Date of birth:

September 27th, 1919 (Auchterarder/Perthshire, Scotland)

Date of death:

April 6th, 1944 (Germany)

Buried on:

Commonwealth War Cemetery Poznan
Plot: 8. Row: D. Grave: 7.

Service number:

60340

Nationality:

British

Flight Lieutenant Alastair ‘Sandy’ Gunn was pilot of 1 Photographic Reconnaissance Unit (PRU).
The PRU employed modified Supermarine Spitfires which were unarmed, stripped of armour plating, armoured windscreens, and even without a radio. They were also fitted with additional fuel tanks giving them 4 times the range of a conventional Spitfire.
In the spring of 1942, pilots in 1 PRU were tasked with locating and tracking the German battleship Tirpitz in the Norwegian fjords. Alastair Gunn was one of these pilots, but on an operation over Trondheim on 5 March his Spitfire PR Mk IV Spitfire AA810 was shot down by two Messerschmitt 109s flown by Dieter Gerhardt and Heinz Knoke. He bailed out with burn on hands and face just before his Spitfire crashed. He was assisted by locals and tried to escape on skies. But suffering from his injuries and unable to ski well, undertaking the 110-mile hike to the Swedish border proved to be too difficult for him. Subsequently he surrendered and became a prisoner of war. Brought in to meet his victors, he shared a glass of brandy with Gerhardt and Knoke.
Then he was taken to Trondheim where he boarded a train for Oslo after which he was flown to a Transition Camp (Dulag Luft) for interrogation.
The German military believed Gunn had flown from a secret RAF airfield in northern Norway and interrogated him for some 3 weeks before sending him to Stalag Luft III.
In captivity, Gunn was promoted to Flight Lieutenant.
On the night of 24–25 March 1944 Gunn took part in the ‘Great Escape’, where 76 prisoners escaped under the wire in a tunnel known as ‘Harry’ and he was 68th prisoner to emerge from the tunnel.
He and his escape partner Mike Casey managed to stay free through the entire day of the 25th. Once caught they were transported to the Gestapo HQ at 31 Augustastrasse, Görlitz, Germany where Sandy would be imprisoned and interrogated until 6th April.
That same day Alastair Gunn was one of the 50 men murdered by the Gestapo following the breakout. He was cremated at Breslau.

In 2018, Gunn’s Spitfire AA810 was recovered from a peat bog in Norway where it had rested for over 75 years. Currently undergoing restoration, the airframe will be on display as part of Spies in the Skies: Second World War Aerial.

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• - https://www.thegazette.co.uk/London/issue/35586/page/2522
  - https://www.thegazette.co.uk/London/issue/36544/supplement/2623
  - Imperial War Museums
  - Made in Perth ~ Official Website ~ SC044155
  

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