Bertram James | Stalag III escapee, 92
Bertram "Jimmy" James, 92, one of the few British prisoners to avoid being executed for joining in the "great escape" from a German prison in World War II, has died. Mr. James died Jan. 18 at Royal Shrewsbury Hospital in Shrewsbury, central England, following a brief illness. A funeral was held Thursday. He was a pilot on a Wellington bomber that was shot down near Rotterdam in the Netherlands on June 5, 1940, and was captured the next day. Despite 13 attempts to escape from various prisons, he spent five years as a prisoner of war. Mr. James was sent to Stalag Luft III, near Zagan in Poland, in 1943. Joining in plans for a mass escape, he was put in charge of dispersing about 40 tons of sand taken from one tunnel. On the night of March 24, 1944, he was the 39th man to escape. He and a Greek companion caught a train headed toward the Czech border, but were recaptured two days later. - AP
Bertram "Jimmy" James, 92, one of the few British prisoners to avoid being executed for joining in the "great escape" from a German prison in World War II, has died.
Mr. James died Jan. 18 at Royal Shrewsbury Hospital in Shrewsbury, central England, following a brief illness. A funeral was held Thursday.
He was a pilot on a Wellington bomber that was shot down near Rotterdam in the Netherlands on June 5, 1940, and was captured the next day. Despite 13 attempts to escape from various prisons, he spent five years as a prisoner of war.
Mr. James was sent to Stalag Luft III, near Zagan in Poland, in 1943. Joining in plans for a mass escape, he was put in charge of dispersing about 40 tons of sand taken from one tunnel. On the night of March 24, 1944, he was the 39th man to escape.
He and a Greek companion caught a train headed toward the Czech border, but were recaptured two days later.
- AP