A Dangerous Game

Heroes Remember

A Dangerous Game

Transcript

It was all pretty well the same. It was typical German. They had it laid out and that’s the way it was and they were pretty well all the same. Of course, they were in different parts of the country and that could make a difference as far as being able to tunnel out. But, I saw too many guys fail, you know, and actually, under the circumstances it would be pretty stupid to try to escape. You got... most important thing was tunnelling. I never got in a tunnel. I was a sand carrier, but they’d be digging tunnels and I guess the first one I saw was, oh at least 300 yards long. The soil was fairly sandy and that would come out and they’d fill a stocking, or whatever you could get, with sand and then walk around this area that they had for walking and just spill sand on the way, to get rid of it, you know. Cause it was damp, once it got out in the sun it dried up pretty quick. The Germans knew what was going on, but they had difficulty finding them. It was well arranged. One of the worst finds, happened in an officers camp. They had this 200 yard tunnel and something like 50 of them got out and they got caught and they were all shot. So I mean it was a dangerous game.

Description

Mr. Fawcett discusses the odds of successfully escaping from a POW camp.

Charlie Fawcett

Mr. Fawcett was born June 15, 1922 and grew up in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan. He first became interested in planes when his father took him to Regina to go for a ride in one. It was this early interest in aviation that led him to sign up with the air force in 1942. He received gunnery training at Dafoe, SK and from there went overseas in the latter part of 1942. He chose to be a rear gunner as it was the fastest way to get overseas. Once in England he was assigned to an RAF squadron, stationed in Yorkshire, that consisted of an Australian pilot and an all English crew. In 1943, while on a trip to Czechoslovakia, they were shot down over Germany by a Messerschmitt. After bailing out of the aircraft Mr. Fawcett landed in a tree. The following day he was taken prisoner by the Germans. Over the next 2 ½ years he was interned in three different POW camps. Mr. Fawcett remained a POW until the end of the war.

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