0:00:09 > 0:00:12FIGHTER PLANE ENGINES ROAR
0:00:24 > 0:00:26As soon as the battle started,
0:00:26 > 0:00:28about four or five of them fell on me
0:00:28 > 0:00:30and oh, boy, did I start dodging.
0:00:30 > 0:00:35My first I got with a full deflection shot from underneath.
0:00:35 > 0:00:38He went down in a long glide
0:00:38 > 0:00:39and I went into a spin,
0:00:39 > 0:00:42as two others were firing at me from aft.
0:00:42 > 0:00:45I pulled left and up.
0:00:45 > 0:00:48I then saw a Messerschmitt trying to fire up at me
0:00:48 > 0:00:50so I went head-on at him.
0:00:50 > 0:00:54We were both firing and everything was red flashes.
0:00:54 > 0:00:57I killed the pilot because suddenly he pulled right at me
0:00:57 > 0:00:58and missed me by inches.
0:01:00 > 0:01:01I went over the top of him
0:01:01 > 0:01:05and, as I turned, I saw him rear right up in a stall
0:01:05 > 0:01:08and go down with his engines smoking.
0:01:08 > 0:01:11He was out of control and half on his back.
0:01:13 > 0:01:15My engine was badly shot-up
0:01:15 > 0:01:17and caught fire.
0:01:17 > 0:01:20I turned everything off.
0:01:20 > 0:01:23The fire went out and I glided down.
0:01:23 > 0:01:27There was a lot of glycol and I couldn't see anything much.
0:01:27 > 0:01:30I turned the petrol on again.
0:01:30 > 0:01:32The engine ran for a little while
0:01:32 > 0:01:34and then everything seized
0:01:34 > 0:01:37and a lot of fumes and smoke came into the cockpit.
0:01:38 > 0:01:41So I prepared to land, undercarriage up.
0:01:45 > 0:01:47This I did successfully,
0:01:47 > 0:01:50only to get a knock on the nose, which bled like a pig.
0:01:50 > 0:01:53The old girl burst into flames
0:01:53 > 0:01:55and, as you can imagine, I moved pretty quickly.
0:01:57 > 0:02:00I'd landed just East of Boulogne.
0:02:00 > 0:02:04I thought, of course, I was well behind our lines.
0:02:05 > 0:02:09And then, to my rage and astonishment,
0:02:09 > 0:02:11a German motorbike came round the corner
0:02:11 > 0:02:13and I was taken prisoner.
0:02:15 > 0:02:19Please ask Hollis to send me the standard law books, like Salmond,
0:02:19 > 0:02:24and also all the quarterlies, so I can keep my hand in.
0:02:24 > 0:02:27A cheap set of Shakespeare would be grand.
0:02:53 > 0:02:55I was three years old
0:02:55 > 0:02:58when Hitler personally ordered the execution
0:02:58 > 0:03:00of my uncle, Roger Bushell.
0:03:20 > 0:03:23Throughout our childhood, he gazed down on us,
0:03:23 > 0:03:25he smiled at us,
0:03:25 > 0:03:27he winked at us, and we winked back.
0:03:30 > 0:03:32Every summer, we spent our holidays
0:03:32 > 0:03:35in my grandparents' house in Hermanus,
0:03:35 > 0:03:39a small fishing village on the South African Cape coast.
0:03:42 > 0:03:44After lunch,
0:03:44 > 0:03:48my sister and I would play or laze about in my grandfather's study
0:03:48 > 0:03:50while the elders slept.
0:03:52 > 0:03:56My grandfather instilled in us a love for Britain.
0:03:56 > 0:03:58He read us Rudyard Kipling.
0:03:58 > 0:04:02We grew up believing that the British were best.
0:04:04 > 0:04:05We read about Roger
0:04:05 > 0:04:08from Paul Brickhill's book The Great Escape.
0:04:10 > 0:04:13But what we longed for most
0:04:13 > 0:04:15was that he would walk through the gate
0:04:15 > 0:04:17so we could leap into his arms.
0:04:21 > 0:04:23But this he never did.
0:04:27 > 0:04:30My uncle, Roger Bushell,
0:04:30 > 0:04:34masterminded the Great Escape of World War II.
0:04:34 > 0:04:38In 1963, Hollywood made a film about it.
0:04:38 > 0:04:42This time we'll dig straight down 30 feet before we go horizontal.
0:04:42 > 0:04:46- That'll rule out any question of sound detection.- All right, Roger.
0:04:46 > 0:04:49Roger Bushell's role as Big X was played by Richard Attenborough.
0:04:49 > 0:04:54We're going to devote our energies to sports and gardening,
0:04:54 > 0:04:56all the cultural pursuits.
0:04:56 > 0:04:58Meanwhile,
0:04:58 > 0:04:59we dig.
0:05:08 > 0:05:10All right?
0:05:10 > 0:05:12Hold onto yourself, Bartlett, you're 20 feet short.
0:05:12 > 0:05:14What do you mean, 20 feet short?
0:05:14 > 0:05:16You're 20 feet short of the woods.
0:05:16 > 0:05:18My mother and I attended
0:05:18 > 0:05:20the premiere of the film in London.
0:05:20 > 0:05:21I was 22
0:05:21 > 0:05:24and I sat next to Wing-Commander Harry Day,
0:05:24 > 0:05:27who was Roger's senior commanding officer.
0:05:27 > 0:05:32They were together as prisoners throughout the war.
0:05:32 > 0:05:34Tods met Richard Attenborough afterwards
0:05:34 > 0:05:36at the sort of reception they had
0:05:36 > 0:05:40and he said to her, "I was wrong in the part, wasn't I?"
0:05:40 > 0:05:42and she said, "Yes, frankly, you were.
0:05:42 > 0:05:44"You weren't a bit like my brother."
0:05:44 > 0:05:48And, of course, they changed his name to Bartley or something,
0:05:48 > 0:05:50which annoyed me intensely,
0:05:50 > 0:05:53but they did it apparently to...
0:05:53 > 0:05:56safeguard themselves against any criticism from the family
0:05:56 > 0:05:58so I suppose one has to accept it.
0:05:58 > 0:06:01Squadron Leader Bartlett,
0:06:01 > 0:06:03if you escape again,
0:06:03 > 0:06:06and be caught, you will be shot.
0:06:08 > 0:06:10- Heil Hitler.- Heil Hitler.
0:06:21 > 0:06:25In all those years we spent in my grandfather's study,
0:06:25 > 0:06:28we never found the meticulous records he made of Roger's life.
0:06:30 > 0:06:36Only very recently, we found them all in one place.
0:06:36 > 0:06:38Childhood, youth,
0:06:38 > 0:06:42youth into manhood, photographs,
0:06:42 > 0:06:44letters, certificates,
0:06:44 > 0:06:46newspaper clippings,
0:06:46 > 0:06:49small notes and wry comments,
0:06:49 > 0:06:54all sealed away for two generations to keep tragedy at bay.
0:06:57 > 0:07:00My grandmother's diary begins it all.
0:07:03 > 0:07:05For a week after his birth,
0:07:05 > 0:07:07he lost weight steadily
0:07:07 > 0:07:10and one night, his life hung by so slender a thread
0:07:10 > 0:07:14that the nursing sister, a Roman Catholic,
0:07:14 > 0:07:17implored me to let her christen him.
0:07:17 > 0:07:19Roger Joyce Bushell,
0:07:19 > 0:07:22I baptise you in the name of the Father...
0:07:22 > 0:07:24After she had said the lovely words,
0:07:24 > 0:07:26she laid him in my arms.
0:07:26 > 0:07:31Drops of holy water still lay on his queer wrinkled forehead.
0:07:32 > 0:07:36All fear for my beloved little son left me.
0:07:36 > 0:07:38I knew that he would live.
0:07:40 > 0:07:43He was my mother's brother.
0:07:43 > 0:07:44He called her Tods.
0:07:47 > 0:07:49They grew up on a gold mine
0:07:49 > 0:07:52at West Springs on the South African Gold Reef.
0:07:52 > 0:07:53They did everything together.
0:07:55 > 0:07:59If it was bird-watching, my mother was sent along the branch first
0:07:59 > 0:08:01to see if it would break.
0:08:02 > 0:08:05My mother's dolls were burnt at the stake.
0:08:05 > 0:08:09Roger could spit a phenomenal distance.
0:08:09 > 0:08:12They had one small dog called Rubbish,
0:08:12 > 0:08:15because he was found on a rubbish heap
0:08:15 > 0:08:18and they had a much younger sister called Elizabeth.
0:08:21 > 0:08:23Like many boys at the time,
0:08:23 > 0:08:26Roger was sent to senior school in England.
0:08:28 > 0:08:31He only ever returned to South Africa once or twice.
0:08:33 > 0:08:35I suppose because we didn't see so much of him
0:08:35 > 0:08:38he was sort of glamourised.
0:08:38 > 0:08:42Stuffiness and being hide-bound by rules and regulations
0:08:42 > 0:08:44were not his scene at all.
0:08:44 > 0:08:47He did cock a snook at authority.
0:08:47 > 0:08:50When he left Wellington, the headmaster wrote that
0:08:50 > 0:08:53he really didn't think he could teach Roger anything more
0:08:53 > 0:08:57and he suggested Roger went to West Africa, you know, in the Services,
0:08:57 > 0:09:00and my father wrote and said that he thought he knew a bit more about
0:09:00 > 0:09:04West Africa than the headmaster did, and no son of his was going there.
0:09:04 > 0:09:06And that's when he went to Grenoble.
0:09:10 > 0:09:13Roger was 15 when he first skied at Murren
0:09:13 > 0:09:17but, even in those days, he counted in any company.
0:09:17 > 0:09:22In 1931, aged 20, he won the Langlauf at Scheidig Oberland.
0:09:28 > 0:09:32In later years he was one of the great characters at St Moritz.
0:09:35 > 0:09:36And the uncrowned king
0:09:36 > 0:09:41of the fashionable Italian skiing centre at Sestriere.
0:09:42 > 0:09:46Sometimes, as a racer, Roger had far more courage than judgment
0:09:46 > 0:09:49and threw away many races through recklessness.
0:09:51 > 0:09:55In an attempt to overtake Frank Campbell of McGill,
0:09:55 > 0:09:57he fell on a swift downhill run,
0:09:57 > 0:09:59broke both skis
0:09:59 > 0:10:01and lacerated his left eye.
0:10:01 > 0:10:05However, when the rescue team went to pick him up,
0:10:05 > 0:10:07he said he intended to go on.
0:10:07 > 0:10:09"The team needs every point," he protested.
0:10:09 > 0:10:11"They'll lose if I don't continue."
0:10:11 > 0:10:14He was was restrained and sent to hospital.
0:10:20 > 0:10:23Behind his gaiety and nonsense, which is joie de vivre
0:10:23 > 0:10:26and also a touch of joie de vice -
0:10:26 > 0:10:30is an unceasing or underlying purpose
0:10:30 > 0:10:32and a strong will to carry it out.
0:10:34 > 0:10:36Loving as he is, fundamentally,
0:10:36 > 0:10:41he will never let his heart completely control his head -
0:10:41 > 0:10:44and so, he will grow into a fine man.
0:10:49 > 0:10:54My most vivid memory, I suppose, going to dinner at the Savoy
0:10:54 > 0:10:58and dancing, and as the clock struck 12 and I became 17, he said,
0:10:58 > 0:11:01"Right, now I'm going to show you how people really kiss,"
0:11:01 > 0:11:06and I went down the drain and came up for air about two minutes later.
0:11:08 > 0:11:11He said, "Well, there you are. Now you know."
0:11:11 > 0:11:13You know, sweet 17 and never kissed before,
0:11:13 > 0:11:16sort of, which wasn't entirely true, but still.
0:11:21 > 0:11:23There were very few people who had the experience that Roger had
0:11:23 > 0:11:26on the female sex, I can assure you.
0:11:26 > 0:11:30He had many girlfriends, many, many girlfriends.
0:11:30 > 0:11:35# Some day you'll come along
0:11:35 > 0:11:37# The man I love... #
0:11:37 > 0:11:42And, very often, a married one, and a rich one.
0:11:42 > 0:11:45I mean, he used to go to the same tailor as Daddy
0:11:45 > 0:11:47and have things made up
0:11:47 > 0:11:52and then the bills came in, and Father hit the roof.
0:11:53 > 0:11:56He'd moved into a world that was completely different
0:11:56 > 0:11:58to anything that Benji had been in.
0:11:58 > 0:12:02# He'll look at me and smile... #
0:12:02 > 0:12:06Benji didn't countenance the fact that Roger was always stony-broke.
0:12:06 > 0:12:08He got mad as a snake about this but he didn't realise
0:12:08 > 0:12:11that living in London was a great deal more expensive
0:12:11 > 0:12:14than living in South Africa, and certainly in Springs.
0:12:14 > 0:12:16What Roger never realised was that,
0:12:16 > 0:12:19although Benji had a very big position at the mine,
0:12:19 > 0:12:21and he had a lot of perks,
0:12:21 > 0:12:25he had a car and a chauffeur and God knows how many gardeners
0:12:25 > 0:12:27and the house.
0:12:27 > 0:12:30Actual cash? I don't think he had all that amount.
0:12:30 > 0:12:33He didn't consider Roger needed that amount of money
0:12:33 > 0:12:36because he didn't, he didn't need it.
0:12:36 > 0:12:39# He'll build a little home
0:12:39 > 0:12:43# Just meant for two
0:12:43 > 0:12:47# From which I'll never roam
0:12:47 > 0:12:50# Who would?#
0:12:50 > 0:12:54Skiing and flying were his great loves.
0:12:54 > 0:12:56He was a member of Auxiliary Air Force.
0:12:56 > 0:13:01He was 601 Squadron and they spent a fortnight, I think, a year,
0:13:01 > 0:13:04at various aerodromes doing training
0:13:04 > 0:13:08and they'd spend their lives getting sacks of flour or something
0:13:08 > 0:13:10and dive-bombing 600.
0:13:11 > 0:13:14Very, very full of beans, full of jokes,
0:13:14 > 0:13:18but that was all sort of childish fun that went on each year.
0:13:22 > 0:13:25But they were very serious about their flying.
0:13:43 > 0:13:46"It's that silly ass Hitler again.
0:13:46 > 0:13:50"Just back by flying boat from the South of France.
0:13:50 > 0:13:53"Embodied yesterday.
0:13:53 > 0:13:58"Address: 601 Hendon.
0:13:58 > 0:13:59"Don't worry.
0:13:59 > 0:14:02"Am fighting fit. All love, Roger."
0:14:05 > 0:14:08Roger was embodied by the RAF as a squadron leader.
0:14:09 > 0:14:14He took a couple of his friends from 601 and formed Squadron 92.
0:14:17 > 0:14:21By the time Roger sent the telegram to his parents,
0:14:21 > 0:14:23on August 26th, 1939,
0:14:23 > 0:14:29Adolf Hitler had already annexed Austria and occupied Czechoslovakia.
0:14:34 > 0:14:39Six days after the telegram arrived, German divisions broke into Poland.
0:14:43 > 0:14:46This morning, the British Ambassador in Berlin
0:14:46 > 0:14:51handed the German government a final note
0:14:51 > 0:14:56stating that unless we heard from them by 11 o'clock
0:14:56 > 0:15:01that they were prepared to withdraw their troops from Poland,
0:15:01 > 0:15:04a state of war would exist between us.
0:15:06 > 0:15:08I have to tell you now,
0:15:08 > 0:15:12that no such undertaking has been received
0:15:12 > 0:15:17and that consequently, this country is at war with Germany.
0:15:24 > 0:15:30Roger's Squadron 92 traded Blenheim planes for Spitfires.
0:15:30 > 0:15:33Pilots spoke of the clear-cut beauty of the Spitfire
0:15:33 > 0:15:37with its Rolls-Royce engine
0:15:37 > 0:15:41and that flying them was like an extension of their own bodies,
0:15:41 > 0:15:43brains and nervous system.
0:15:48 > 0:15:51On the morning of May 23rd 1940,
0:15:51 > 0:15:55Squadron 92 was ordered to patrol the French coastline.
0:16:00 > 0:16:02Roger was shot down at this juncture,
0:16:02 > 0:16:05during the retreat of the British army at Dunkerque.
0:16:15 > 0:16:16I remember the telegram arriving,
0:16:16 > 0:16:18saying that Roger had been killed.
0:16:21 > 0:16:23Well, we were all absolutely devastated.
0:16:26 > 0:16:28I went back to Varsity and I was in some show
0:16:28 > 0:16:31and the chap who was producing was an absolute darling.
0:16:31 > 0:16:35I remember him taking me out for coffee or something
0:16:35 > 0:16:37after we'd had a rehearsal
0:16:37 > 0:16:40and saying, "Look, don't take it, I bet he's a prisoner of war."
0:16:40 > 0:16:45My God, two days later or something, came the news that he was.
0:16:46 > 0:16:48He was everything.
0:16:48 > 0:16:51Someone once said to me during the war,
0:16:51 > 0:16:53"You know you'll never get a husband
0:16:53 > 0:16:56"if you keep measuring him up to your brother."
0:16:56 > 0:16:58And that was my basic thing.
0:17:06 > 0:17:0931st of July, 1940.
0:17:09 > 0:17:14My darlings, you will know by now that I am a prisoner of war
0:17:14 > 0:17:16and alive and well.
0:17:16 > 0:17:20I understand that I had some flattering obituary notices,
0:17:20 > 0:17:23so I'm afraid you must have had a bad time.
0:17:33 > 0:17:35I hardly know where to start.
0:17:36 > 0:17:39As we are only allowed this single sheet of paper,
0:17:39 > 0:17:42my news will be sketchy.
0:17:42 > 0:17:46I was shot down in a big battle with Messerschmitts.
0:17:46 > 0:17:48I got two of them first,
0:17:48 > 0:17:50so I have done something to help win the war.
0:17:58 > 0:18:01Do you remember how I told you at the beginning of the war
0:18:01 > 0:18:03that I knew I'd get through it?
0:18:03 > 0:18:07Well, admittedly, I never thought it would be this way.
0:18:07 > 0:18:10But I'm convinced now, that all my energies,
0:18:10 > 0:18:14bottled up for the time being, are meant to be used later on.
0:18:18 > 0:18:22My dear Uncle Harry, my flat, as you know,
0:18:22 > 0:18:25I shared with Michael Peacock.
0:18:25 > 0:18:28We owed the people a certain amount of rent because, of course,
0:18:28 > 0:18:30with the declaration of war,
0:18:30 > 0:18:33our circumstances were very much altered.
0:18:33 > 0:18:37This letter gives you full authority to act on my behalf.
0:18:39 > 0:18:42He and Michael Peacock, they had a flat in Tite Street, in Chelsea.
0:18:42 > 0:18:45They shared the car, they shared everything
0:18:45 > 0:18:46because if one had the tailcoat,
0:18:46 > 0:18:50the other couldn't go out in a tail-coat that night!
0:18:50 > 0:18:57They had this wonderful sort of carefree existence
0:18:57 > 0:19:00and they had an old girl called Mrs Robinson who was their char,
0:19:00 > 0:19:04who must have been an absolute saint the way she coped with them.
0:19:04 > 0:19:07But, I mean, trust them to find someone like that.
0:19:08 > 0:19:12In 1936, when he was actually working as a barrister,
0:19:12 > 0:19:17he and Michael Peacock joined up as juniors in Khaki's Chambers.
0:19:23 > 0:19:27I think they did all the sort of minor cases with no money attached.
0:19:29 > 0:19:34And they also went down into what was the East End, once a week,
0:19:34 > 0:19:37to give advice to people who had legal problems,
0:19:37 > 0:19:40for free gratis and for nothing because it was experience,
0:19:40 > 0:19:43and quite a few of them got into the newspapers.
0:19:51 > 0:19:53He really did have the gift of the gab.
0:19:53 > 0:19:57He could talk his way into anything and out of anything
0:19:57 > 0:20:00and swore like a trooper at times.
0:20:00 > 0:20:02And he had this rather fat chuckle.
0:20:07 > 0:20:09I mean, they did their job and they did the job well.
0:20:09 > 0:20:12Both he and Michael were very good at law.
0:20:14 > 0:20:18I think he was quite liable to go out most of the night,
0:20:18 > 0:20:22and come in and have to be in court at nine o'clock the next morning.
0:20:22 > 0:20:25And thank God they did.
0:20:30 > 0:20:33Poor Mike, I'm afraid, is dead.
0:20:35 > 0:20:39Michael Peacock was killed three days before Roger was captured.
0:20:42 > 0:20:46Life here is very peaceful and we are extremely well treated.
0:20:48 > 0:20:50I had a delightful birthday party
0:20:50 > 0:20:53with whisky sent over by the Kommandant,
0:20:53 > 0:20:54who is a charming fellow.
0:20:56 > 0:20:59I have many books, all the old classics
0:20:59 > 0:21:03and have a whole set of Shakespeare, which is a great joy.
0:21:05 > 0:21:09And several parcels of popular games like backgammon, chess
0:21:09 > 0:21:11and those absurd puzzles have arrived from Harrods.
0:21:14 > 0:21:17I have all that's necessary to bodily comfort,
0:21:17 > 0:21:21only that devil, the human mind, makes one go crazy at times.
0:21:27 > 0:21:31Something of greater value beckons him on
0:21:31 > 0:21:36and the image of it shines in his curiously dilated pupils.
0:21:36 > 0:21:40At times only a rim of brilliant blue shines around them.
0:21:42 > 0:21:48Were his goals solely a material one, I'd be anxious.
0:21:52 > 0:21:54My dear Uncle Harry.
0:21:54 > 0:21:56I would be grateful if you'd get in touch
0:21:56 > 0:21:58with Miss Peggy Hamilton,
0:21:58 > 0:22:049 Wellesley House, Sloane Square, 8469.
0:22:04 > 0:22:07We were going to get married, if I'd not ended up here
0:22:07 > 0:22:10and we are going to get married as soon as this bloody war is over.
0:22:11 > 0:22:14I've written to Cox & Kings
0:22:14 > 0:22:18and told them that I wish my pay be made over to her.
0:22:18 > 0:22:20My account at Barclays bank is overdrawn
0:22:20 > 0:22:23but I have a life insurance to cover it.
0:22:32 > 0:22:35My darling Mummy, your letters are the greatest joy.
0:22:35 > 0:22:37Please don't think they're boring.
0:22:37 > 0:22:41Letters are wonderful things when you're a prisoner.
0:22:41 > 0:22:43I'm so glad Peggy Hamilton wrote to you.
0:22:43 > 0:22:47She is, I'm quite sure, the only person in the world for me
0:22:47 > 0:22:49and I know that you will adore her.
0:22:50 > 0:22:53I want you to buy a lovely diamond
0:22:53 > 0:22:56which I'll arrange to pay for out of my pay.
0:22:56 > 0:23:00Send it to her and tell her to have it made into a ring.
0:23:00 > 0:23:02While I'm a prisoner, it's probably the only time
0:23:02 > 0:23:05I'll have enough money to buy her something really good.
0:23:12 > 0:23:15It drives me almost frantic, with London being bombed,
0:23:15 > 0:23:19to feel that Peggy is there, nursing, in the middle of it.
0:23:29 > 0:23:32One is liable to become vague, I find,
0:23:32 > 0:23:34so shut away from the world are we.
0:23:34 > 0:23:38Papers and the wireless bring the war into perspective for a moment,
0:23:38 > 0:23:41but the context is an artificial one
0:23:41 > 0:23:44and we carry on in our community in splendid isolation
0:23:44 > 0:23:47from the struggle and tragedy of it all.
0:23:55 > 0:23:57The first snow has fallen.
0:23:57 > 0:24:01The air is like wine and the snow has that creaky, squeaky crunch
0:24:01 > 0:24:05that makes me so homesick for Switzerland and a pair of skis.
0:24:07 > 0:24:11We went out today in beautiful powder snow,
0:24:11 > 0:24:13crisp fresh air, blue sky
0:24:13 > 0:24:16and all the trees loaded with snow.
0:24:20 > 0:24:23It was too beautiful for words.
0:24:26 > 0:24:30Believe it or not, we bought skis through the canteen
0:24:30 > 0:24:33and use Red Cross boots and go out on the local hills
0:24:33 > 0:24:36with the German officers.
0:24:36 > 0:24:38You can imagine what it does to us.
0:24:40 > 0:24:44And then, of course, one gets outside the old barbed wire.
0:24:49 > 0:24:52Life is like a jigsaw puzzle.
0:24:52 > 0:24:55We fiddle with the pieces, put them this way and that,
0:24:55 > 0:24:58try to fit one with the other, but it's of no use.
0:24:58 > 0:25:03They will only go one way and, finally, we have to find it.
0:25:20 > 0:25:24I am the first of the family ever to take this journey across Europe
0:25:24 > 0:25:28to find out as much as I can about Roger's dogged life,
0:25:28 > 0:25:30of escape and captivity.
0:25:32 > 0:25:37The exhilaration of getting outside the old barbed wire onto skis again
0:25:37 > 0:25:39inspired Roger's first escape.
0:25:44 > 0:25:47While he and Wings Day and others
0:25:47 > 0:25:49placated the German Luftwaffe at Dulag Luft,
0:25:49 > 0:25:53they were simultaneously digging a tunnel to get out.
0:25:53 > 0:25:55The others agreed that Roger would leave
0:25:55 > 0:25:57the day before the tunnel attempt.
0:25:57 > 0:26:01Roger outlined his plan to hide in a goat shed overnight
0:26:01 > 0:26:05before catching trains south to the Swiss border.
0:26:09 > 0:26:12With his fluency in German, he set course for Switzerland,
0:26:12 > 0:26:15travelling by day in a civilian suit
0:26:15 > 0:26:18bought from one of the guards at Dulag Luft.
0:26:19 > 0:26:23I was able to engage in brief conversations and navigated
0:26:23 > 0:26:27with the aid of guidebooks purchased from shops along the way.
0:26:27 > 0:26:31I went to Tuttlingen by express train
0:26:31 > 0:26:34and from there to Bondorf by suburban line.
0:26:34 > 0:26:38From Bondorf I reached, on foot, the point I was making for,
0:26:38 > 0:26:41just a few kilometres from the Swiss border.
0:26:41 > 0:26:44Things had gone almost too well,
0:26:44 > 0:26:49so I sat down for two hours and made myself generate caution
0:26:49 > 0:26:51for the last decisive stage.
0:26:52 > 0:26:56I had the alternatives of waiting for nightfall, with all its problems,
0:26:56 > 0:27:01or by bluffing it out by daylight, and I chose the latter.
0:27:03 > 0:27:07Roger discovered that he'd been only 100 yards from the Swiss border
0:27:07 > 0:27:10at that moment when he paused to consider.
0:27:11 > 0:27:14Alas, in the border village of Stuhlingen,
0:27:14 > 0:27:16he was halted by a guard.
0:27:16 > 0:27:20Pretending to be a drunken but amiable ski-instructor,
0:27:20 > 0:27:23and speaking German, he was being conducted towards a check point
0:27:23 > 0:27:27for an examination of his papers when he broke loose and bolted,
0:27:27 > 0:27:31dodging bullets into a side street which, alas,
0:27:31 > 0:27:37proved to be a cul-de-sac and he was run to earth within minutes.
0:27:40 > 0:27:42Escaping meant punishment
0:27:42 > 0:27:46and Roger was sent to Stalag Luft II on the Baltic.
0:27:46 > 0:27:50Starkly different from Dulag Luft.
0:28:05 > 0:28:07June 21st, 1941
0:28:09 > 0:28:13My darlings, I've changed my address.
0:28:13 > 0:28:15Apologies for not writing last month.
0:28:15 > 0:28:17I left the camp without asking,
0:28:17 > 0:28:21having decided it was so long since I'd seen my friends.
0:28:22 > 0:28:27Ghastly bad luck stopped me literally right at the last moment.
0:28:27 > 0:28:31I was within 100 yards and could have taken a girl's school across,
0:28:31 > 0:28:33when I paused.
0:28:35 > 0:28:40Almost all of the old crowd from Dulag have collected here.
0:28:42 > 0:28:47Yes, the next time I saw him was in the summer of 1941,
0:28:47 > 0:28:53after the Dulag Luft tunnel, through which about 18 or 20 escaped.
0:28:53 > 0:28:56Now, previous to that, we thought they were...
0:28:56 > 0:28:59just having a good time down at Dulag.
0:28:59 > 0:29:01There were permanent staff
0:29:01 > 0:29:06and they were enjoying the fruits of the German occupation of France,
0:29:06 > 0:29:10and captured British stocks and so on,
0:29:10 > 0:29:13and they got a very cold reception when they came in through the gate
0:29:13 > 0:29:17but, of course, when we heard that they had dug a tunnel and escaped,
0:29:17 > 0:29:20the attitude changed entirely.
0:29:25 > 0:29:29Letters are our only link with the real world.
0:29:29 > 0:29:33One writes not knowing what number of people read them
0:29:33 > 0:29:37and one tries to pretend the complicated machinery of censorship
0:29:37 > 0:29:39does not exist.
0:29:39 > 0:29:41I still have not heard from Peggy.
0:29:42 > 0:29:46All my books left at the last camp.
0:29:46 > 0:29:50Splendid of John to subscribe to my parcels.
0:29:50 > 0:29:52The best would be cigarettes.
0:29:52 > 0:29:55Several shops like Harrods know the ropes.
0:29:55 > 0:29:59Actually, in this camp, we have had no parcels.
0:30:01 > 0:30:05You'll be speechless to hear that I got on the scale at 12 stone 4 lbs,
0:30:05 > 0:30:0726 lbs lighter than on arrival.
0:30:11 > 0:30:14The Germans began by saying to everybody, they said it to me,
0:30:14 > 0:30:18"For you, the war is over." It isn't. It's still going on.
0:30:18 > 0:30:20You must also never forget that you're on the winning side
0:30:20 > 0:30:23and you must remind the Germans of that.
0:30:23 > 0:30:26If they know that you speak German you must speak German to them
0:30:26 > 0:30:28as often as you can.
0:30:28 > 0:30:32You take an air of convinced superiority to them.
0:30:34 > 0:30:39This could annoy some of the rear-area Germans,
0:30:39 > 0:30:42looking after the prisoner of war camps, very much indeed, of course.
0:30:42 > 0:30:45And it was deliberately harped on by men as clever as Roger,
0:30:45 > 0:30:47who were good at it.
0:30:48 > 0:30:55My second birthday just passed as an unwilling guest in this country.
0:30:55 > 0:30:59He very soon made himself felt, if not heard, I mean,
0:30:59 > 0:31:02if you didn't meet him, you heard him talking around the compound
0:31:02 > 0:31:04or expressing his views of the Germans.
0:31:08 > 0:31:13As far as I can see, I am likely to spend one more birthday here
0:31:13 > 0:31:16before the war is over.
0:31:16 > 0:31:18All my love, Roger.
0:31:30 > 0:31:34He escaped again with a Czech pilot seven years younger than him,
0:31:34 > 0:31:37Jarka Zafouk.
0:31:40 > 0:31:44I first met Roger in a prison near Hamburg.
0:31:44 > 0:31:48We got to know that the Germans are going to move the whole camp
0:31:48 > 0:31:52and transport all of us by train to somewhere in Germany.
0:31:53 > 0:31:56Roger managed to get some German money
0:31:56 > 0:31:59and all sorts of things necessary for escape,
0:31:59 > 0:32:03and got some food coupons out of the German guards for some cigarettes.
0:32:03 > 0:32:06I had a good plan for an escape route.
0:32:08 > 0:32:12By the middle of '41,
0:32:12 > 0:32:17anybody going on an air-force raid over enemy occupied territory
0:32:17 > 0:32:19or anybody going on a commando raid
0:32:19 > 0:32:22had one of Clayton Hutton's escape boxes
0:32:22 > 0:32:25in the trouser pocket of his battledress,
0:32:25 > 0:32:30which included food for a few days of a sort,
0:32:30 > 0:32:33chocolate and Horlicks tablets, water-purifying tablets,
0:32:33 > 0:32:36a tiny little water-bottle, a fish-hook,
0:32:36 > 0:32:42a little thread in case your clothes got torn, a saw and a compass.
0:32:51 > 0:32:56The Germans put 30 of us in one cattle truck with two guards.
0:32:56 > 0:32:59It was quite dark inside and we took out our saws
0:32:59 > 0:33:02and starting sawing the board on one end of the truck.
0:33:03 > 0:33:07There were another four boys and everybody took his turn.
0:33:07 > 0:33:10After about an hour and a half of sawing
0:33:10 > 0:33:13we managed to loosen the board and took it inside.
0:33:21 > 0:33:26Round about midnight, the train came to a large goods station
0:33:26 > 0:33:33where it slowed down a bit and we decided to go. We jumped.
0:33:33 > 0:33:36After we got to our feet, both of us ran across about three rails
0:33:36 > 0:33:41and hid under a stationary train, waiting until our train passed
0:33:41 > 0:33:46and to see whether all is clear for us to get up and dash for freedom.
0:33:54 > 0:33:58Everything seemed quiet, so we got up, ran back across the rails,
0:33:58 > 0:34:00jumped the fence.
0:34:03 > 0:34:07We changed into our home-made civvy clothes.
0:34:07 > 0:34:11Both of us looked more like two masqueraders than anything else!
0:34:15 > 0:34:18We stayed in a field till the day broke out.
0:34:18 > 0:34:22Then we found in the vicinity a stream where we washed ourselves
0:34:22 > 0:34:24and made ready for our next move.
0:34:25 > 0:34:29We knew roughly where we were and went to the station.
0:34:29 > 0:34:34There we found a cinema that was open and went inside to hide ourselves
0:34:34 > 0:34:38until came the time for us to catch a train to Dresden.
0:34:38 > 0:34:43From now on, everything went according to our plan -
0:34:43 > 0:34:46to get to Prague,
0:34:46 > 0:34:48to get in touch with the Czech underground people,
0:34:48 > 0:34:51who would help us to get either to Switzerland
0:34:51 > 0:34:53or to some other neutral country.
0:34:58 > 0:35:03In Prague, Jarka Zafouk's girlfriend recognised him on a train.
0:35:06 > 0:35:12It was in 1941. I was coming back from a date, I think it was.
0:35:12 > 0:35:17And there was this man standing on the street car inside
0:35:17 > 0:35:23with glasses, moustache and I looked at him and I said,
0:35:23 > 0:35:25"Oh, my God, it must be him!"
0:35:25 > 0:35:30And that was Jarka and that was how we got back together.
0:35:36 > 0:35:39Vlasta Zafouk flew back to Prague from Montreal
0:35:39 > 0:35:42to tell me what she remembered of the time
0:35:42 > 0:35:45when Roger and Jarka were there in hiding.
0:35:47 > 0:35:51I always remember Roger because he made quite an impression on me.
0:35:53 > 0:35:57He was really, really something different,
0:35:57 > 0:36:01brave, crazy,
0:36:01 > 0:36:05ready to take any chance just to get what he wanted.
0:36:08 > 0:36:10Exceptional man.
0:36:10 > 0:36:15Roger would take any chance to get away,
0:36:15 > 0:36:17steal an aeroplane,
0:36:17 > 0:36:19"We'll do this, we'll do that."
0:36:19 > 0:36:21That's where...they went on together very well,
0:36:21 > 0:36:24except these little moments
0:36:24 > 0:36:28when he got into that mood and he wanted out.
0:36:31 > 0:36:33When they came to Prague,
0:36:33 > 0:36:37apparently they stayed with Schumberer
0:36:37 > 0:36:40but then they had to go out because the people got scared.
0:36:42 > 0:36:45Jarka knew Ota and he said,
0:36:45 > 0:36:51"Well, I'll talk to my sister and to my father and see if they agree".
0:36:51 > 0:36:54And they agreed, and so they went and stayed there.
0:36:55 > 0:36:58It was against the law to be in resistance
0:36:58 > 0:37:03and the penalty was a bullet to the back of the neck straight away
0:37:03 > 0:37:05or get sent off to a labour camp and be worked to death.
0:37:05 > 0:37:08Not only for you but for all your family as well.
0:37:08 > 0:37:12You put not only yourself but all of your relatives at risk
0:37:12 > 0:37:14if you went into resistance.
0:37:16 > 0:37:20They stayed in this house on the third floor.
0:37:21 > 0:37:28Their name was Zeithammle, Blaza, Ota and the father.
0:37:28 > 0:37:33Blaza, she was a very good-looking girl,
0:37:33 > 0:37:36blonde, voluptuous...
0:37:38 > 0:37:42..nice, lots of fun to talk to.
0:37:42 > 0:37:44And Ota, I didn't see him very much either
0:37:44 > 0:37:46because he was in the army
0:37:46 > 0:37:49and he came home now and then for a visit,
0:37:49 > 0:37:53and later on I think he worked for the Underground.
0:38:00 > 0:38:05You had to be so careful because there were so many spies.
0:38:12 > 0:38:17Just before the Zeithammle family hid Roger and Jarka Zafouk,
0:38:17 > 0:38:20Reinhard Heydrich, Hitler's head of secret state police
0:38:20 > 0:38:22and the criminal police,
0:38:22 > 0:38:25became the Third Reich Protektor of Czechoslovakia.
0:38:27 > 0:38:31Lots of killing, lots of arrests.
0:38:31 > 0:38:35You only have to do a little bit of thing, they arrested you right away.
0:38:35 > 0:38:39He was hated, absolutely hated.
0:38:40 > 0:38:43So how could you fight, you know,
0:38:43 > 0:38:47somebody who had all the power really to just crush you
0:38:47 > 0:38:49if you tried to do anything?
0:38:51 > 0:38:55All universities were closed and everybody had to go to work.
0:38:58 > 0:39:01It was Heydrich who had signed and set in motion
0:39:01 > 0:39:03what the Third Reich called
0:39:03 > 0:39:05The Final Solution to the Jewish Question.
0:39:07 > 0:39:13Since Heydrich came, people got more afraid, so we stayed more inside.
0:39:14 > 0:39:18In this particular house, nobody knew they were there.
0:39:18 > 0:39:22All of us play cards, amuse ourselves as much as we could.
0:39:22 > 0:39:27There was no TV that time, only radio.
0:39:39 > 0:39:45While 20,000 Jews were being removed from Prague's Jewish quarter,
0:39:45 > 0:39:50the people of Prague began to feel uncomfortable in their own streets.
0:39:50 > 0:39:53And Roger tried to kill time in the apartment.
0:40:01 > 0:40:05Roger, I don't know what he did all day.
0:40:05 > 0:40:07I ask him several times.
0:40:07 > 0:40:10He said he read.
0:40:12 > 0:40:16He read, I suppose, poor Roger,
0:40:16 > 0:40:20stuck being alone there all day,
0:40:20 > 0:40:26and Blaza looking so good, you know.
0:40:26 > 0:40:29They got involved together.
0:40:32 > 0:40:37There was a war going on and during the war lots of things happen
0:40:37 > 0:40:41which normally probably wouldn't have happened.
0:40:41 > 0:40:46And Blaza probably thought she wanted to marry him after the war
0:40:46 > 0:40:51and he told her - Roger said, "No, I can't marry you.
0:40:51 > 0:40:54"I can't because I am already engaged in England."
0:40:57 > 0:41:00Whatever, she got very hurt
0:41:00 > 0:41:04and she had a boyfriend before the war.
0:41:04 > 0:41:09She called him up and told him everything
0:41:09 > 0:41:13and he was the one who gave them away to Gestapo, for money.
0:41:17 > 0:41:21I was supposed to work in the afternoon
0:41:21 > 0:41:25and the girl who changed with me, came to me and said,
0:41:25 > 0:41:28"Can I work in the morning?"
0:41:28 > 0:41:32For me, it didn't make any difference so I said, "Fine."
0:41:32 > 0:41:37If it didn't happen, I would have been there in the morning with them.
0:41:39 > 0:41:41That would have been the end of me.
0:41:44 > 0:41:50Jarka told me that Roger got very angry with the Gestapo man
0:41:50 > 0:41:53and I think he hit him.
0:41:53 > 0:41:57So Roger was beaten quite a bit
0:41:57 > 0:42:01because, with his hot temper, he was opposing.
0:42:01 > 0:42:06And Jarka, I am sure he got more than he told me.
0:42:06 > 0:42:08He didn't like talking about it.
0:42:12 > 0:42:15Roger came face to face with Fascism for the first time.
0:42:15 > 0:42:19He had been associated with the Czech Resistance
0:42:19 > 0:42:22and this enraged the Germans.
0:42:22 > 0:42:26We know that he refused to give the names of the Zeithammle family
0:42:26 > 0:42:30and that he was severely treated as a result.
0:42:30 > 0:42:32There was one rule about being interrogated,
0:42:32 > 0:42:36which was universal, which Roger would have picked up,
0:42:36 > 0:42:38applied particularly to the Secret Services,
0:42:38 > 0:42:41you say nothing at all for the first 48 hours
0:42:41 > 0:42:45to give everybody who was in touch with you a chance to scarper.
0:42:46 > 0:42:50The father was arrested right away.
0:42:50 > 0:42:52The son was arrested right away.
0:42:52 > 0:42:56And Blaza was going around with no problem at all.
0:42:58 > 0:43:02I never came round this place again.
0:43:02 > 0:43:06This is the first time after, what is it, 65 years.
0:43:06 > 0:43:11Sad, sad, remembering all the good things
0:43:11 > 0:43:15because at that time I was quite happy
0:43:15 > 0:43:17in spite of all the misery going around.
0:43:19 > 0:43:26Heydrich wasn't only the Reich's Protektor in Czechoslovakia.
0:43:26 > 0:43:32He remained also head of the Reichssicherheitshauptamt,
0:43:32 > 0:43:36the main German party secret service.
0:43:36 > 0:43:40And, therefore, had a lot of secrets locked up in his head
0:43:40 > 0:43:44which would die with him if somebody could manage to kill him.
0:43:44 > 0:43:47He was, therefore, a legitimate objective for any Secret Service.
0:43:50 > 0:43:54About 20 Czechs were sent up to one of SOE's training camps
0:43:54 > 0:43:56in Scotland
0:43:56 > 0:43:59and two of them were settled on eventually.
0:44:02 > 0:44:04They went off into Prague.
0:44:09 > 0:44:10CAR HORN BEEPS
0:44:10 > 0:44:13HE SPEAKS GERMAN
0:44:18 > 0:44:20Run!
0:44:41 > 0:44:45Orders came from Berlin to shoot
0:44:45 > 0:44:49everybody who was under suspicion,
0:44:49 > 0:44:53which happened also that Blaza was taken in also.
0:44:57 > 0:45:02The Gestapo shot the Zeithammle family.
0:45:12 > 0:45:16It is possible that Roger was taken to Berlin
0:45:16 > 0:45:21in the very week of Heydrich's state funeral, a time of high emotion,
0:45:21 > 0:45:25and the Reich's unabated fury at his death.
0:45:25 > 0:45:31HIMMLER EULOGISES HEYDRICH
0:45:37 > 0:45:41It was sheer bad luck for Roger that this assassination took place
0:45:41 > 0:45:45just two weeks after he'd been arrested.
0:45:45 > 0:45:49The Gestapo seemed to think that he was a British Secret Service agent
0:45:49 > 0:45:52and that between the time of his escape
0:45:52 > 0:45:57and his re-arrest six months later, he had been back in London.
0:45:57 > 0:46:01They believe that he'd been dropped back into Czechoslovakia
0:46:01 > 0:46:04in a parachute, like the Czech assassins,
0:46:04 > 0:46:08to help foment an insurrection at the same time.
0:46:37 > 0:46:40I remember as a girl asking my mother
0:46:40 > 0:46:44whether what was happening in South Africa wasn't the same evil
0:46:44 > 0:46:46Roger had fought against.
0:46:46 > 0:46:51She told me I knew nothing about World War II, which was true,
0:46:51 > 0:46:52but I was right.
0:46:58 > 0:47:01Each generation makes its choice
0:47:01 > 0:47:05of whether or not to create and nurture a culture of fear.
0:47:24 > 0:47:28This is the infamous Prinz Albrecht-Strasse,
0:47:28 > 0:47:31the ruined site of Heydrich's SS Headquarters.
0:47:34 > 0:47:39The secret police turned the studios of The School of Industrial Arts
0:47:39 > 0:47:42into interrogation cells.
0:47:42 > 0:47:46Here the enemies of Hitler's Third Reich were interrogated,
0:47:46 > 0:47:50all its political and religious opponents -
0:47:50 > 0:47:55artists, musicians, writers and intellectuals.
0:47:55 > 0:48:02It is very likely that Roger was interrogated here, in these cells.
0:48:02 > 0:48:06The rule was, you're compelled by the Geneva Convention
0:48:06 > 0:48:11to give your name and rank or your name and number.
0:48:11 > 0:48:14Beyond that, you are entitled to say nothing.
0:48:15 > 0:48:19Roger will have had a very difficult month in Berlin,
0:48:19 > 0:48:22probably being interrogated alternately
0:48:22 > 0:48:24by the hard man and the soft man.
0:48:24 > 0:48:27The soft man giving him a cigarette and apologising to him
0:48:27 > 0:48:29for the dreadful manners of the hard man,
0:48:29 > 0:48:33the hard man bark, bark, barking at him all the time,
0:48:33 > 0:48:37threatening him with physical torture, probably not applying it.
0:48:38 > 0:48:42Not many prisoners of war were actually tortured.
0:48:42 > 0:48:46They would use threats and things like that,
0:48:46 > 0:48:51and hope that you were weak enough to fall for it.
0:48:51 > 0:48:55They're quite likely to take off your boots and trample on your toes,
0:48:55 > 0:48:58which will break quite a lot of people up quite fast
0:48:58 > 0:49:00but if you're bloody-enough-minded,
0:49:00 > 0:49:02and Roger was good at being bloody-minded,
0:49:02 > 0:49:03you can stand up to that.
0:49:03 > 0:49:07You were pretty cautious. One knew what was happening.
0:49:07 > 0:49:12But you could go along with it, to a small degree
0:49:12 > 0:49:19and then divert off, take them off the scent, as you might say.
0:49:19 > 0:49:23But there are some things you never admit,
0:49:23 > 0:49:27such as what code you're using, if you are using a code,
0:49:27 > 0:49:30such as who you were staying with.
0:49:30 > 0:49:32You simply don't admit that.
0:49:32 > 0:49:36If you showed any fear or anything like that,
0:49:36 > 0:49:39you'd have had it, really.
0:49:40 > 0:49:43You had to put on a very brave front.
0:49:55 > 0:50:00Roger was one of those people whose face is the window of their spirit.
0:50:00 > 0:50:03When all was well, there was the light within.
0:50:03 > 0:50:06When he was thwarted or wrongly judged,
0:50:06 > 0:50:10the light dimmed and he was thought to be morose
0:50:10 > 0:50:14when he was actually deeply perturbed or unhappy.
0:50:22 > 0:50:24Relations between the Gestapo
0:50:24 > 0:50:27and the rest of the German armed forces were often pretty chill.
0:50:27 > 0:50:33The Luftwaffe liked to keep its prisoners to itself
0:50:33 > 0:50:39and was inclined, if the Gestapo got hold of a prisoner of war
0:50:39 > 0:50:42to see whether they couldn't intervene and get him back,
0:50:42 > 0:50:45out of Gestapo hands, into a more normal prisoner-of-war environment.
0:50:48 > 0:50:50Roger was held for three months.
0:50:50 > 0:50:53His release from the Gestapo was greatly helped
0:50:53 > 0:50:57by the intervention of two Germans, Uber-Lieutenant von Massow,
0:50:57 > 0:51:03an intelligence officer, who had known and liked Roger at Dulag Luft,
0:51:03 > 0:51:05and even taken him out to dinner in Frankfurt,
0:51:05 > 0:51:07and Oberst von Lindeiner,
0:51:07 > 0:51:11a newly appointed Kommandant of Stalag Luft III.
0:51:13 > 0:51:18Roger took this same journey with the Gestapo - Berlin to Zagan -
0:51:18 > 0:51:20where Goering had built his model camp,
0:51:20 > 0:51:25specifically designed to prevent prisoners from escaping,
0:51:25 > 0:51:26Stalag Luft III.
0:51:29 > 0:51:33When he was handed over, the Gestapo warned Roger
0:51:33 > 0:51:37that if he was ever caught escaping again
0:51:37 > 0:51:39he would be shot.
0:51:50 > 0:51:54Quite a large party of us had come from Dulag Luft,
0:51:54 > 0:52:00that was the interrogation camp, in a special train.
0:52:00 > 0:52:03We got to the station in Zagan
0:52:03 > 0:52:05and out of the train
0:52:05 > 0:52:08and were marched up a short distance to the camp.
0:52:08 > 0:52:12You could see a wide open space of dirty sand,
0:52:12 > 0:52:15a clearing in a pine forest,
0:52:15 > 0:52:19a lot of wooden huts, surrounded by an ample supply of barbed-wire.
0:52:19 > 0:52:22All I thought was,
0:52:22 > 0:52:26"Well, this is going to be home for the rest of the war."
0:52:35 > 0:52:40My darlings, here I am again.
0:52:40 > 0:52:44You will, I know, have had a very anxious and trying time
0:52:44 > 0:52:47but I also know that you would not have expected me,
0:52:47 > 0:52:51in the circumstances, to have done anything other than I did.
0:52:54 > 0:52:55I am quite OK.
0:52:59 > 0:53:02I wouldn't worry about the photography, by the way.
0:53:02 > 0:53:06It was taken on a bad day in winter, in a bad light.
0:53:06 > 0:53:09I was also probably in a bad temper
0:53:09 > 0:53:11and I don't look any younger these days
0:53:11 > 0:53:14but I am very well, all things considered,
0:53:14 > 0:53:18and a month of decent, civilised life would put me back to normal.
0:53:18 > 0:53:22And I will have one great advantage -
0:53:22 > 0:53:24I will be very much wiser.
0:53:25 > 0:53:29I am naturally very disappointed to have been caught again
0:53:29 > 0:53:32but my spirits are sky-high and you need have no fear
0:53:32 > 0:53:35that this life has got me down yet,
0:53:35 > 0:53:38or that it ever will, please, God.
0:53:38 > 0:53:43Give yourselves all a big hug and lots of love, from Roger.
0:53:45 > 0:53:47I met Roger in the camp.
0:53:47 > 0:53:50He was shot down long before I was.
0:53:50 > 0:53:52I was very fond of him.
0:53:52 > 0:53:53We used to have a lot of
0:53:53 > 0:53:56what I think was very intelligent conversation anyway.
0:53:56 > 0:53:59He might not have done!
0:53:59 > 0:54:00But I certainly did.
0:54:00 > 0:54:03We discussed everything,
0:54:03 > 0:54:06from women to anything else you'd like to talk about.
0:54:07 > 0:54:11Shortly after his arrival, von Massow handed Roger a letter
0:54:11 > 0:54:15he had kept back until he was among friends.
0:54:15 > 0:54:20It was from Peggy Hamilton, to say she had married somebody else.
0:54:22 > 0:54:27I only heard about Peggy a couple of weeks ago.
0:54:27 > 0:54:29Don't waste any false sympathy on this,
0:54:29 > 0:54:33because I find I don't really care a damn about it.
0:54:33 > 0:54:36I have told Harry to do what he can about the money,
0:54:36 > 0:54:40but if Peggy sticks her toes in, there's nothing I can do legally.
0:54:40 > 0:54:44The whole business is a bore and not worth discussing.
0:54:52 > 0:54:58Soon after this, Roger addressed the camp in words to this effect.
0:54:58 > 0:55:02Everyone here in this room is living on borrowed time.
0:55:02 > 0:55:05By rights, we should all be dead.
0:55:05 > 0:55:09The only reason that God allowed us this extra ration of life
0:55:09 > 0:55:12is so that we can make life hell for the Hun.
0:55:14 > 0:55:19Quite clearly he was a formidable figure on the escaping front,
0:55:19 > 0:55:24being what Crocket used to call escape-minded, from an early stage.
0:55:24 > 0:55:30He became what was known as X, that is head of escapes,
0:55:30 > 0:55:34for the entire camp, a very responsible business.
0:55:35 > 0:55:38He was very good as X, very good indeed.
0:55:38 > 0:55:42I mean, he had a very clear brain and knew exactly what he wanted
0:55:42 > 0:55:46and what he didn't want, and what he expected of us.
0:55:46 > 0:55:49And that was very important
0:55:49 > 0:55:51because sometimes we wouldn't necessarily know
0:55:51 > 0:55:56what we wanted to do and he made it clear what we ought to do.
0:55:56 > 0:56:02He took charge and brought order and discipline into the whole process
0:56:02 > 0:56:05which, previously, hadn't existed.
0:56:05 > 0:56:10I mean, if I decided it would be a good idea to start a tunnel
0:56:10 > 0:56:13from here and see if I could tunnel out there
0:56:13 > 0:56:15and you decided that you were going to start one there...
0:56:15 > 0:56:21They were all digging like bunnies and usually got in each other's way
0:56:21 > 0:56:24and Roger said, "Well, there must be a stop to this!"
0:56:24 > 0:56:27No private enterprise tunnels allowed!
0:56:27 > 0:56:31We will dig three bloody deep, bloody long tunnels,
0:56:31 > 0:56:33and the tunnel is taboo.
0:56:34 > 0:56:40They will be called Tom, Dick and Harry.
0:56:40 > 0:56:46The genius behind Roger's idea of digging three tunnels simultaneously
0:56:46 > 0:56:49was that if one tunnel was found,
0:56:49 > 0:56:52the Germans would not suspect any others existed.
0:56:54 > 0:56:58They set about sinking three separate shafts
0:56:58 > 0:57:01from three different huts,
0:57:01 > 0:57:06each 25 feet deep and two feet square
0:57:06 > 0:57:09and the tunnelling began.
0:57:09 > 0:57:12I'm quite sure that Roger, although he ran the whole thing,
0:57:12 > 0:57:15I'm quite sure he didn't go down until it was absolutely done,
0:57:15 > 0:57:18because he wouldn't even go in a tube if he could avoid it.
0:57:18 > 0:57:20He hated being underground.
0:57:20 > 0:57:22It was quite phobia with him.
0:57:22 > 0:57:27In his role as Big X, his father's mantle fell upon him.
0:57:27 > 0:57:30Benjy would have liked him to go into mining
0:57:30 > 0:57:34and nothing was going to induce him to go into mining.
0:57:34 > 0:57:35He hated the very thought of it.
0:57:35 > 0:57:40Now, ironically, his freedom depended on it.
0:57:40 > 0:57:42For the first time in his life,
0:57:42 > 0:57:46Roger needed his father's advice as a mining engineer.
0:57:46 > 0:57:50This was the one thing he could not write about in his letters.
0:57:52 > 0:57:57My darlings, only one letter from father this month.
0:57:59 > 0:58:02Now, what am I to write to you about?
0:58:02 > 0:58:04Hmmm, the weather?
0:58:04 > 0:58:09It's dull, like the countryside and our existence.
0:58:09 > 0:58:11My fellow human beings?
0:58:11 > 0:58:15They're ordinary and, alas, somewhat dull too.
0:58:15 > 0:58:17The war?
0:58:17 > 0:58:20That's a topic worn threadbare in our daily lives.
0:58:20 > 0:58:24And a letter should be like a holiday, new world
0:58:24 > 0:58:29and new people, like a cinema, enchantment for a short hour or so.
0:58:35 > 0:58:39Outside, people are lying about in the sun, and overhead,
0:58:39 > 0:58:44the pale blue German sky, so like those pale blue Aryan eyes,
0:58:44 > 0:58:49looks down with stolid indifference on us.
0:58:49 > 0:58:54Tomorrow I'm 33. Hey-ho!
0:58:54 > 0:58:55Lots of love, Roger.
0:58:57 > 0:59:01In the early days, breakfast was just acorn coffee,
0:59:01 > 0:59:05lunchtime, a watery sauerkraut soup and a few bad potatoes.
0:59:05 > 0:59:09So we were pretty darned hungry on that.
0:59:09 > 0:59:11People played football and...
0:59:11 > 0:59:17but we didn't have the energy to play very enthusiastically.
0:59:17 > 0:59:20Roger harnessed the skills of the camp.
0:59:20 > 0:59:24He intended to get 200 men out.
0:59:24 > 0:59:28Each person would need civilian clothing, official papers,
0:59:28 > 0:59:32money, maps, compasses and so forth.
0:59:32 > 0:59:35He personally selected the men to run these departments.
0:59:38 > 0:59:41He had to be able to get on with everybody,
0:59:41 > 0:59:43and he had to be able to detect their weaknesses
0:59:43 > 0:59:48and their strengths, which he was very good at doing,
0:59:48 > 0:59:50I might say, very good,
0:59:50 > 0:59:53and he'd soon let you know, too!
0:59:53 > 0:59:54HE LAUGHS
0:59:54 > 0:59:58600 people dug the three tunnels.
0:59:58 > 1:00:02I had no part in that, mercifully!
1:00:02 > 1:00:05I mean I can't think of anything more horrible...
1:00:05 > 1:00:06HE CHUCKLES
1:00:06 > 1:00:08..than digging a tunnel.
1:00:08 > 1:00:11The only time I ever got near a tunnel
1:00:11 > 1:00:15was we built this ventilation pump.
1:00:15 > 1:00:19It was a double-acting pump, two kit-bags, right,
1:00:19 > 1:00:23and the operator just sat there, as though he was rowing,
1:00:23 > 1:00:26just pumping air down a pipeline
1:00:26 > 1:00:29because you couldn't breathe without a source of air
1:00:29 > 1:00:32once you were a considerable distance away from the shaft.
1:00:35 > 1:00:40You've got all these teams of experts like tailors,
1:00:40 > 1:00:45forgers, con-men who bribed the guards.
1:00:45 > 1:00:48Escaping was the principle industry, of course.
1:00:48 > 1:00:51It occupied most people's time.
1:00:51 > 1:00:54Even if you were sanguine enough to know
1:00:54 > 1:00:58that your chances of getting out of the camp were slim
1:00:58 > 1:01:01and of getting home were almost negligible.
1:01:01 > 1:01:04The goons knew perfectly well that there were tunnels
1:01:04 > 1:01:06but they just couldn't find them.
1:01:06 > 1:01:10You would only have needed one word in the wrong place
1:01:10 > 1:01:13and, of course, they would have been found in no time.
1:01:13 > 1:01:15Because the Germans were pretty smart.
1:01:15 > 1:01:19We might have thought them as idiots, but they weren't!
1:01:19 > 1:01:23You never talked indoors, for example,
1:01:23 > 1:01:26because the Germans would use microphones and God knows what
1:01:26 > 1:01:28all over the place.
1:01:28 > 1:01:31Let's go and have a stroll or something like that, you see,
1:01:31 > 1:01:33and you knew what he meant.
1:01:33 > 1:01:37You only talked when you were on the circuit, walking round.
1:01:50 > 1:01:53I've had a number of letters from Georgie Curzon,
1:01:53 > 1:01:55an old flame of mine.
1:01:55 > 1:01:58She's been busy divorcing her husband
1:01:58 > 1:02:00who doesn't seem to have behaved very prettily.
1:02:00 > 1:02:05And, now, poor Georgie is turning to her old love for comfort.
1:02:05 > 1:02:08I had not heard from her for years.
1:02:08 > 1:02:11I jolly nearly married her once.
1:02:11 > 1:02:13You didn't know that, did you?
1:02:19 > 1:02:24There was quite a bit of falling out and giving up,
1:02:24 > 1:02:29people not wanting to do the escape.
1:02:29 > 1:02:30Understandable.
1:02:30 > 1:02:34They'd had enough, wanted a quiet life.
1:02:36 > 1:02:39I wasn't one of them.
1:02:49 > 1:02:54I was one of the two leading teams of diggers.
1:02:54 > 1:02:58And we just went in there and dug the tunnel. That was it!
1:02:58 > 1:03:02My job was digging at the front and then somebody behind me
1:03:02 > 1:03:05would be taking the sand away from me.
1:03:05 > 1:03:08That would be put on the trolley and the trolley was taken up
1:03:08 > 1:03:11and the trolley was brought back again for another load.
1:03:12 > 1:03:16We built sort of railway, you might say.
1:03:21 > 1:03:26Six inches beneath the top soil was yellow sand.
1:03:26 > 1:03:30The sight of this sand anywhere in the camp
1:03:30 > 1:03:33immediately informed the German ferrets that a tunnel was being dug.
1:03:33 > 1:03:37Peter Fanshawe invented an inner-trouser device
1:03:37 > 1:03:38from long-johns,
1:03:38 > 1:03:42which they filled up with sand as it came out of the tunnel twice a day.
1:03:42 > 1:03:46They would then walk to the fence, pull a string,
1:03:46 > 1:03:51the sand fell down over their shoes and they'd kick it into the ground.
1:03:51 > 1:03:54These men became known as penguins
1:03:54 > 1:03:58because if they waddled, they were detected by the ferrets.
1:04:00 > 1:04:05The camp is filling up and we're about 1,500 strong.
1:04:05 > 1:04:07Newcomers, very optimistic,
1:04:07 > 1:04:11especially about the effect of our particular efforts.
1:04:11 > 1:04:15As everybody in Stalag Luft III was aircrew,
1:04:15 > 1:04:19by definition, they were young and also they were intelligent
1:04:19 > 1:04:23because of you were that stupid you couldn't really fly an aeroplane.
1:04:23 > 1:04:27Um... And so all sorts of activities emerged,
1:04:27 > 1:04:31the theatre being, obviously, one.
1:04:31 > 1:04:37# A room with a view and you
1:04:37 > 1:04:40# And no-one to give advice
1:04:40 > 1:04:43# That sounds a paradise few
1:04:43 > 1:04:45# Could fail to choose... #
1:04:45 > 1:04:49I've now taken to the boards in the camp theatre
1:04:49 > 1:04:52as a fat and worried old stock-broker,
1:04:52 > 1:04:54who gets the wind up about the world
1:04:54 > 1:04:58and his own affairs at 5.00am, in bed.
1:04:58 > 1:05:01It's an amusing play called Apprehensions.
1:05:01 > 1:05:07And the girls played are by fellows, some of them astonishingly funny.
1:05:07 > 1:05:10# We'll be as happy and contented
1:05:10 > 1:05:14# As birds upon a tree
1:05:14 > 1:05:20# High above the mountains and the sea
1:05:20 > 1:05:24# We'll bill and we'll coo-ooo-oo... #
1:05:24 > 1:05:29I had the advantage of being rather a pretty boy
1:05:29 > 1:05:32and so I was suitable for female roles.
1:05:32 > 1:05:34HE LAUGHS
1:05:34 > 1:05:38We did hire special dresses
1:05:38 > 1:05:43from some theatrical agency in Berlin or something like that,
1:05:43 > 1:05:47which enabled us to look properly dressed.
1:05:48 > 1:05:52That's not to say that the tailoring department wasn't very skilled,
1:05:52 > 1:05:56it was primarily occupied with producing escaping gear,
1:05:56 > 1:05:58not theatrical gear.
1:05:58 > 1:06:02# Don't put your daughter on the stage, Mrs Worthington
1:06:02 > 1:06:05# Don't put your daughter on the stage
1:06:05 > 1:06:07# She's a bit of an ugly duckling
1:06:07 > 1:06:09# You must honestly confess... #
1:06:09 > 1:06:13We didn't get any propositions, but...
1:06:13 > 1:06:15which was a shame, I suppose!
1:06:15 > 1:06:17# Please, Mrs Worthington
1:06:17 > 1:06:20# Don't put your daughter on the stage. #
1:06:30 > 1:06:33In the ordinary mail,
1:06:33 > 1:06:37the prisoners watched out for ingeniously hidden devices.
1:06:37 > 1:06:42Among the things that MI9 sent in a perfectly ordinary parcel was,
1:06:42 > 1:06:46of course, clothes and blankets.
1:06:46 > 1:06:49If you looked very carefully at the blankets,
1:06:49 > 1:06:52much more carefully than the Germans ever did,
1:06:52 > 1:06:55you could see that if you could take a knife to them,
1:06:55 > 1:06:58you could cut them down and turn them into an officer's greatcoat,
1:06:58 > 1:07:00a German officer's greatcoat.
1:07:00 > 1:07:04The locus classicus is the pack of playing cards.
1:07:04 > 1:07:07You drop them in a bucket, all the cards come off,
1:07:07 > 1:07:11and there's a very detailed map of the frontier of Switzerland inside.
1:07:11 > 1:07:14Monopoly boards.
1:07:14 > 1:07:17Take the Monopoly board off and there's a map of Germany inside.
1:07:17 > 1:07:21All sorts of devices of this sort were prepared.
1:07:27 > 1:07:30December 1943.
1:07:30 > 1:07:34Thanks to the Red Cross, we're the best-fed people in Europe.
1:07:34 > 1:07:38We had quite a comic Christmas with lots of Red Cross food
1:07:38 > 1:07:42and home-brewed booze, which had to be tasted to be believed
1:07:42 > 1:07:45but which produced the necessary oblivion,
1:07:45 > 1:07:48which is all that is required in a place like this.
1:07:50 > 1:07:53We're all bubbling over with optimism at the moment and I,
1:07:53 > 1:07:58personally, am quite certain we've had our last Christmas here.
1:08:00 > 1:08:05It was, indeed, Roger's last Christmas behind the wire.
1:08:05 > 1:08:09His prediction about the three tunnels had come true.
1:08:09 > 1:08:11Tom was discovered the year before
1:08:11 > 1:08:15when it was within 20 yards of the wood.
1:08:15 > 1:08:18The Germans did not suspected other tunnels
1:08:18 > 1:08:21and Dick was used for storage.
1:08:23 > 1:08:27By March, 1944, Harry was ready.
1:08:33 > 1:08:35And Harry got right through.
1:08:35 > 1:08:40It was 120 yards long with an exit comfortably outside the wire.
1:08:40 > 1:08:44The whole venture had taken 18 months to achieve.
1:08:44 > 1:08:48200 men were fully equipped and ready to go.
1:08:54 > 1:08:59I'm beginning to believe that it can be possible to transfer yourself
1:08:59 > 1:09:04to another part of the world or even to other worlds, with your mind.
1:09:04 > 1:09:07We Europeans know little about it
1:09:07 > 1:09:11but the Indian philosophies appear to put it into practice.
1:09:11 > 1:09:16And all the older religions teach it.
1:09:21 > 1:09:25And I'm going to do Higgins in Pygmalion.
1:09:25 > 1:09:28Lots of love, Roger.
1:09:33 > 1:09:35He gave us a talk in the theatre,
1:09:35 > 1:09:38a general briefing of what was going to happen.
1:09:38 > 1:09:40I think he gave, first of all,
1:09:40 > 1:09:43warnings to people to dress properly,
1:09:43 > 1:09:46not to be too bulky, not to have great big suitcases
1:09:46 > 1:09:48otherwise they'd knock the tunnel down.
1:09:48 > 1:09:52All the passes were stamped and rations issued
1:09:52 > 1:09:56and compasses and maps and so on.
1:09:57 > 1:10:00Roger said, "Right, well, we'll go now!"
1:10:00 > 1:10:02Which was the 24th.
1:10:05 > 1:10:12My darlings, I am well and full of confidence as usual.
1:10:12 > 1:10:15Next instalment next month.
1:10:15 > 1:10:18Bless you all, Roger.
1:10:21 > 1:10:25This was the last letter Roger wrote,
1:10:25 > 1:10:28the last letter ever received by the family.
1:10:31 > 1:10:36The tunnel was opened up and the escape began.
1:10:43 > 1:10:45When you got to the very end,
1:10:45 > 1:10:47where you were actually doing the escape,
1:10:47 > 1:10:50that had to be very carefully done.
1:10:50 > 1:10:53Then that just went straight up
1:10:53 > 1:10:59and we had sort of a ladder to go up and get out.
1:10:59 > 1:11:02Oh, it was wonderful.
1:11:02 > 1:11:05The fresh air that came in when you opened the top,
1:11:05 > 1:11:08it was a wonderful feeling.
1:11:08 > 1:11:10It absolutely gushed down.
1:11:10 > 1:11:13I came out onto the snow and it was jolly cold.
1:11:13 > 1:11:18You had to get across a little bit of open space
1:11:18 > 1:11:21before you could get something to conceal you.
1:11:23 > 1:11:25I made the wood and I thought,
1:11:25 > 1:11:29"Ah, freedom at last, first time for four years."
1:11:32 > 1:11:36Roger was the fourth man out of the tunnel.
1:11:36 > 1:11:38He chose Bernard Scheidauer,
1:11:38 > 1:11:42whose family were in the French Resistance, as his partner.
1:11:45 > 1:11:47They moved swiftly through the woods
1:11:47 > 1:11:52and arrived at Zagan station, where Roger bought two tickets to Breslau.
1:11:56 > 1:12:01100 miles away, the RAF began to bomb Berlin.
1:12:10 > 1:12:14Roger was dressed in a well-cut tweed suit with Trilby hat,
1:12:14 > 1:12:18a greatcoat and a small attache case.
1:12:18 > 1:12:21He looked exactly the part of a prosperous French businessman
1:12:21 > 1:12:24and he was in very good spirits
1:12:24 > 1:12:27and convinced he was going to get home.
1:12:28 > 1:12:30A train came in.
1:12:30 > 1:12:34Several escapees hastily boarded it.
1:12:34 > 1:12:35The driver was in a hurry.
1:12:37 > 1:12:41Des Plunkett tells how Roger, without a flicker of recognition,
1:12:41 > 1:12:43walked down the carriage and squeezed his hand,
1:12:43 > 1:12:47indicating they were all still in charge.
1:12:50 > 1:12:54Back at the camp, 76 men had escaped by 5.00am,
1:12:54 > 1:12:59when a guard finally saw one of them, by virtually bumping into him.
1:12:59 > 1:13:02A single shot rang out but nobody was hurt.
1:13:03 > 1:13:07Hitler was immediately informed.
1:13:07 > 1:13:09He flew into a rage
1:13:09 > 1:13:13and ordered that every single re-captured prisoner was to be shot.
1:13:13 > 1:13:17Cautioned that this would cause an international outcry,
1:13:17 > 1:13:19he reduced the number to 50.
1:13:20 > 1:13:22The reason to be given
1:13:22 > 1:13:25was that prisoners were shot while trying to escape.
1:13:26 > 1:13:30This order went out to every Gestapo office in the country.
1:13:31 > 1:13:35By 8.00am almost every railway station,
1:13:35 > 1:13:38every crossing, was alerted.
1:13:38 > 1:13:42It was later estimated that five million Germans were deployed
1:13:42 > 1:13:44to find the men.
1:13:44 > 1:13:49At Breslau, Roger bought two tickets to Paris.
1:13:49 > 1:13:53He and Scheidhauer crossed Germany and arrived at Saarbrucken,
1:13:53 > 1:13:55within walking distance of the French border.
1:13:56 > 1:14:01Flight Lieutenant van Wymeersch, another escapee,
1:14:01 > 1:14:03saw them board the train at Breslau.
1:14:05 > 1:14:08Later in the day, he himself was arrested at Metz.
1:14:08 > 1:14:13The Gestapo officer was immensely impressed with his forged papers,
1:14:13 > 1:14:16but, he added triumphantly...
1:14:16 > 1:14:19"You do not have the new special mark.
1:14:19 > 1:14:21"Every week, every day sometimes now,
1:14:21 > 1:14:25"we add a small special mark to a document.
1:14:25 > 1:14:27"You're not the first one to be caught.
1:14:27 > 1:14:32"We caught two very clever ones, smartly dressed, in good suits,
1:14:32 > 1:14:35"briefcases, perfect French and German,
1:14:35 > 1:14:38"business executives travelling to Paris.
1:14:38 > 1:14:42"No special mark. We have them."
1:14:47 > 1:14:53Roger Bushell and Bernhard Scheidhauer.
1:15:01 > 1:15:07In Saarbrucken, the regional chief of the Gestapo, Dr Leopold Spann,
1:15:07 > 1:15:10ushered Roger and Bernard Scheidauer into his office.
1:15:10 > 1:15:13His secretary, Gertrude Schmidt,
1:15:13 > 1:15:16noticed that they were hand-cuffed in front.
1:15:17 > 1:15:20A few minutes later, Dr Spann came out.
1:15:20 > 1:15:23He ordered her to type two death certificates.
1:15:29 > 1:15:34Around 4.00am he rang his chauffeur, Walter Breithaupt,
1:15:34 > 1:15:37to pick him up with his deputy, Emil Schulz.
1:15:39 > 1:15:44Roger and Bernard were then collected from the Kripo prison.
1:15:44 > 1:15:47The chauffeur, Walter Breithaupt, remembers...
1:15:50 > 1:15:53Schulz fastened the hands of each prisoner with handcuffs
1:15:53 > 1:15:55and sat between them.
1:15:55 > 1:16:00The bigger of the two, Bushell, said to Schulz in German,
1:16:00 > 1:16:04that this was not compatible with the honour of an officer.
1:16:04 > 1:16:09I drove 40km and then turned on to the autobahn towards Mannheim.
1:16:11 > 1:16:14Nobody spoke during the drive.
1:16:14 > 1:16:20After about 4km to 5km, Spann ordered me to stop the car.
1:16:26 > 1:16:28He got out with Schulz.
1:16:28 > 1:16:30Both lit cigarettes and moved out of hearing.
1:16:32 > 1:16:35They returned and one of them said to the prisoners
1:16:35 > 1:16:40that they could get out and relieve themselves.
1:16:40 > 1:16:44Spann told them they would get shot if they tried to escape.
1:16:45 > 1:16:47I stood next to the car by the driver's seat.
1:16:47 > 1:16:50Both prisoners stood about two meters off the road
1:16:50 > 1:16:51to relieve themselves.
1:16:51 > 1:16:54While Spann and Schulz stood a metre behind them
1:16:54 > 1:16:56with their pistols in their hands.
1:17:07 > 1:17:10TWO GUNSHOTS
1:17:27 > 1:17:31When I found out Roger was shot
1:17:31 > 1:17:35was because it was all over the newspaper.
1:17:35 > 1:17:39It was reported in the newspaper
1:17:39 > 1:17:45that 72 escapees escaped,
1:17:45 > 1:17:47that it was quite successful
1:17:47 > 1:17:52and that time I heard that nobody made it back but then, after the war,
1:17:52 > 1:17:58it was found out that about three or four actually made it.
1:17:59 > 1:18:02Hitler's orders were obeyed.
1:18:02 > 1:18:07Over the next few days, 50 re-captured men were shot.
1:18:20 > 1:18:24We saw a little paragraph in the Voelkischer Beobachter,
1:18:24 > 1:18:29saying that Anthony Eden had made a protest in the House of Commons
1:18:29 > 1:18:33about these 50 officers who had been shot
1:18:33 > 1:18:39trying to escape and he made the protest to the German government.
1:18:40 > 1:18:47Well, it could only have been our friends.
1:18:51 > 1:18:56You rather wonder why the hell you yourself weren't shot.
1:18:56 > 1:18:59That's what Jimmy and I felt, anyway.
1:18:59 > 1:19:02Why we weren't shot.
1:19:02 > 1:19:04We could have been.
1:19:04 > 1:19:07It was just luck.
1:19:07 > 1:19:08And...
1:19:10 > 1:19:12..pretty terrible.
1:19:17 > 1:19:20And it was a nasty shock all round
1:19:20 > 1:19:22because they were all prisoners of war
1:19:22 > 1:19:25and under the Geneva Convention
1:19:25 > 1:19:28were bound to be preserved by the captive power.
1:19:28 > 1:19:33And we now know they were shot on Hitler's personal order.
1:19:36 > 1:19:4023 were returned to prisoner-of-war camps.
1:19:40 > 1:19:45Jens Mueller and Per Bergsland got all the way home to Norway
1:19:45 > 1:19:48and Bram van der Stock to England.
1:19:51 > 1:19:55True to form, the Gestapo cremated the bodies of the 50 who were shot
1:19:55 > 1:19:59and returned their ashes to the camp in caskets.
1:20:02 > 1:20:06Roger's brave stance for freedom against tyranny,
1:20:06 > 1:20:11for which he was prepared to die, was not lost on us
1:20:11 > 1:20:13as we played in my grandfather's study.
1:20:22 > 1:20:26In the scramble of advancing armies,
1:20:26 > 1:20:29Roger's casket was broken,
1:20:29 > 1:20:32so his ashes lie here,
1:20:32 > 1:20:34in this place,
1:20:34 > 1:20:36in this forest.
1:20:39 > 1:20:42My grandmother wrote a poem.
1:20:42 > 1:20:47To Roger Bushell, squadron leader in the RAF,
1:20:47 > 1:20:51and 49 gallant comrades who died with him.
1:20:53 > 1:20:55With bare, earth-stained hands
1:20:55 > 1:20:57And their brave hearts
1:20:57 > 1:21:01They faced, unarmed, the bestial Nazi rage
1:21:04 > 1:21:06Their young bodies fell, riddled with steel
1:21:06 > 1:21:09To rest together in a common grave
1:21:09 > 1:21:12But with joy their spirits claimed their freedom
1:21:12 > 1:21:15From frustration, longing, prison bars
1:21:16 > 1:21:19With glad shouts, they fled across the border
1:21:19 > 1:21:22To that new life where they can earn God's wage.
1:21:23 > 1:21:26They will be paid for service with that peace
1:21:26 > 1:21:30Which passeth all our human understanding
1:21:30 > 1:21:34With love that has no earthly dross to cloud it
1:21:34 > 1:21:38With knowledge woven from celestial strands
1:21:38 > 1:21:42And we, left here, who so well knew and loved them
1:21:42 > 1:21:46Must rise above the cruel loss and pain
1:21:47 > 1:21:50With courage, we must follow in their footsteps
1:21:50 > 1:21:54So that, in freedom, we may meet again.
1:22:19 > 1:22:22Subtitles by Red Bee Media Ltd