The Great Escape

[Eric Mc]

I know we've all seen this film a million times. However, I've just discovered that the Vue cinema in Farnborough is having a one off 75th Anniversary showing of the film "The Great Escape" this evening at 6.00 pm. As well as the movie, there is also a presentation on screen of the story of the real escape by Dan Snow. I know it's short notice but I just found out this morning.

I'm sure other cinemas might be screening this event today so if you check on line you might find that it is also on at a cinema near you.

[Cold]

Yep, good call. Vue often do this sort of thing and if you keep an eye on their listings you can often find "classics" or old favourites having a fresh outing on the big screen.

[and31]

My mother worked as a home carer for ten years or more for one of the great escapers -wing commander Norman “conk” Canton.lovely old man ,he was one of the tunnellers from stalag luft III.
He was outraged that he wasn’t allowed to be one of The escapers that night ,but he was deemed to be too valuable as a tunneller and therefore able to help with subsequent escapes.this probably saved his life as he had been captured on several previously unsuccessful escape attempts,and would surely have been on the list of the 50 allied airmen murdered by the nazis if he went out in the tunnel that night.
I’m fortunate to have been able to look through his scrapbook that contained lots of sketches of the camp ,and also of the death march that the pow’s were forced to undergo in the last stages of the war.
I have a RAF escape compass that was contained in one of his tunic buttons,and some silk escape maps ,although I’m not sure if the maps are from after ww2,as he returned to RAF service as a bomber pilot after he was liberated.
Amazing man,with an amazing story.

Edited by and31 on Sunday 24th March 21:43

[and31]

My mother worked as a home carer for ten years or more for one of the great escapers -wing commander Norman “conk” Canton.lovely old man ,he was one of the tunnellers from stalag luft III.
He was outraged that he wasn’t allowed to be one of The escapers that night ,but he was deemed to be too valuable as a tunneller and therefore able to help with subsequent escapes.this probably saved his life as he had been captured on several previously unsuccessful escape attempts,and would surely have been on the list of the 50 allied airmen murdered by the nazis if he went out in the tunnel that night.
I’m fortunate to have been able to look through his scrapbook that contained lots of sketches of the camp ,and also of the death march that the pow’s were forced to undergo in the last stages of the war.
I have a RAF escape compass that was contained in one of his tunic buttons,and some silk escape maps ,although I’m not sure if the maps are from after ww2,as he returned to RAF service as a bomber pilot after he was liberated.
Amazing man,with an amazing story.

Edited by and31 on Sunday 24th March 22:04

[MonkeyBusiness]

I bought The Great Escape on BetaMax only to get home and find it was on ITV that afternoon.

[and31]

My mother worked as a home carer for ten years or more for one of the great escapers -wing commander Norman “conk” Canton.lovely old man ,he was one of the tunnellers from stalag luft III.
He was outraged that he wasn’t allowed to be one of The escapers that night ,but he was deemed to be too valuable as a tunneller and therefore able to help with subsequent escapes.this probably saved his life as he had been captured on several previously unsuccessful escape attempts,and would surely have been on the list of the 50 allied airmen murdered by the nazis if he went out in the tunnel that night.

[Eric Mc]

I can see why And31 has that PHname

The whole show was around 4 1/2 hours long - an excellent night out.

[and31]

I really don’t know what happened with my triple posts above....

[Shakermaker]

and31 said:

I really don’t know what happened with my triple posts above....

I believe If you are posting from mobile, and then close the browser after hitting "post" but not then "return to thread" or "return to forum" then when you go back to your browser, it will resubmit your response

Thanks to the unique way in which the site is still running mid-00s forum software I believe

[and31]

Shakermaker said:

I believe If you are posting from mobile, and then close the browser after hitting "post" but not then "return to thread" or "return to forum" then when you go back to your browser, it will resubmit your response

Thanks to the unique way in which the site is still running mid-00s forum software I believe

That must be what I did!
Thank you for that info

[Jeff007]

Interesting to hear about Norman "Conk" Canton. He was my Uncle. My father, his brother, was also in the RAF and I proudly have quite a few things that belonged to my father (DFC, letter from the King etc) including photos and flight log books from his time on the Lancaster Bomber.
He spoke of Norman, fondly. However not in great detail.

[and31]

Jeff007 said:

Interesting to hear about Norman "Conk" Canton. He was my Uncle. My father, his brother, was also in the RAF and I proudly have quite a few things that belonged to my father (DFC, letter from the King etc) including photos and flight log books from his time on the Lancaster Bomber.
He spoke of Norman, fondly. However not in great detail.

Wow that’s brilliant!!
What a small world we live in eh?
Conk was a lovely old boy-I only met him a couple of times,but my mother was very fond of him.we were all very sad when he passed away.
Thanks for your post.

[p_wil88]

Good evening all,

Sorry I’m late to the party but I’ve only just seen this discussion. I have a very strong interest in Stalag Luft 3 and the Great Escape and have been carrying out research on the subject for a number of years. Would you be able to share pictures of ‘Conk’ Cantons escape maps and his papers at all? I’d be incredibly fascinated to see them and so would a lot of other enthusiasts too.

Best wishes,
Paul

[and31]

I’ll dig out what I have

Edited by and31 on Thursday 21st December 20:07

[p_wil88]

That’s very kind, thank you. I’d love to see some of his items.

[and31]

p_wil88 said:

That’s very kind, thank you. I’d love to see some of his items.

Sorry I completely forgot about this!! I’ll dig them out this week

[p_wil88]

Thank you. That is very kind.

[and31]

Here’s the escape compass from the tunic button-needs cleaning up but I don’t want to ruin it

[and31]

The silk map- I doubt very much he had the map during his time in stalag luft 3,but the compass possibly..
Conk was a serial escaper and had he been allowed to go out on the great escape, ( he was told he was too important digging tunnels for future escapes and wasn’t allowed to go, something he was furious about at the time) , he would probably have been one of the 50 executed.

[p_wil88]

Thank you. That is very kind.