Daily Mirror (Northern Ireland)
Defiant WWII escaper who succeeded on 6th attempt
RAF hero in Boy’s Own bolt from Nazis
AFTER five attempts to escape from a Nazi prisoner of war camp, Flight Sergeant Stanley Gordonpowell was told by his captors he would be executed if he tried again.
Undeterred, the RAF man gave it another go and managed to give the enemy the slip in a perilous and astonishing journey from Germany back to Britain.
Now his bravery medals, including a Military Cross for the escape, are being auctioned.
Medal auctioneer Oliver Pepys said: “This is a brilliant, real Boy’s Own story.”
Flt Sgt Gordon-powell’s Halifax bomber was shot down in June 1943 near Liege, Belgium, by German air ace Heinz-wolfgang Schnaufer. After ending up in Stalag IV-B in Saxony, Flt Sgt Gordonpowell escaped in March 1945.
He suffered malnutrition and scrapes with Nazi patrols but made it to Berlin and hid under the noses of the Nazis thanks to friendly Dutch doctors.
He travelled by train to the border with Denmark and got into the country by wading across a river in the dark.
On a boat bound for neutral Sweden, he was hiding with six Danes between a double partition in front of the engine when they were nearly found by German sniffer dogs. But they were lucky and got to safety.
Flt Sgt Gordon-powell, born in Foxford, County Mayo, Ireland, in 1923, enlisted in 1941, becoming a navigator. He was with No35 Squadron, based at RAF Graveley, Cambs, when he was shot down.
His medals are being sold tomorrow by London firm Dix Noonan Webb and are expected to fetch £2,200. Flt Sgt Gordon-powell was a businessman and racehorse owner after the war. He died in 2000 in his 70s.