page_title: Michael Sinclair (British Army officer)
section_title: Escape from Stalag XXI-D
hierarchical_section_title: Michael Sinclair (British Army officer) / Escape from Stalag XXI-D
caption_attribution_description: Polski: Fort VIII Twierdzy Poznań
context_page_description: Lieutenant Albert Michael Sinclair, DSO, known as the Red Fox, was a British prisoner at Colditz Castle during World War II. He was involved in a number of escape attempts and was recognised within the camp for his determination to escape. Sinclair was the only person to be killed while attempting to escape Colditz.
context_section_description: On 28 May 1941, Sinclair escaped from Fort VIII, Stalag XXI-D, along with comrades Gris Davies-Scourfield and fellow Wykehamist, Ronnie Littledale concealed in a modified handcart. They received assistance from Polish citizens and travelled through Łódź, Kaluskia, Lubochnia-Gorki to Tomazow Maz with the intention of reaching Russia. Learning of the German invasion of the USSR. they changed their plans and walked to Warsaw, where they lived in hiding from 25 June to 26 August. Davies-Scourfield remained in Warsaw while Sinclair and Littledale travelled by train to Kraków and onward to Zakopane, alighting at the station before the main city. They walked across the Slovakian border and were driven to Rožňava, where they caught the night train to Budapest. There they stayed for a month before travelling again by train to Yugoslavia through Szeged to Pančevo, then across the River Danube by ferry to Belgrade. On 11 November they took a train to Jagodina and five days later, took the  Sofia train to Bela Palanka. From here they crossed the Yugoslav–Bulgarian frontier by horse-drawn cart. While walking to meet another cart they were stopped by a Bulgarian customs official who, on seeing their Yugoslav papers, took them into custody. They were handed over to the Bulgarian police in Pirot and moved from there to Sofia. Following interrogation, on 27 November, they were handed over to the German police. Moved from Sofia to Belgrade they were then moved to Vienna and held in the military prison from 2 December to 17 January 1942.
  They were then taken by train, escorted by one Feldwebel and a soldier in the direction of Dresden. Seizing an opportunity between Prague and Roudnice, both managed to escape from the moving train through a lavatory window. Unfortunately, Sinclair was spotted and having hurt his leg jumping from the train, was soon recaptured. Littledale avoided capture and eventually headed for Switzerland but was caught in Husinec on 29 May, while trying to avoid the police activity in and around Prague after the assassination of Reinhard Heydrich two days earlier. Both men were interviewed by the Gestapo before being sent to Colditz.
caption: Fort VIII Stalag XXI-D from which Sinclair escaped in a handcart
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