Written by Ted Barris the book tells the real story of the Great Escape. Canadians were front and center and underground. ISBN 978-1-77102-272-9.
A small world. Page 4 of the book... When it came to portraying the chief forger - the POW who designed many of the fake documents used by the air officers during the escape-the screenplay writers manufactured another British flyer named Colin Blythe and cast seasoned British film actor Donald Pleasance ( who had actually been a POW during the war ) in the role. The actual forger behind much of the document fabrication, however, was twenty - four year old Whitley bomber pilot Tony Pengelly, from Truro Nova Scotia. I know Tony's son, Chris, who was of significant help supplying his father's records of his time in Stalag Luft 111. Small world indeed.
In addition to purchasing the book, I had the great pleasure of hearing Ted Barris speak last evening about the book and the lesser known Canadian roles in the Great Escape.
For the record, Marc Stevens alerted me to the fact that there is controversy surrounding Barris' Great Escape book, and the lack of fact-checking. His main hero, Tony Pengelly, was a personal friend when Barris was young, and his assertion about being the head forger for the Great Escape is now highly suspect. This and other elements are unverifiable and have not been repeated independently in any other publication.