By
David Edlington
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Former
RAF Flight Lieutenant Paul Royle reflects on his part in
the legendary breakout from Stalag Luft III during World
War 2.
Photo: CPL Gary Dixon
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There
was only ever a glimmer of hope at the end of the tunnel – but
that was enough.
Reflecting on their involvement in the legendary breakout from
Stalag Luft III on the night of March 24-25, 1944, former RAF
Flight Lieutenant Paul Royle, 90, of Perth, and ex-RAAF Flight
Lieutenant Bill Fordyce, of Melbourne, who turns 90 on March 30,
said the escapers knew the magnitude of the challenge they were
up against.
“I was to attempt to make it across country on foot. There was
four foot of snow and we were in Germany – I’d have never made
it, but we believed it was our duty to escape,” Bill Fordyce said.
The audacious plan called for 200 Allied airmen to escape through
a 110mlong tunnel dubbed “Harry”.
Seventy-six made it out – Paul Royle among them – before the German
guards discovered the shaft.
The Australian-born No. 53 Squadron RAF pilot, who had been shot
down and captured in France in 1940, drew No. 54 in the order
of escape.
“When my turn came, I hopped on the trolley and was dragged along
on that through the tunnel,” he said. He remembers feeling exhilarated
when he emerged beneath a scatter of icy stars. He and British
Flight Lieutenant Edgar Humphreys teamed up to trek to freedom.
“We started walking for Switzerland and we came across an autobahn,
which I had never seen before.
There was no shelter but fortunately there were no cars and we
made it across safely.”
He said less than 24 hours later members of the German home guard
“stopped us in a village, and that was that”.
They were taken to Gorlitz prison – “an awful place” – and subjected
to interrogation and intimidation, including the threat of execution.
“I remember being in this big concrete room with two or three
other blokes and every day some were taken out and others replaced
them, or I was moved to a different cell,” he said.
Only three of the airmen made it back to England and of those
that were recaptured, 50 were shot in cold blood on Hitler’s orders,
including five Australians.
FLTLT Royle was returned to the prisoner of war camp at Sagan.
He cannot fathom why he survived when so many were killed, including
his travelling companion, FLTLT Humphreys.
FLTLT Fordyce, whose Wellington bomber was downed in the Mediterranean
in 1942, drew No. 86 on the escape list – he remembers thinking
“how good is that?” But he did not enter the passage until close
to 5am, one of the last to do so.
The delay came about because the tunnel had come up short of a
screen of trees, slowing the flow of escaping airmen.
There will be more on the Great Escape in the next edition.
