March 1944: 76 Allied airmen escaped through a tunnel from their prisoner of war camp deep in occupied Poland. Their aim was not only to get back to Britain and rejoin the war, but also to cause as much inconvenience for the German war machine as possible. Within a few days, all but 3 had been recaptured and the escape so infuriated Hitler that he ordered for 50 of them to be shot. But the breakout, memorably depicted in the 1963 film The Great Escape, has become an iconic event of World War Two, enshrining both Allied bravery and Nazi evil in public consciousness. Jack Kenneth Lyon was number 79 on the list of PoWs preparing to break out of Stalag Luft III in 1944. A Flight Lieutenant in the RAF during the war who was captured when his bomber crashed in Poland after a raid, he was on the brink of entering the ‘Harry’ tunnel when prisoners heard a gunshot and realised that the game was up. In this fascinating interview, Jack Kenneth Lyon recounts the details of that fateful night, his experiences of the war, jumping out of his plane and the other escape plans he feels deserve to be celebrated in history.
Up Next in Season 1
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The Last Dambuster
Of all the air raids carried out during World War Two, none are as enduringly famous as the attack by Lancaster Bombers against the dams of Germany’s industrial heartland. Commemorated in literature and film throughout the decades, the mission – which was codenamed Operation ‘Chastise’ – has come...
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Max Eisen: Surviving Auschwitz
Max Eisen was only 15 when he and his family were taken from their Hungarian home to the infamous Auschwitz Concentration Camp during the Second World War. All of his relatives were killed; only Max survived to see VE Day and eventual liberation. 74 years on from being liberated, he talks about t...
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Doctor Under Fire: The Extraordinary ...
Over the course of his 106 years, Doctor William Frankland has experienced more than most. He served with the Royal Medical Corps during World War Two, spending more than three years as a prisoner of war of the Japanese following the fall of Singapore. After the war, his medical career focused on...
