Amazing exploits of 'the human mole' John Fancy
THE daring deeds of wartime flier John Fancy are being told in a new book.
Dubbed the most slippery prisoner of war the Nazis ever captured, Mr Fancy earned his reputation and his nickname, The Mole, after his numerous escape attempts from German prison camps during the Second World War.
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THE MOLE: John Fancy, seated far right, with other prisoners of war at Stalag Luft 1 in 1942, and, inset, in his 90s
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THE MOLE: John Fancy with fellow POW inmates at Stalag Luft 1 in 1942. Left, pictured in his 90s and right, the new book
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OUT SOON: Tunnelling to Freedom, The Story of the World's Most Persistent Escaper, is published next month
He was shot down over France in 1940, captured by the Germans and imprisoned in a number of camps.
In vivid detail, Mr Fancy, who died in September 2008, aged 95, recorded his death-defying experiences in a book, Tunnelling to Freedom: The Story of the World's Most Persistent Escaper. Aurum Press has acquired the rights to publish it in a new edition, which will reveal John's amazing exploits to a new generation of readers, including digging his tunnels with no more than a 10-inch butter knife.
The morning Mr Fancy left for France on his final fateful mission, he received a letter from his wife saying he was due to become a father.
Overjoyed by the news he set off across the Channel. But midway across France his Bristol Blenheim bomber was riddled with bullets.
The front of the plane was ripped off, the fuselage was on fire, and Mr Fancy was injured by bullets and metal fragments from the plane.
He was forced to crash the plane on the lawn of a chateau.
He then spent two months in a converted castle, under the watchful eye of the Germans, recovering from his ordeal.
From there he was transferred to a POW camp in southern Germany.
But the thought of the child he might never see fuelled his desire for freedom, and Mr Fancy embarked on a series of escape attempts that made his captors' blood boil.
Mr Fancy dug eight tunnels at the various camps in which he was held, in East Prussia, Poland and Germany.
Some were 40 feet below the surface and only two feet square. He escaped three times, only to be recaptured.
His escape attempts landed him in solitary confinement for a total of 34 weeks.
While imprisoned at Stalag Luft III in Poland, in 1942, he helped to plot the breakout of 76 men that later became known as the Great Escape, and the inspiration for the Hollywood film.
Tunnelling to Freedom is published by Aurum Press on March 8 at £8.99.
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