Sydney Dowse - the RAF pilot who took part in the Great Escape

michellezm

5-5-2008 1:03 PM

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<div style="margin: 12px 0px; font-family: arial; color: #333333; background: #ffffff; border: solid 4px #e5e5e5; width: 100%; clear: left;"><div class="CM_CTB_Content_Wrap" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;background-color: #ffffff;"><div style="border-bottom: solid 1px #dcdcdc; white-space: nowrap; margin-bottom: 8px; background-color: #eeeeee ;background-image: url(http://clipmarks.com/images/source-bg.gif); background-repeat: repeat-x; height: 24px; line-height: 24px; vertical-align: middle; padding-bottom: 4px; color: #666666; font-size: 10px;" ><a href="http://clipmarks.com/clip-to-blog/" title="see clips that are hot right now"><img src="http://content.clipmarks.com/blog_embed/db0af5fa-1c9d-44ee-83d7-5539d6fda8c3/ED250707-4997-46B5-B9ED-EFCFAFE55A16/" alt="" width="19" height="19" border="0" style="vertical-align: middle; margin: 0px 4px; display: inline; border: none; float:none;" /></a>clipped from <a title="http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/comment/obituaries/article3723666.ece" href="http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/comment/obituaries/article3723666.ece" style="font-size: 11px;">www.timesonline.co.uk</a></div><blockquote style="text-align: left; padding: 0px 8px; margin: 4px 0px 8px 0px; background: transparent; border: none;" cite="http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/comment/obituaries/article3723666.ece">
The death of Sydney Dowse leaves only three British survivors of the “Great
Escape” by Allied air force officers from the German prison of war camp
Stalag Luft III in March 1944. Hitler issued an order that all those
recaptured were to be shot but was allegedly persuaded to reduce the figure
to 50. Seventy-six men got away but only three reached safety. The 23
survivors of those recaptured were sent to prison or concentration camps.
Dowse was sent to Sachsenhausen concentration camp, north of Berlin, from
where he again escaped. In all he made five escape attempts.</blockquote><div style="height: 2px; font-size: 2px; background: #dcdcdc; border-bottom: solid 1px #f5f5f5; margin: 2px 4px;"></div><blockquote style="text-align: left; padding: 0px 8px; margin: 4px 0px 8px 0px; background: transparent; border: none;" cite="http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/comment/obituaries/article3723666.ece"><div align="center"><img src="http://content8.clipmarks.com/blog_cache/www.timesonline.co.uk/img/4F2C42E6-ED77-4B1A-A266-3FE1C9E195D1" alt="Sydney Dowse, right, with fellow escaper Jimmy James" /></div></blockquote><div style="height: 2px; font-size: 2px; background: #dcdcdc; border-bottom: solid 1px #f5f5f5; margin: 2px 4px;"></div><blockquote style="text-align: left; padding: 0px 8px; margin: 4px 0px 8px 0px; background: transparent; border: none;" cite="http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/comment/obituaries/article3723666.ece">RAF Flight Lieutenant, Dowse had baled out from his photo-reconaissance
Spitfire of 608 Squadron over Brest in August 1941, after taking photographs
of the German battle cruisers Gneisenau and Scharnhorst sheltering in the
port. Landing in occupied Brittany</blockquote><div style="height: 2px; font-size: 2px; background: #dcdcdc; border-bottom: solid 1px #f5f5f5; margin: 2px 4px;"></div><blockquote style="text-align: left; padding: 0px 8px; margin: 4px 0px 8px 0px; background: transparent; border: none;" cite="http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/comment/obituaries/article3723666.ece">he tried to make contact with the French
Resistance but was taken prisoner and sent for treatment at a hospital in
Germany near Weimar, from where he made his first escape</blockquote></div><div style="margin: 0px 6px 6px 4px;"><table style="font-size: 11px;border-spacing: 0px;padding: 0px;" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" width="100%"><tr><td style="background:transparent;border-width:0px;padding:0px;">&nbsp;</td><td align="right" style="background:transparent;border-width:0px;padding:0px;width:107px" width="107"><a href="http://clipmarks.com/share/ED250707-4997-46B5-B9ED-EFCFAFE55A16/blog/" title="blog or email this clip"><img src="http://content9.clipmarks.com/images/c2b-foot.png" border="0" alt="blog it" width="107" height="17" style="border-width:0px;padding:0px;margin:0px;" /></a></td></tr></table></div></div>

michellezm says:

Interesting read and an interesting character. Just so happens that Sydney's his brother was my father's life-long friend

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