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Remembering the men of the Great Escape

Today we remember the 50 men who were murdered by the Gestapo after escaping from Stalag Luft III in the Great Escape.

"Without the film, who'd remember the 50 who were murdered?"

Of the 76 who escaped from Stalag Luft III, 50 were handed over to the Gestapo and shot dead. Former PoW Charles Clarke spoke to the Fund in March 2019, a few months…

"The game is up"

As the PoWs began to escape through the tunnel on the night of 24 March 1944, it was a long wait for the late Jack Lyon as he stood in the queue in Hut 104.

"It was every boy's ambition to join the Air Force"

Former Flight Lieutenant Charles Clarke was 20 years old when he was shot down over enemy territory serving in Bomber Command.

"Our aircraft had been observed liked a great torch in the sky'"

Former Flight Lieutenant Jack Lyon was just 23 when he joined the RAF as an Aircraftman. He entered Stalag Luft III, the scene of the Great Escape, in 1942 when it…

"The trouble with prison life is that we were all very young people. It seemed an age for us"

Former PoW, the late Charles Clarke, told the Fund what life was like for the prisoners at Stalag Luft III during World War Two.