serviceyears laterwork branch death_place death_date birth_place awards birth_date nickname rank article_title name
1935 & ndash ; 1945 inspiration escape '' '' tunnelling to freedom '' -lrb- panther , for 1957 , asin b0007jj9is -rrb- '' flights of fancy '' the -lrb- navigator , 1986 , isbn 0-902830-65-1 -rrb- market gardener book and film '' the great royal air force slapton , devon 16 september 2008 lund , east riding of yorkshire mentioned in despatches 9 march 1913 the mole warrant officer john fancy
 john fancy
john fancy

john fancy -lrb- 9 march 1913 -- 16 september 2008 -rrb- was a british former airman whose tunnelling escapes from various german prisoner of war camps during world war ii earned him the nickname `` the mole '' , and inspired the book and film `` the great escape '' .
fancy was born in 1913 in the vicarage at lund near driffield in yorkshire .
he was educated at hymers college and looked set to follow his father into a career in estate management but joined the raf in 1935 instead .
although slightly colour blind he was passed fit for aircrew as an air observer and achieved the rank of warrant officer .
his service record included delivering blenheim bombers to finland and operations over the north sea including a raid on stavanger .
his squadron was then moved to operations over northern europe in support of the british expeditionary force rearguard actions which culminated in operation dynamo .
he was first captured on may 14 , 1940 when the blenheim in which he was serving as air observer/navigator was shot down by german anti-aircraft fire while returning from a raid on sedan , france .
he was taken to stalag luft i -lrb- the germans maintained separate pow camps for aircrew -rrb- , as prisoner 89 he was one of the first allied airmen to be captured .
in all fancy escaped from custody some sixteen times , and constructed eight separate tunnels from various camps , using a german-issued steel table knife as his principal tool .
the knife became his prized possession after the war .
as an escapee he had many adventures , including being captured by an extermination squad and being subjected to three mock executions .
though he was britain 's most prolific tunnel-digger and once got as far as a boat off the baltic coast , he was recaptured every time and was finally repatriated in april 1945 when his camp was liberated by the advancing allied forces .
he later observed : `` after four years , 10 months and four days i landed back in england after taking off on what should have been a four-hour flight . ''
he was mentioned in despatches for his conduct .
after the war fancy established a market garden near driffield and ran three greengrocery shops in scarborough .
following the death of his wife in 1983 he retired to slapton , devon to be near his daughter .
fancy published two books about his experiences in the war : `` tunnelling to freedom '' -lrb- panther , 1957 , asin b0007jj9is -rrb- and `` flights of fancy '' -lrb- navigator , 1986 , isbn 0-902830-65-1 -rrb- .
