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/