£10m buyer for huge flat
Recaptured by the Nazis after 2 days, he believed he was spared execution as they thought he was related to PM Winston
ONE of Britain’s biggest penthouses has been sold for almost £10million.
The nine-bedroom flat has 4,000 sq ft of terraces, an 85ft entertaining room and views of Regent’s Park, North West London.
The triplex apartment built in 1970 was sold in an “unmodernised condition”.
When it is refurbished, it could sell for £20million. ■ A 15ft by 12ft beach hut with no running water, mains electricity or toilet is on sale for £275,000 in Christchurch, Dorset. Star Steve McQueen in 1963 film PURSUED by an estimated 50,000 Nazis, bomber pilot Richard “Dick” Churchill spent two nerve-jangling days defying the odds before being cornered in a hayloft.
The squadron leader – who died on Wednesday aged 99 – had been among the 76 determined men propelled along a 330ft tunnel to escape from Stalag Luft
III on a moonless night in March 1944.
In doing so he became a real-life Great Escaper, inspiring the classic 1963 film starring Steve McQueen.
In all, digger Dick had been involved in 72 tunnelling plots after being shot down over Ludwigshafen, on the Rhine, in September 1940 during his 26th combat mission.
“You could be a quiet person, do nothing much – above all don’t annoy the Germans or the Gestapo – or you can try and do the opposite and feel better,” Dick said last year.
Only three of the Stalag Luft III Dick wed after war and lived in Devon
escapers made it to freedom. Fifty were shot on Hitler’s orders. Dick always believed he was spared because the Nazis thought he was related to Prime Minister Winston Churchill and they could use him as leverage in any future negotiations. Having grown up in South West London, Dick joined the RAF in 1938, at 18. He was with No 144 Squadron when his Handley Page Hampden bomber was hit over the Rhine.
He was initially sent to Stalag Luft I before being moved to Stalag Luft III near the town of Sagan, 100 miles south of Berlin. It was there that plans for the legendary Operation Escape 200 were hatched, as Sqn Ldr Roger Bushell led a committee hoping to get 200 men out using three 30ft deep tunnels, dubbed Tom, Dick and Harry. The guards eventually found Tom, so Dick was used for storage and efforts focused on Harry.
For the breakout, Dick was given a Romanian name and fake papers and paired with Sqn Ldr Bob Nelson, who