• e-mail

A light-hearted letter penned by one of the Great Escapers while in captivity in Stalag Luft III has come to light 77 years later.

Squadron Leader Bertram 'Jimmy' James was number 39 out of the tunnel Harry at the prisoner of war camp, near Sagan in the province of Lower Silesia, on the night of March 24, 1944.

He was recaptured trying to board a train but unlike 50 of his fellow escapees avoided execution under Hitler's orders.

In the letter, dated August 30, 1942, he asks the recipient to pass on his congratulations to his friend on his marriage, then jokes there was no chance of him tying the knot 'in the present circumstances'. 

A light-hearted letter penned by Great Escaper Bertram 'Jimmy' James while in captivity in Stalag Luft III has come to light 77 years later. Squadron Leader James was number 39 out of the tunnel Harry on the night of March 24, 1944. He was recaptured trying to board a train but unlike 50 of his fellow escapees avoided execution under Hitler's orders

In the letter, dated August 30, 1942, he asks the recipient to pass on his congratulations to friend on his marriage, then jokes there was no chance of him tying the knot 'in the present circumstances' 

Squadron Leader James also observes that Stalag Luft III was rapidly filling up with 700 officers and 1,800 sergeants, meaning they were 'eight to a room'.

The letter has been consigned for sale from Squadron Leader James' estate alongside photos, notebooks and post-war correspondence with other Great Escapers.

He also wrote limericks, one of which discusses his capture and frequent escape attempts.

It went: 'There was a young pilot called James

He also wrote limericks, one of which discusses his capture and frequent escape attempts. One went: 'There was a young pilot called James, who over Holland was shot down in flames, he had tunnel vision, and made a decision, to leave camp by underground trains'

The front of the letter which Squadron Leader James wrote to congratulate his friend on his marraige

'Who over Holland was shot down in flames

'He had tunnel vision

'And made a decision

'To leave camp by underground trains.'

Squadron Leader James, who was born in India but grew up in Canterbury, Kent, was in a Wellington bomber which was shot down over the Netherlands on June 5, 1940.

Squadron Leader James wrote an account of his escape from Stalag Luft III 60 years after the daring feat

He spent 21 months in Stalag I at Barth in north Germany before being moved to Stalag Luft III in April 1942.

For the escape, Squadron Leader James and his partner, Pilot Officer Sotirios (Nick) Skantzikas disguised themselves as Yugoslav workers trying to get home.

After a treacherous night walking through deep snow, they found their way to Hirschberg West station where they were arrested and taken to the Gestapo HQ in the town.

Squadron Leader Bertram 'Jimmy' James died aged 92 in 2008. After the War, Squadron Leader James rose up the ranks in the RAF and then joined the Diplomatic Service

Squadron Leader James was moved to Sachsenhausen concentration camp in west Germany, but his appetite for freedom had not abated.

On September 23, 1944, he escaped with four other men after using small cutlery knives to dig an escape tunnel over 110 metres long.

They were on the run for several weeks before being arrested and transferred back to solitary confinement at the camp.

Following the war, Squadron Leader James rose up the ranks in the RAF, then subsequently joined the Diplomatic Service.

He died aged 92 in 2008.

The archive is being sold by International Autograph Auctions, of Nottingham.

The letter is valued at £300, with the overall collection expected to fetch £5,000.

Richard Davie, auctioneer at International Autograph Auctions, said: 'The letter has come from the estate of 'Jimmy' James who died in 2008.

'We believe the recipient, a Miss Helen Morrell, was a family friend and it was written a few months after he was put in Stalag Luft III.

'It is very rare to have correspondence from one of the Great Escapers written from inside Stalag Luft III.

'Jimmy' James was the 39th person to come out of the tunnel named Harry and unlike 50 other escapees who were executed on Hitler's orders he survived.

'He was moved to a different camp but such was his fighting spirit he kept trying to escape.'

The sale takes place tomorrow.

Deadly toll of escapees executed... and how WWII's greatest PoW story got a Hollywood makeover

In the spring of 1943, RAF Squadron Leader Roger Bushell conceived a plan for a major escape from the German Stalag Luft III Camp near Sagan, now Żagań in Poland.

With the escape planned for the night of March 24, 1944, the PoWs built three 30ft deep tunnels, named Tom, Dick and Harry, so that if one was discovered by the German guards, they would not suspect that work was underway on two more.

Bushell intended to get more than 200 men through the tunnels, each wearing civilian clothes and possessing a complete range of forged papers and escape equipment.

In the spring of 1943, RAF Squadron Leader Roger Bushell conceived a plan for a major escape from the German Stalag Luft III Camp near Sagan, now Żagań in Poland 

To hide the earth dug from the tunnels, the prisoners attached pouches of the sand inside their trousers so that as they walked around, it would scatter.

The prisoners wore greatcoats to conceal the bulges made by the sand and were referred to as 'penguins' because of their supposed resemblance to the animal.

When the attempt began, it was discovered that Harry had come up short and instead of reaching into a nearby forest, the first man in fact emerged just short of the tree line, close to a guard tower. 

Plans for one man to leave every minute was reduced to 10 per hour.

The Great Escape starred Steve McQueen (pictured above) as Captain Virgil Hilts

In total, 76 men crawled through to initial freedom, but the 77th was spotted by a guard. In the hunt for the entrance one guard Charlie Pilz crawled through the tunnel but after becoming trapped at the other end called for help. 

The prisoners opened the entrance, revealing the location.

Of the escapees, three made it to safety, 73 were captured, and 50 of them executed.

... and the Hollywood film

The 1963 film The Great Escape was based on real events and, although some characters were fictitious, many were based on real people, or amalgams of several of those involved.

The film starred Steve McQueen as Captain Virgil Hilts, James Garner as Flight Lieutenant Robert Hendley and Richard Attenborough as Squadron Leader Roger Bartlett, and was based on a book of the same name by Paul Brickhill.

Contrary to the film, no American PoWs were involved in the escape attempt, and there were no escapes by motorcycle or aircraft.

Hilts' dash for the border by motorcycle was added by request of McQueen, who did the stunt riding himself except for the final jump.