From time to time we discuss the movie The Great Escape here as many of us are WWII buffs and liked the movie.
Most of the characters in the movie are a composite of several real POW's, but the one character most closely related to a real person is that as played by "The Tunnel King", Charles Bronson.
The real POW was Canadian, Wally Floody. He was a fighter pilot and had the dubious distinction of being shot down over France in 1941 on his first mission, and taken prisoner for the rest of the war.
Floody had experience in mining in Canada and was elected to head the digging of the tunnels - hence the nickname, "Tunnel King."
He was buried alive several times, and combined with the hard work, poor food, and stale air in the tunnels, his health was damaged forever. Shortly before the escape was to take place, Floody and several POW's were transferred to another camp.
Floody was a witness at the Nuremburg trials and returned to Canada where he led a productive life until he passed away at the relatively young age of 69.
In 1963 Floody was contacted to work as technical advisor on The Great Escape. He agreed but only as long as Hollywood would treat the event as true to life as possible.
This is a picture of Floody talking with Steve McQueen on the POW set in Germany.
Most of the characters in the movie are a composite of several real POW's, but the one character most closely related to a real person is that as played by "The Tunnel King", Charles Bronson.
The real POW was Canadian, Wally Floody. He was a fighter pilot and had the dubious distinction of being shot down over France in 1941 on his first mission, and taken prisoner for the rest of the war.
Floody had experience in mining in Canada and was elected to head the digging of the tunnels - hence the nickname, "Tunnel King."
He was buried alive several times, and combined with the hard work, poor food, and stale air in the tunnels, his health was damaged forever. Shortly before the escape was to take place, Floody and several POW's were transferred to another camp.
Floody was a witness at the Nuremburg trials and returned to Canada where he led a productive life until he passed away at the relatively young age of 69.
In 1963 Floody was contacted to work as technical advisor on The Great Escape. He agreed but only as long as Hollywood would treat the event as true to life as possible.
This is a picture of Floody talking with Steve McQueen on the POW set in Germany.
