UK NEWS

'GREAT ESCAPE' PRISONER'S DIARY FOUND

Ted Nestor's diary shows detailed plan of escape route. Not pictured

Monday November 23,2009

By Lianne Kolirin

TED Nestor never talked about his experiences as a prisoner of war.

Whenever his children asked, the shy headmaster suggested they read his wartime diary.

But though they liked to flick through it, the former Second World War RAF hero’s four children had no idea of its significance.

Now, 19 years after his death, the journal has provided historians with an astonishing insight into life at Stalag Luft III – the PoW camp immortalised by Hollywood in the 1963 classic The Great Escape, starring Steve McQueen.

Stalag Luft III was a Luftwaffe-run PoW prison for 10,000 captured servicemen in Silesia, now Poland.

Flight Lieutenant Nestor was just 23 when he was shot down over Germany on a bombing raid in August 1943 and sent to the camp.

Over the next year-and-a-half the young navigator kept a detailed record of daily life there, including his comrades’ dramatic escape plan – one of the most famous acts of heroism of the Second World War.

Seventy-six PoWs tunnelled their way to freedom – three made it to the UK, 23 were recaptured and 50 executed on Hitler’s orders.

The diary includes cartoons, paintings, jokes, poems, photos, and money. It was gathering dust in a drawer until a family friend realised its importance.

Mr Nestor wrote about the March 24, 1944 escape in code, as if it were a horse race, describing how just before the escape the men were “under starter’s orders”.

One cartoon shows the soldiers in training, being given advice on how easy escape would be. Another shows the reality with barbed wire, guard dogs and armed guards.

In a later entry, which he entitled ‘The Escape’, Mr Nestor of Stockport, recorded in precise detail the size of the tunnel, where the exit was and how he learned that many of the escapees had been killed. He wrote: “On May 25th, the cremated remains of 29 of the deceased officers were returned to camp.” He also talked about Roger Bushell, the pilot who organised and led the escape.

Mr Nestor’s daughter Sharon Cottam, 50, said: “I remember looking at the diaries as a child, but I didn’t really realise the significance of his role in the war at the time.”

Amanda Mason, from the Imperial War Museum North, said: “It’s such a wonderful record of one man’s experience as a prisoner.”

Mr Nestor’s story is told on BBC One North West at 7.30pm tonight.

Amazon.co.uk Widgets