Roger Bushell Squadron Leader Roger Joyce Bushell RAF ( 30 August 1910 – 29 March 1944 ) was an Auxiliary Air Force pilot who organised and led the famous escape from the German prisoner of war camp , Stalag Luft III . He was a victim of the Stalag Luft III murders . The escape was used as the basis for the film " The Great Escape " . The character played by Richard Attenborough , Roger Bartlett , is modelled on Roger Bushell . Birth and early life . Bushell was born in Springs , Transvaal , South Africa on 30 August 1910 to English parents Benjamin Daniel and Dorothy Wingate Bushell ( née White ) . His father , a mining engineer , had emigrated to the country from Britain and he used his wealth to ensure that Roger received a first class education . He was first schooled in Johannesburg , then aged 14 went to Wellington College in Berkshire , England . In 1929 , Bushell then went to Pembroke College , Cambridge to study law . Keen on pursuing non - academic interests from an early age , Roger Bushell excelled in athletics and skied for Cambridge in races between 1930 and 1932 - captaining the team in 1931 . Skiing . One of Bushell ' s passions and talents was skiing : in the early 1930s he was declared the fastest Briton in the male downhill category . He even had a black run named after him in St . Moritz , Switzerland , in recognition of the fact that he had set the fastest time for the run . He also won the slalom event of the annual Oxford - Cambridge ski race in 1931 . At an event in Canada , Bushell had an accident in which one of his skis narrowly missed his left eye , leaving him with a gash in the corner of it . Although he recovered from this accident , he still had a dark drooping in his left eye as a result of scarring from his stitches . Bushell became fluent in French and German , with a good accent , which became extremely useful during his time as a prisoner of war . Career . RAF Auxiliary and legal career . Despite his sporting prospects , one of Bushell ' s primary wishes was to fly , and in 1932 he joined 601 Squadron Auxiliary Air Force , which was often referred to as " The Millionaires ' Mob " because of the number of wealthy young men who paid their way solely to learn how to fly during training days ( often at weekends ) . Although Bushell was pursuing a career with the RAF he wasn ' t hampered in his attempts to become a barrister - at - Law , of Lincolns Inn , London . From the outset of his legal career many commented on his ability as a lawyer , particularly in criminal defence . After a while , Bushell was appointed to military cases in prosecuting RAF personnel charged with various offences . These often involved pilots charged with dangerous flying . In October 1939 , acting as assistant to Sir Patrick Hastings , he successfully defended two RAF pilots , John Freeborn and Paddy Byrne , court martial led after the friendly fire incident known as the Battle of Barking Creek . Byrne would later be incarcerated with Bushell at Stalag Luft III . Regular military career . Bushell was given command of 92 Squadron in October 1939 , and his promotion to squadron leader was confirmed on 1 January 1940 . During the squadron ' s first engagement with enemy aircraft on 23 May 1940 , whilst on a patrol near Calais , Bushell was credited with damaging two Messerschmitt Bf 110 fighter aircraft of ZG 26 before being shot down himself , probably by future ace Oberleutnant Günther Specht . He crash - landed his Spitfire on German occupied ground and was captured before he had a chance to hide . He became a POW and was sent to the Dulag luft transit camp near Frankfurt with all other captured aircrew . Prisoner of war . On arrival at Dulag luft he was made part of the permanent British staff , under the Senior British Officer Wing Commander Harry Day . The permanent staff ' s duty was to help newly captured Allied aircrew to adjust to life as a POW . Escape , which was regarded as a duty of all prisoners of war of officer rank , was never far from his mind , and , fortunately , he was in good company with Day and Fleet Air Arm pilot Jimmy Buckley RN . Day placed Buckley in charge of escape operations , with Bushell as his deputy . The three of them formed the escape committee responsible for all escape attempts . First escape . The permanent staff of the camp started several escape tunnels , one of which was completed in May 1941 . Bushell was given a place in the tunnel , but elected to escape on the same day as the tunnel break , by cutting through the wire surrounding a small park in the camp grounds . His decision for not using the tunnel was to allow him an earlier get away , thus enabling him to catch a particular train . The exact date of the escape is not known , but is believed to have occurred in June 1941 . Bushell hid in a goat shed in the camp grounds , and soon as it was dark enough , he crawled to the wire and made good his escape . He was recaptured on the Swiss border , only a few hundred yards from freedom , by a German border guard . He was treated well and returned to Dulag luft , before being transferred to Stalag Luft I with all the 17 others who had escaped in the tunnel ( including Day and Buckley ) . He was at Stalag Luft I for only a short period before being transferred to Oflag X - C at Lübeck . At this camp he participated in the construction of another tunnel , but this was abandoned unfinished when the camp was evacuated . Second escape . All British and Commonwealth Officer POWs were removed from the camp on 8 October 1941 and were entrained for transfer to Oflag VI - B at Warburg . During the night of 8 / 9 October 1941 , the train stopped briefly in Hannover , where Bushell and a Czech officer Pilot Officer Jaroslav Zafouk jumped from the train and escaped , unnoticed at the time by the German guards . Earlier in the journey six other officers had escaped by jumping off the train while it was moving slowly ; one was immediately recaptured , and one officer was killed when he fell under the wheels . Bushell and Zafouk made their way to Prague in occupied Czechoslovakia , and using Zafouk ' s contacts made contact with the Czech underground movement . They stayed in ' safe houses ' while arrangements for their onward journey was being made . However , luck was not with them , and following the assassination of Reinhard Heydrich in May 1942 , the Germans launched a massive manhunt for the assassins ; during the round - up Bushell and Zafouk were arrested . Both were interrogated by the Gestapo and were very roughly treated . Bushell was eventually sent to Stalag Luft III at Sagan , arriving there in October 1942 . Zafouk was sent to Oflag IV - C at Colditz . He took over control of the escape organisation from Jimmy Buckley , who was being transferred to another camp . He became known as " Big X " of the camp escape committee and was the mastermind behind the mass escapes that occurred from the camp . During his stay with the Gestapo he had witnessed the terror and suffering of many at the hands of the Nazis and developed an intense hatred for them . His plan was to strike back at the Germans as best he could - by organising mass break - outs from the POW camps he was in . One of them became known as The Great Escape , which was planned to allow 200 men to escape on a single night . The Great Escape . In the spring of 1943 , Bushell masterminded a plot for a major escape from the camp . Being held in the North Compound where British airmen were housed , Bushell as commander of the Escape Committee channelled the escape effort into probing for weaknesses and looking for opportunities . Falling back on his legal background to represent his scheme , Bushell called a meeting of the Escape Committee in the camp and not only shocked those present with its scope , but injected into every man a passionate determination to put every energy into the escape . He declared , " " Everyone here in this room is living on borrowed time . By rights we should all be dead ! The only reason that God allowed us this extra ration of life is so we can make life hell for the Hun . . . In North Compound we are concentrating our efforts on completing and escaping through one master tunnel . No private - enterprise tunnels allowed . Three bloody deep , bloody long tunnels will be dug - Tom , Dick and Harry . One will succeed ! " " The simultaneous digging of these tunnels would become an advantage if any one of them were discovered by the Germans , because the guards would scarcely imagine that another two could be well under way . The most radical aspect of the plan was not merely the scale of the construction , but also the sheer number of men that Bushell intended to pass through these tunnels . Previous attempts had involved the escape of anything up to a dozen or twenty men , but Bushell was proposing to get over 200 out , all of whom would be wearing civilian clothes and possessing a complete range of forged papers and escape equipment . It was an unprecedented undertaking and would require unparalleled organisation . As the mastermind of the Great Escape , Bushell inherited the codename of " Big X " . The tunnel " Tom " began in a darkened corner of a hall in one of the buildings . " Dick ' s " entrance was carefully hidden in a drain sump in one of the washrooms . The entrance to " Harry " was hidden under a stove . More than 600 prisoners were involved in their construction . Tom was discovered in August 1943 when nearing completion . Bushell also organised another mass break out , which occurred on 12 June 1943 . This became known as the Delousing Break , when 26 officers escaped by leaving the camp under escort with two fake guards ( POWs disguised as guards ) supposedly to go the showers for delousing in the neighbouring compound . All but two were later recaptured and returned to the camp , with the remaining two officers being sent to Oflag IV - C at Colditz for attempting to steal an aircraft . After the discovery of Tom , construction on Harry was halted ; it resumed in January 1944 , and on the evening of 24 March , after months of preparation , 200 officers prepared to escape . But things did not go according to plan , and only 76 officers managed to get clear of the camp . Among those left behind was 21 - year - old RAF Flight Lieutenant Alan Bryett , who refers to Bushell as ; " the bravest man I ever knew " . Roger and his partner Bernard Scheidhauer were among the first few to leave the tunnel , and successfully boarded a train at Sagan railway station . They were caught the next day at Saarbrücken railway station , waiting for a train to Alsace , which had been annexed from France by Germany . Bushell and Scheidhauer were murdered three days later by members of the Gestapo , including Emil Schulz , helped by others . This was a breach of the Geneva Convention and so constituted a war crime . The perpetrators were later tried and executed by the Allies . Fifty of the 76 escapees were killed in the Stalag Luft III murders . Roger Bushell is buried at the Poznan Old Garrison Cemetery ( Coll . grave 9 . A . ) in Poznań , Poland . He was posthumously Mentioned in Despatches for his services as a POW . This award was recorded in the " London Gazette " dated 13 June 1946 . His name also appears on the War Memorial in Hermanus South Africa where his parents spent their last years and where they were buried .