death oF GREAT ESCAPE veteran

F/Lt Harry Enever shot down ops DUISBURG May 11/12 1943 flying in HALIFAX JB791

reported in THIS IS NOTTINGHAM

IT is one of the most dramatic moments in the movie The Great Escape.

A British prisoner-of-war emerges from the tunnel entrance… into the clutches of gun-toting German guards.

​Memories: Harry Enever with a photograph of himself in his RAF uniform during the Second World War PICTURE COURTESY OF BOURNEMOUTH DAILY ECHO

​Big-screen treatment: Richard Attenborough, left, and Steve McQueen in the 1963 film The Great Escape.

​Breakout: Stalag Luft III, from which the Great Escape was planned and, above, a sketch of the escape tunnel, codenamed Harry.

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More than 70 allied POWs had made their dash for freedom when the tunnel was discovered but dozens more were left behind – including Meadows-born RAF officer Harry Enever.

Because Harry has spent more than half his life in the south of England, few people in his home city know the dramatic story.

Now a frail 90-year-old, living in a care home in Dorset, Harry is one of the last survivors of the mass breakout in March 1944 from Stalag Luft III, near Sagan, a Polish town 100k south of Berlin.

Harry was sent to Stalag Luft III after his Halifax bomber was shot down during a raid over Duisburg.

He entered a camp where the Germans had decided to cage the most determined escapees under one roof.

They included Squadron Leader Roger Bushell, a South African-born pilot with a fierce determination to escape, having twice tried and been recaptured. He also had a pathological hatred of the Gestapo, having witnessed its brutal treatment of prisoners.

Despite having a death sentence over his head if he tried to escape again, Bushell had a plan for a mass break-out of 250 men which would cause chaos for the Germans and strike a massive propaganda blow for the Allies.

Harry Enever would become part of Bushell’s grand scheme involving the construction of three tunnels, nicknamed Tom, Dick and Harry, hidden beneath barrack huts and a washroom.

The tunnels, 30 feet deep and hundreds of feet long, were marvels of ingenuity, utilising everyday materials squirreled away by the prisoners.

They included bed boards to shore up the tunnel walls.

“I eventually gave up and donated all my boards to the cause,” Harry remembered. “I scrounged some parcel string to make a hammock instead.”

Although the actual tunneling was carried on by a small team of diggers, hundreds of other prisoners were involved in the elaborate scheme.

Harry Enever was a “stooge”, monitoring the movements of the guards and, by a clever system of signals, passing on the information to the diggers.

One tunnel, Dick, was quickly converted into a store for all the paraphernalia of escape – forged documents, contraband stores and even sand from the other tunnels.

Then it was down to just one after Tom was discovered within feet of completion.

Harry was to be the escape route and, as the tunnelers neared the end, would-be escapees drew lots for a place in the queue.

Harry‘s number was in the 80s. Speaking little German, he would try to pass for a Hungarian worker. But he was not confident.

“To be honest, I didn’t hold out much hope that I would get anywhere.”

By the night of March 22, 1944, 220 escapees, including Harry, were ready to go.

They crammed into Hut 104, tense, excited – even alarmed when a German soldier walked in…until they realised it was the clever disguise of Polish flyer Pawel Tobolski.

At the end of the tunnel, Flight Sergeant Johnny Bull pushed his way through the last few feet of earth – only to discover it was well short of the tree line and only 30 yards from the camp watchtowers.

It meant that instead of one man getting out every minute, the escape rate would be much slower. By dawn, only 76 had made it to the safety of the forest.

Harry Enever waited for his turn. He dropped down into the tunnel entrance.

“Suddenly, there was a rifle shot, and I was sent straight back again as pandemonium broke out.”

As events unfolded, he was one of the lucky ones.

Hitler responded with fury, demanding the execution of every one recaptured. Eventually, he was persuaded by senior officers to calm down. He decided that only half of those recaptured would be shot.

But of the 76 who got out, 50 were executed, including Bushell.

Singly or in small groups, they were taken from civilian or military prisons, driven to remote locations and shot as they were given the chance to relieve themselves.

The Gestapo groups submitted almost identical reports that “the prisoners whilst relieving themselves, bolted for freedom and were shot whilst trying to escape”.

Only three of the 76 eventually made it to safety.

For the rest left behind in Stalag Luft III, there would be no more escapes, and eventually Harry Enever came home to Nottingham, much to the relief of his family, including sister Audrey, who lives in Netherfield.

“I was 13 years younger than Harry and by the time I was old enough to remember things, he had gone off to war,” she told me.

“And then, on VE Day, he just appeared from nowhere.”

Audrey, married to former city policeman Tim Coleman, is understandably proud of her brother – and not just his war exploits.

Born into a mining family in Clayton Street, in the Meadows, the Enevers were not well-off but Harry was bright enough to win a scholarship to Mundella Grammar School and, at 16, began work in the City Treasurer’s office.

“After the war, he went back to the city treasurer’s but in 1958 he left Nottingham,” said Audrey.

Harry’s career flourished. He rose up the local government ladder, becoming a council chief executive in Cornwall before he retired.

“He came from nothing,” said Audrey. “I am so proud of him.”

After the war, a team from the Royal Air Force Investigations Branch tracked down many of those responsible for the 50 murders. More than a dozen culprits were hanged and others imprisoned. A small number committed suicide and others simply disappeared.

Directed by John Sturges, The Great Escape was released in 1963 and has been a perennial favourite ever since.

Although it took some liberties with the facts, especially the non-existent character Hilts, played by Steve McQueen, it is widely regarded as a laudable re-telling of the story. Adopting the fictitious name Roger Bartlett, Richard Attenborough played Roger Bushell, leading a host of British and American stars, including Charles Bronson, James Coburn, James Garner, Gordon Jackson and Worksop-born Donald Pleasance.