• Please be sure to read the rules and adhere to them. Some banned members have complained that they are not spammers. But they spammed us. Some even tried to redirect our members to other forums. Duh. Be smart. Read the rules and adhere to them and we will all get along just fine. Cheers. :beer: Link to the rules: https://www.forumsforums.com/threads/forum-rules-info.2974/

Australian survivor of World War II's 'Great Escape' dies at 101

MrLiberty

Bronze Member
Site Supporter
PERTH, Australia – Paul Royle, an Australian pilot who took part in a mass breakout from a German prisoner of war camp during World War II that is remembered as The Great Escape, has died in his hometown of Perth, his son said Friday. He was 101.
The escape was the subject of a 1963 Hollywood movie, "The Great Escape," starring Steve McQueen.
Royle died on Sunday at a Perth hospital following surgery on a hip fracture that he suffered in a fall in a nursing home, his son Gordon Royle said.
Royle's death leaves only one survivor of the 76 men who escaped from Stalag Luft III, 100 miles southeast of Berlin: 94-year-old British man Dick Churchill, a former squadron leader, Australian Broadcasting Corp. reported.
Royle revealed last year on the 70th anniversary of the tunnel escape in March 1944 that he was no fan of the Hollywood interpretation of the story.
"The movie I disliked intensely because there were no motorbikes ... and the Americans weren't there," he told ABC, referring to McQueen's dramatic bid to outrun the Germans and cross into neutral Switzerland on a motorbike.
He also said last year that he did not regard himself as special because of his role in the legendary episode.


http://www.foxnews.com/world/2015/08/28/australian-survivor-world-war-ii-great-escape-dies-at-101/
 

MrLiberty

Bronze Member
Site Supporter
Another sad passing from the greatest generation.....

http://www.foxnews.com/us/2015/08/27/frank-e-petersen-jr-first-black-marine-aviator-dies-at-83/

BALTIMORE – Frank E. Petersen Jr., the first black aviator and brigadier general in Marine Corps, has died.
Frank E. Petersen III said his father died Tuesday at his home in Stevensville, on Maryland's Kent Island, of complications from lung cancer. He was 83.
The New York Times reported that Petersen enlisted in the Navy in 1950, two years after President Truman desegregated the armed forces.
The next year, Petersen entered the Naval Aviation Cadet Program, according to The Washington Post.
According to a news release on the Marine Corps website, Petersen was commissioned in the corps in 1952. The Marines say Petersen served in the Korean War in 1953 and Vietnam in 1968. He received the Purple Heart for wounds suffered when he ejected over the demilitarized zone in Vietnam, The Post reported.
During his career, Petersen flew more than 350 combat missions and more than 4,000 hours.
 
Top