reconnaissance aircraft. It was one of the most advanced fighters when the fighter first appeared, being furnished with an all-me ...
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Jack Grisman
William Jack Grisman (30 August 1914 – 6 April 1944) was a British Vickers Wellington bomber crew member who was taken prisoner during the Second World War. He took part in the 'Great Escape' from Stalag Luft III in March 1944, but was one of the men re-captured and subsequently shot by the ''Gestapo''. Pre-war life Grisman was born in Hereford Herefordshire the eldest son of a postman,Carroll (2005), p.57 he was educated in the local council school where he matured rapidly towards the end of his time and became very keen on swimming and rugby football. He wanted to see some of the world, play sports and work in engineering and quickly identified the Royal Air Force as a good opportunity so enlisted as an aircraft apprentice on 13 January 1931 to train at No. 1 School of Technical Training RAF, RAF HaltonVance (2000), p.26 he graduated in December 1933 as an aircraftman 2nd class (service number 565127) posted to No. 10 Squadron RAF at RAF Boscombe Down to service Handley Pa ...
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Tony Bethell
Richard Anthony Bethell (9 April 1922 – 17 February 2004) was born in Dar es Salaam in the British territory of Tanganyika. He joined the Royal Air Force during the Second World War. After his Mustang was shot down he was taken prisoner and held in the German prisoner of war camp Stalag Luft III at Sagan where he participated in the Great Escape, being one of the 76 officers to break out and make some distance across enemy occupied territory before being recaptured. His name was not one of the 50 who were picked to be executed and he, with 25 others, went back into captivity. He retired from the RAF in 1955 and worked in financial services in Canada. He died in Canada in 2004. Early life Bethell's parents lived abroad serving with the British Colonial Services in East Africa and Gibraltar. Bethell was born on 9 April 1922 in Dar-es-Salaam, then part of the British territory of Tanganyika. He and his brother were boarders at Junior Kings School, Sturry, Kent and regularly sai ...
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Charles Piers Egerton Hall
Charles Piers Hall
compiled by USAF 392nd Bomber Group Association
– 31 March 1944) was a British pilot who was taken prisoner during the . He was part of the 'Great Escape' from in March 1944, but was captured and subsequently shot by the .


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Hall was born in



Paul Royle
Flight Lieutenant Paul Gordon Royle (17 January 1914 – 23 August 2015) was an Australian Royal Air Force pilotPaul Royle at elsham
. Retrieved 26 August 2014
who was one of the last two survivors of the 76 men who were able to escape from the in in what became known as ''
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Görlitz
Görlitz (; ; ; ; ; Lusatian dialects, East Lusatian: , , ) is a town in the Germany, German state of Saxony. It is on the river Lusatian Neisse and is the largest town in Upper Lusatia, the second-largest town in the region of Lusatia after Cottbus, and the largest town in the German part of the region of Silesia. Görlitz is the easternmost town in Germany (the easternmost village being Zentendorf, Zentendorf (Šćeńc)) and lies opposite the Poland, Polish town of Zgorzelec, which was the eastern part of Görlitz until 1945. The town has approximately 56,000 inhabitants, which make Görlitz the List of cities in Saxony by population, sixth-largest town in Saxony. It is the seat of the Görlitz (district), district of Görlitz. Together with Zgorzelec it forms the Euro City of Görlitz/Zgorzelec, which has a combined population of around 86,000. The town's recorded history began in the 11th century as a Sorbs, Sorbian settlement. Through its history it has been under German ...
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Żagań
Żagań (French language, French and , ) is a town in western Poland, on the Bóbr river, with 25,731 inhabitants (2019), capital of Żagań County in the Lubusz Voivodeship, located in the historic region of Lower Silesia. Founded in the 12th century by Polish monarch Bolesław IV the Curly, Żagań was the capital of an Duchy of Żagań, eponymous principality from 1274 to 1935. The main sights are the former Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary Church, Żagań, Augustinian Monastery, one of the burial sites of the Piast dynasty, listed as a List of Historical Monuments (Poland), Historic Monument of Poland, the Ducal Palace and Park ensemble and the POW Camps Museum, located at the site of German prisoner-of-war camps in World War II, German-operated WWII prisoner-of-war camps for over 60,000 Allies of World War II, Allied soldiers of various nationalities, where the ''List of Allied airmen from the Great Escape, Great Escape'' took place. The town hosts the Polish 11th Armour ...
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Model Stalag Luft III
A model is an informative representation of an object, person, or system. The term originally denoted the Plan_(drawing), plans of a building in late 16th-century English, and derived via French language, French and Italian language, Italian ultimately from Latin , . Models can be divided into physical models (e.g. a ship model or a fashion model) and abstract models (e.g. a Numerical weather prediction, set of mathematical equations describing the workings of the atmosphere for the purpose of weather forecasting). Abstract or conceptual models are central to philosophy of science. In scholarly research and applied science, a model should not be confused with a theory: while a model seeks only to represent reality with the purpose of better understanding or predicting the world, a theory is more ambitious in that it claims to be an explanation of reality. Types of model ''Model'' in specific contexts As a noun, ''model'' has specific meanings in certain fields, derived from ...
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Barth, Germany
Barth () is a town in Mecklenburg-Vorpommern in north-eastern Germany. It is situated at a lagoon ( Bodden) of the Baltic Sea facing the Fischland-Darss-Zingst peninsula. Barth belongs to the district of Vorpommern-Rügen. It is close to the Western Pomerania Lagoon Area National Park. In 2011, it held a population of 8,706. History Middle Ages Barth dates back to the medieval German Ostsiedlung, before which the area was settled by Wends of the Liuticians or Rani tribe. Jaromar II, Danish prince of Rügen, granted the town Lübeck law in 1255. In the same document, he agreed to remove his burgh, ''Borgwall'' or ''Neue Burg'', then on the northwestern edge of the town's projected limits. Another Wendish burgh, ''Alte Burg'' near today's train station, was not used anymore. The German town was set up on empty space between the burghs. Not a member of the Hanseatic League, the town never grew to the importance and size of neighboring Hanseatic towns like Stralsund. The la ...
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Stalag Luft I
Stalag Luft I was a German World War II prisoner-of-war (POW) camp near Barth, Western Pomerania, Germany, for captured Allied airmen. The presence of the prison camp is said to have shielded the town of Barth from Allied bombing. About 9,000 airmen – 7,588 American and 1,351 British and Canadian – were imprisoned there when it was liberated on the night of 30 April 1945 by Soviet troops. Camp history The camp was opened in 1941 to hold British officers, but was closed in April 1942, when they were transferred to other camps. It was reopened in October 1942, when 200 RAF NCOs from Stalag Luft III were moved there. From 1943, American POWs were sent to the camp. Stalag Luft I consisted of a West Compound (also referred to as the South Compound) and North Nos. 1, 2, and 3 Compounds, separated by German quarters. According to Lt Col Charles Ross Greening, Senior Officer in North Camp 1, "Our barracks were rough, wood frame structures standing on small foundation posts abou ...
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Afrika Korps
The German Africa Corps (, ; DAK), commonly known as Afrika Korps, was the German expeditionary force in Africa during the North African campaign of World War II. First sent as a holding force to shore up the Italian defense of its African colonies, the formation fought on in Africa, under various appellations, from March 1941 until its surrender in May 1943. The unit's best known commander was Field Marshal Erwin Rommel, whose reputation as one of the ablest tank commanders of the war earned him the nickname ''der Wüstenfuchs'', "the Desert Fox". History Organization The Afrika Korps formed on 11 January 1941 and one of Adolf Hitler's favourite generals, Erwin Rommel, was designated as commander on 11 February. Originally Hans von Funck was to have commanded it, but Hitler loathed von Funck, as he had been a personal staff officer of Werner von Fritsch until von Fritsch was dismissed in 1938. The German Armed Forces High Command (', OKW) had decided to send a "blocki ...
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