Paul Royle, Stalag Luft III escapee passes
Ex-Garbage Gun Shooter sends us the sad news of the passing of Paul Royle at the tender age of 101 years. He was an Australian survivor of “The Great Escape” from Stalag Luft III in what is now Poland, but in 1944 it was in the German Provence of Lower Silesia. He had been one of the 76 Kriegsgefangener, or “kriegies” as they called themselves who escaped through Tunnel Harry on March 25, 1944. Only 3 made it to freedom, Royle was not one of them. He did, however, survive the execution of 50 escapees which resulted as punishment for the escape. His partner in the escape, Flight Lieutenant Edgar Humphreys wasn’t so lucky.
Interviewed last year about his wartime experiences, Mr Royle said he had vivid memories of escaping into a snow-covered pine forest.
“It was very pleasant and all we saw was great heaps of snow and pine trees. There was snow everywhere, it was cold,” he said.
With another escapee, he walked through the night and hid in bushes but they were soon recaptured by the Nazis.
Royle had been captured by the Germans when he crash landed after being attacked by German aircraft while on a reconnaissance flight on May 17, 1940. He was liberated by British troops on May 2, 1945.
Royle’s passing leaves only one survivor of the escape still with us, 95-year-old Dick Churchill.
Category: Real Soldiers
The movie barely did justice to what they went through.
RIP, Mr. Royle.
101? I guess he earned a bit of rest.
And it was a badass movie, which indicates how crazy the real thing was.
Read the book while in high school and later saw the movie at Graf during my first winter rotation to support tank gunnery. It was raining, we were all wearing OGs, so you can imagine what the theater smelled like. Amy how, here’s a more detailed link I read yesterday:
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3212149/Australian-Great-Escape-hero-Paul-Royle-dies-age-101.html
There’s a great documentary, Nova I think on PBS, where they go back to the remains of the camp and found the original tunnels a few years ago. They bring a couple of the living prisoners back to see it.
Rest in peace Mr. Doyle. You served more than well.
A fellow named Burgess wrote “The Longest Tunnel” which I would strongly recommend – concentrated heavily on the physical challenges (like how do you hide 27 tons of sand?) and what happened individually to the 50 escapees who were executed. Another great escaper’s book is “The Colditz Story” about the POW camp built into a castle up on a rocky promontory… from which people STILL escaped.