Great Escape survivor dies

THE last survivor of the Great Escape has died aged 99. Airman Richard Churchill, pictured, was among the 76 men who crawled through tunnels in 1944 to escape a Nazi prisoner-of-war camp.

However, only three of the men got clean away and 50 were rounded up and shot on Hitler’s direct orders. Mr Churchill was recaptured three days after the escape. The event was immortalised in the 1963 film starring Steve McQueen and Richard Attenborough.