Jimmy James, P.O.W. Plotter of Escapes, 92
DGH
Jimmy James, P.O.W. Plotter of Escapes, Is Dead at 92
By RICHARD GOLDSTEIN [New York TImes]
Jimmy James, a British flier in World War II obsessed with escape
plots during his five years in German captivity, most prominently the
breakout portrayed in the movie "The Great Escape," died January 18
[2008] in Shrewsbury, England. Mr. James, who lived in Ludlow,
England, was 92.
His death was confirmed to the BBC and The Birmingham Post by Howard
Tuck, a military historian who said he had been working on a book with
Mr. James.
On the night of June 5, 1940, Flight Lieutenant James, the co-pilot of
a Wellington bomber, was on the way to a mission over Germany when his
plane was shot down by antiaircraft fire over the occupied
Netherlands. He bailed out about 25 miles south of Rotterdam [The
Netherlands] but was captured and taken to the prisoner-of-war camp
Stalag Luft I on the Baltic coast of Germany.
Mr. James made at least seven unsuccessful attempts to tunnel out of
that camp. Then he was transferred to Stalag Luft III, about 90 miles
southeast of Berlin [Germany]. By the time he was liberated by
American troops in Austria in May 1945, a few days before Germany
surrendered, he had tried to escape at least 11 times from P.O.W.
camps and a concentration camp and had succeeded twice, only to be
recaptured.
"I was just a guy who wanted to get home; I was no hero," The
Birmingham Post quoted Mr. James as saying. But his unrelenting will
to be free brought him Britain's Military Cross for gallantry in
1946.
Mr. James was "one of the last great links with a period of history
that continues to exert a fierce grip on the popular imagination," The
Independent newspaper said upon his death.
The most storied escape occurred on the night of March 24, 1944, when
76 Allied prisoners, mostly airmen from Britain and the Commonwealth
nations, tunneled out of Stalag Luft III. Mr. James and another
prisoner had overseen the hiding of soil displaced by the tunnel
digging, supervising its placement underneath seats in the camp's
theater, where the captives had put on shows. Mr. James was the 39th
man to escape through the tunnel.
Mr. James could sometimes look back with a wry eye. He once told the
BBC about a flier who was annoyed over having been shot down when he
had London [England] theater tickets for the next night.
"He'd bought a ticket for 'Arsenic and Old Lace' in London that was on
in the West End," Mr. James said. "And he was bemoaning this fact when
he came into the camp. He said, 'I bought a ticket for this show,' and
I said: 'Oh, that's all right old boy, we're putting it on next week.
You can see it here.'"
The breakout, as depicted in the 1963 movie starring Steve McQueen, is
remembered for what Mr. James once called "rather Hollywood fantasy" --
the McQueen character's short-lived escape on a motorcycle.
But the real escape became a grim affair. Only 3 of the 76 escapees
made it to freedom. Fifty of the 73 men who were recaptured were shot
on Hitler's orders.
Mr. James was recaptured at a German railroad station while fleeing
toward the Czech border and was eventually transferred to the
Sachsenhausen concentration camp. In September 1944, he joined several
other prisoners of war in escaping from the camp through a 100-foot
tunnel they had dug 10 feet below the surface, using a table knife. He
fled north, hoping to board a ship for Sweden, but was recaptured once
more and later imprisoned at two other concentration camps before
being liberated.
Bertram Arthur James, known as Jimmy since his days in military
service, was born in India, the son of a tea merchant. He joined the
Royal Air Force in 1939 and remained in the military until the 1950s.
He later entered the British diplomatic corps, holding posts on the
Continent and in Africa.
He is survived by his wife, Madge.
Mr. James told of his experiences in a 1983 memoir, "Moonless Night."
In 2004, he attended a ceremony at the site of Stalag Luft III, now a
part of Poland.
"The huts have been razed to the ground but you can see where we dug,
the route of the tunnel, and you can still feel the atmosphere of the
camp," he told the BBC then.
"Having lost 50 comrades, ghosts of the past are inevitably going to
rise up. I feel a great loss. I never thought that 60 years ago, when
I crawled out of the snow, there would be a ceremony in Poland to
commemorate the event."
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/01/31/world/europe/31james.html?_r=1&ref=obituaries&oref=slogin
POW
Kathi
Not to be confused with WNYX NewsRadio, New York's #2 newsradio
station owner Jimmy James.
.
---- Posted via Pronews.com - Premium Corporate Usenet News Provider ----
http://www.pronews.com offers corporate packages that have access to 100,000+ newsgroups