Of the 76 officers who escaped, only three were successful Hitler himself ordered the execution of 47 of the men who were recaptured. Locked away and bored in Silesia in Luft Stalag III, he and his fellow prisoners concocted an escape plan - a daring idea that would result in a mass escape from the Germans. Brickhill, an Australian, had flown missions against the Germans in Tunisia for the Royal Australian Air Force when he was shot down in 1943. Though The Great Escape is a novel, its basic story is true, and the novel's author Paul Brickhill (1916-91) was a participant in it. A native of Melbourne, Brickhill had begun a career as a newspaper rep From Rosetta Books:

Still, the escape remains one of the great heroic stories of World War II. Bader faced it all, disability, leadership and capture, with the same charm, charisma and determination that was an inspiration to all around him.From Rosetta Books: Though The Great Escape is a novel, its basic story is true, and the novel's author Paul Brickhill (1916-91) was a participant in it. Shot down in occupied France, his German captors had to confiscate his tin legs in order to stop him trying to escape. Flying Hurricanes in the Battle of Britain he led his squadron to kill after kill, keeping them all going with his unstoppable banter. The rest of his story is the stuff of legend.

Douglas Bader did not fly again until the outbreak of the Second World War, when his undoubted skill in the air was enough to convince a desperate air force to give him his own squadron. His injuries were so bad that surgeons were forced to amputate both his legs to save his life. But one afternoon in December all his ambitions came to an abrupt end when he crashed his plane doing a particularly difficult and illegal aerobatic trick. Excelling in everything he did he represented the Royal Air Force in aerobatics displays, played rugby for Harlequins, and was tipped to be the next England fly half. In 1931, at the age of 21, Douglas Bader was the golden boy of the RAF. The bestselling story of Britain's most courageous and most famous flyer, the Second World War hero Sir Douglas Bader.

The great escape by paul brickhill