Date of birth:

August 30th, 1910 (Springs/Transvaal, South Africa)

Date of death:

March 29th, 1944

Buried on:

Commonwealth War Cemetery Poznan
Grave: 9 A.

Service number:

90120

Nationality:

South African

Roger Bushell’s father wanted the best possible education for his son and therefore sent him to Cambridge to study law. In 1932, during his study he enrolled in the RAF Auxiliary and Reserve Volunteers and was posted to 601 Squadron, also known as the Millionaires squadron because it had many rich young men among its members. October 1939 he was given the task to establish a new squadron, 92, initially flying Bristol Blenheims. In March, 1940 however these were exchanged for Spitfires.
During his second dogfight on March 6th, 1940, Bushell downed a Me 110 but was shot down himself, taken prisoner and transferred to Dulag Luft. Once there he immediately joined the ‘escape committee’ and organised the digging of escape tunnels. May 1941 he managed to escape by staying in a hut on the sporting grounds just outside the camp. He managed to leave the hut and was only caught near Stühlingen on the Swiss border.
He was sent to Lübeck and quickly began organising attempts at escape again. He managed to escape himself but had the bad luck to arrive in Prague at the moment an assassination attempt on Heydrich had taken place. In the subsequent searches by the Germans, Bushell was discovered at his hide out. He was taken to Berlin and interrogated by the Gestapo on suspicion of complicity in the attempt on Heydrich. He was again handed over to the Luftwaffe and was taken to Stalag Luft III. Again he soon joined the escape committee and it was decided to stage a large scale escape through three tunnels that were named Tom, Dick and Harry. Later the escape became known as "The Great Escape" which was extensively described by Paul Brickhill in his book of the same title. Still later, the book was made into a movie with Richard Attenborough playing the role of Roger Bartlett.
In the night of March 24-25, 78 prisoners escaped from the only remaining tunnel. Number 79 was caught by the German guards and the tunnel was discovered. Only three prisoners managed to regain their freedom, including Bob van der Stok.

Bushell and his travel compagnion were caught on March 26th. Hitler had issued an order to the effect that 50 of the escaped prisoners of war should be executed.
March 29th, 1944, Roger Bushell was killed by a shot in his neck and his temple. His body was cremated at the concentration camp of Neue Bremm.

Promotions:
August 10th, 1932: Pilot Officer
February 10th, 1934: Flying Officer
July 26th, 1936: Flight Lieutenant
January 1st, 1940: Squadron Leader

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• Photo 1:
• Photo 2: Niebieska Eskadra
• - Fifth Supplement to The London Gazette Issue 37598 published on the 4 June 1946
  - The Pegasus Archive
  

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