Sydney Dowse Flight Lieutenant Sydney Hastings Dowse MC ( 21 November 1918 – 10 April 2008 ) was a Royal Air Force pilot who became a prisoner of war and survived The Great Escape during the Second World War . Early life and RAFVR . Born in Hammersmith and was educated at Hurstpierpoint College . In July 1937 he joined the recently formed Royal Air Force Volunteer Reserve and learnt to fly at weekends . At the outbreak of war in September 1939 , he was called up for regular service and completed his pilot training . Commissioned as a Pilot Officer on 21 October 1940 , with seniority from 9 August 1940 . He joined No 608 Squadron attached to Coastal Command flying Avro Anson s on anti - submarine and convoy escort operations . At the end of 1940 he volunteered to join the No 1 Photographic Reconnaissance Unit ( PRU ) , flying Spitfire s . He was mentioned in despatches on 11 June 1942 and promoted to Flight Lieutenant on 21 October 1942 , with senority from 9 August 1942 . He was shot down on a reconnaissance mission to photograph the German battleships and at Brest , 15 August 1941 . He was wounded in the leg and quickly captured by the Germans , becoming a prisoner of war . Prisoner of war . Early escape attempts . His first escape attempt came on 1 December 1941 , when he was recovering from a leg wound sustained when he was shot down . He escaped from a hospital at Stadtroda , however was recaptured three days later attempting to cross the Dutch - German border . His next attempt was from Stalag IX - C at Bad Sulza on 21 January 1942 . He exchanged identity with a Canadian POW and joined in with a work party . He managed to slip away unnoticed when outside the camp . After travelling some distance by train to Werwitz , he continued on foot , through deep snow towards the German - Belgian frontier where he was eventually captured five days later , suffering from extreme exhaustion and exposure . Following a brief period in hospital , he was transferred to Oflag VI - B at Warburg . At Warburg , he participated in the construction of an escape tunnel , which was completed on 18 April 1942 . He , and 34 others ( including the legless air ace Douglas Bader ) prepared to escape . However as the tunnel broke the surface , it became clear that it was slightly too short , and the exit appeared in the beat of a German sentry . Six RAF officers managed to escape , but due to the close proximity of the sentry , no one else , including Dowse , was able to escape . Stalag Luft III . In May 1942 , he with a batch of other RAF officers , was transferred to Stalag Luft III at Sagan . Dowse ' s next escape attempted happened on 30 November 1942 , when he , and Flt Lt Stanisław ' Danny ' Krol cut through the wire into the centre compound and crawled across that compound using blankets as camouflage . They were in the process of cutting the wire to get out when they were arrested and sentenced to 14 days solitary confinement . Dowse , who had some of German , befriended a German corporal who worked alongside Dowse in the camps censor office . From this contact , Dowse was able to gain useful information and documents which aided the escape organisation . He was able to ' borrow ' a genuine gate pass , which was copied by the camp ' s forgery department , and a copy was used on the delousing break mass escape in June 1943 . Through this same contact , Dowse was able to gain information about the German secret rocket establishment at Peenemünde . This information was passed onto British intelligence via secret codes written into POWs ' letters home . He also learnt that the Gestapo had plans for Roger Bushell if he were caught escaping again . Dowse warned Bushell , who chose to ignore the warning . The Great Escape . During his time in the North Compound at Stalag Luft III , Dowse became involved with the construction of the three tunnels intended for a mass escape , masterminded by Roger Bushell , Harry Day and Canadian Wally Floody who was instrumental in the tunnels design and construction . One tunnel , code named ' Harry ' which Dowse had helped build , was completed in early 1944 . On 24 March 1944 he took part in the The Great Escape through tunnel ' Harry ' , escaping with Flt Lt Stanisław ' Danny ' Krol . He had drawn escape number 21 , and was disguised as a Danish foreign worker , equipped with the appropriate ( forged ) documents and clothing provided by his ' contact ' . They travelled mainly by foot towards the Polish border , but were recaptured just inside Germany on 6 April 1944 . They were one of the last escapers to be recaught . Taken to the local Gestapo headquarters they were interrogated , before being separated . Dowse was sent to Sachsenhausen concentration camp . Danny Krol , was among the 50 recaptured officers to be executed . Sachsenhausen concentration camp . At Sachsenhausen , he found himself with 3 other survivors of the ' Great Escape ' ( Harry Day , Johnnie Dodge and Bertram James ) and was placed in Sonderlager A ( Special Camp A ) within the main camp . Here were housed a handful of other ' political ' prisoners , including SOE agent Peter Churchill , two Russian generals , various other Russians , Poles , Italians and four British soldiers of Irish origin . Later they were joined by British Commando Jack Churchill . Dowse and James almost immediately began another tunnel , which was kept secret from all non - British personnel . This was completed and used on the night of 23 September 1944 , when Dowse , James , Day , Dodge and Jack Churchill escaped . He paired up with Day , and they travelled by train into Berlin , however they were recaptured the next night when hiding in a bombed out house . Placed in the death cells back at Sachsenhausen , he , as with all the escapers which had been recaught , were only spared execution mainly thanks to Day ' s efforts under interrogation . After sending several months as in solitary confinement he , in April 1945 , together with other prominent prisoners , was transferred to Tyrol via concentration camps at Flossenburg and Dachau . He was awarded the Military Cross for his services as a POW . This award being published in the " London Gazette " on 16 August 1946 . Later life . Dowse served as an equerry at Buckingham Palace . For a number of years in the 1950s , at the time of the communist insurgency , he served in Malaya as a rubber plantation manager in the Penang Settlement . After the war , he worked , possibly unwittingly , for a short time as a representative for Bernie Cornfeld ' s insurance fraud " The Dover Plan " as well as other unsuccessful and / or dubious ventures . He lived mainly on his heroic stories from the war , which were a " laissez passer " in post - war society . He married three times , for the most part to women of some fortune but was single at the time of his death . ( He married Florence Marion Byers , daughter of wealthy businessman and Liberal , C . Charles Byers , then ran off , in 1968 , with " Wings Day " ' s wife , to his former superior officer ' s eternal chagrin . ) In retirement Dowse divided his time between elegant homes in Chelsea and Monte Carlo . He returned to Stalag Luft III in March 1994 , and March 2004 to mark the anniversaries of the Great Escape , and to commemorate his friends who did not survive .