Family to retrace hero POW’S journey
Frank Mcfarlane escaped Nazis
The heroic steps of a Stirling World War Two ambulance driver who escaped capture three times are set to be retraced by his family in a poignant gathering later this year.
Frank Mcfarlane, who spent his early years living in the Top of the Town before moving to Raploch in his married life, worked for the Royal Army Service Corps during the conflict and was first captured alongside compatriot David Ower in June 1940.
The pair were caught near the Normandy town of Saint-valeryen-caux and joined scores of fellow prisoners of war in being marched through the north of the country which was occupied by German forces.
However, Frank and David managed to slip out of the column into a corn field near Auchy, where the pair hid for three hours before escaping to a nearby house and into a cellar.
This became the start of an epic journey across France as the pair were taken in and welcomed by various members of the resistance, some of whom were caught and detained by French police for assisting their efforts.
The pair made their way down to Marseille in an effort to get to Spain, but were caught and sent back into France to be detained - with David managing to flee successfully but Frank being caught while on a train.
He was then sent to Fort de la Rivere, with the next step set to be detention in Germany, but Frank slipped away for a third time and made his way to Monaco where he met a policeman who helped to forge documents for him.
After being picked up by a friendly fishing boat, Frank finally managed to escape to Gibraltar in October 1941 where he finally made his way to safety for good.
A group of 16 family members are now set to visit some of the areas that Frank did more than 80 years ago later this year to mark the occasion and to meet relatives of some of those involved in assisting his escapes.
Ara Mcfarlane, from St Ninians, is Frank’s daughter-in-law and has already been on trips to visit sites across France associated with
Frank’s story.
Ara told the Observer: “We went over there for the 80th anniversary and the folk who maintained the fort were overjoyed because myself and my husband are the only two members of any family who have made themselves known to the fort.
“We went and were just blown away with the detail they had on Frank. They
had a framed pic of him and a little shrine.
“He was part of an escape of 52 men through a tunnel and only 23 of the men actually made it back to the UK, so the plan is to get the word out there and try to get in contact with other families.
“It’s a bit of a pilgrimage for us to almost retrace his steps. There are eight of us initially in the north of France for the first five days and then the rest are joining us in the south on October 12, which is the anniversary of Frank being picked up on the beach.
“Frank died in 1977. He was only in his 50s at the time and never really spoke about his time in the forces or in the war so it will be an interesting mission for us.”