Bomber pilot shot down over France who took part in, and survived, the ‘Great Escape’ from Stalag Luft III
The death of Les Broderick leaves only two known British survivors of the Great Escape from the German prison camp Stalag Luft III in March 1944. Hitler had ordered all the recaptured prisoners to be shot, but 23 were spared.
Broderick had completed 18 bombing missions with No 106 Squadron, RAF when the Lancaster he captained was shot down returning from an attack on Stuttgart, in April 1943. Although hit by ground fire over the target, causing loss of height, he was hopeful of getting the Lancaster home until it was set ablaze by machinegun fire while flying low over Amiens.
Too low to bale out, he was forced into a crash-landing in which four of the crew of seven were killed. He and an air-gunner were slightly injured but the navigator was badly burned, so they went to find help rather than try to evade capture. They were captured. The navigator was sent to hospital and, after interrogation, the other two were sent to prison camp, in Broderick’s case to Stalag Luft III in Sagan, Silesia The camp stood in a clearing in a vast pine forest, with each hut on stilts to prevent tunnelling. When Broderick arrived it held 900 Allied airman and was seriously overcrowded. He was one of a large group of prisoners moved into a new compound, to ease the congestion and also prompting a new appraisal of escape possibilities. It was decided to construct three tunnels, Tom, Dick and Harry, starting from different points.
Broderick joined the team working on tunnel Dick being dug westwards towards the perimeter wire. The entrance shaft to each tunnel was chiselled through a concrete base where the stoves and washroom stood at the end of a hut, then concealed by a concrete slab fitting the space. Good progress was being made in the soft sandy earth, which was distributed around the compound by prisoners carrying it in bags beneath their trousers, until the work force was reduced by a group of prisoners being sent to a camp in Poland. Digging was concentrated on Tom, but this was discovered through traces of sand found near the entry point, resulting in all effort being switched to Harry, the longest tunnel.
After two months of feverish working in claustrophobic conditions in the two-foot high tunnel, 30 feet below the surface, Harry was completed on March 14, 1944. Some 4,000 bed boards had been used to shore up the tunnel’s roof and sides in the sandy soil.
The moonless night of March 24 was chosen for the breakout by 200 men. The first 30 were fluent German speakers and so judged to have the best chance of making a home run, the next 70 had all worked on the tunnels and the final 100 were taken out of a hat. Broderick went through the tunnel as number 52 but, shortly after the 76th man got clear, a sentry outside the wire stumbled across the open exit hole and fired a warning shot to alert the guards.
Broderick and two companions, Flight Lieutenant Birkland and Flying Officer Street were well clear by that time but after three days of being soaked by rain and suffering from the bitter cold, they gave themselves up. Broderick’s companions, Birkland and Street, were among those shot. Broderick was returned to Stalag Luft III, where there was talk of a new tunnel but with the news of the D-Day landings most inmates settled down to wait for the end of the war.
The Allied prisoners faced terrible hardships in 1945 in the course of the long march westwards away from the advancing Red Army during one of the coldest winters ever. There was no longer any purpose in escaping and their German guards were in little better condition than they. Three officers were killed and four wounded by a mistaken RAF attack on the column but, after marching for seven days and travelling in rail cattle trucks for another three, Broderick’s column reached Celle, from where they were moved in British transport and flown home.
Leslie Charles James Broderick was born in Wandsworth and educated at Bancrofts School. He joined the Territorial Army in 1939 and, following mobilisation, served with a searchlight unit on Canvey Island, Essex, where he met his wife, Teresa Nash. He transferred to the RAF in August 1940 and undertook pilot training at the British Flying Training School in Texas at the end of which he was commissioned and returned to England for duty.
On demobilisation in 1945, he took up teaching at a primary school on Canvey Island, but after the great floods of 1953 moved to South Africa. He taught in primary schools in Johannesburg and Natal until his retirement in 1982. He is survived by his wife, and two sons.
Leslie C. J. Broderick, survivor of the Great Escape from Stalag Luft III, was born on May 19, 1921. He died on April 8, 2013, aged 91
Jim Fraser: He drove the 8th Army Commander in the ‘charger’, an adapted American Grant tank
Montgomery’s driver in the Western Desert who was earlier decorated for saving the life of an officer
It was Jim Fraser’s claim that it was his idea that General (later Field Marshal) Montgomery should adopt the black Royal Tank Regiment’s beret as his headgear in the Western Desert campaign. He was the driver of Monty’s “charger” — the American “Grant” tank, with its 37mm gun replaced by a wooden dummy and ammunition racks removed to make way for extra radios, in which the 8th Army commander travelled from El Alamein to Tunis.
Having won the Military Medal at the battle of Sidi Rezegh in November 1941, Fraser was already a battle-hardened soldier when he was selected to be the driver of the newly appointed Commander of the 8th Army in August 1942. To make himself readily identifiable to the troops, Montgomery had adopted an Australian bush hat adorned with the cap-badges of units under his command. When he raised his head out of the tank turret, however, it blew off in the slipstream. So Fraser suggested that he should wear his beret instead, as it was designed to stay on and not show dirt. Monty accepted the offer, later adding his General’s cap badge to that of the Royal Tank Regiment — and wore both together for the rest of his service.
Fraser won his Military Medal for saving the life of an officer during the battle of Sidi Rezegh, when the 8th Army under Sir Alan Cunningham had fought a confused and indecisive battle against Rommel’s Afrika Korps in the desert east of Tobruk. When Fraser’s troop leader, Lieutenant Kitto, was seriously wounded by an 88mm shell hitting the side of their tank, he volunteered to find medical assistance.
Despite a confused situation with neither side being clear who held which ground, as dawn broke on the second day of the battle Fraser set off through the litter of bodies and burning tanks and returned with a medical party despite persistent shellfire. He was persuaded to abandon his tank only when it became clear the damage sustained in the battle made it a non-runner.
Born in Glasgow in 1920, Fraser came south as boy when his father was unable to find steady work in the Glasgow dockyards and moved to Colchester. Young Jim attended the Bluecoat School but left aged 14 to begin work at the Britannia Lathe & Oil Engine Company in Colchester. He hoped to join the Royal Navy but the naval recruiting office in Ipswich sent him away at 16, telling him to return when he was older.
Aged 17, but pretending to be 18, he enlisted in the Royal Tank Corps (as it then was) on November 5, 1937, intending to be a career soldier. He served in England with the 8th Royal Tanks, exercising on Salisbury Plain until after the outbreak of war. In the spring of 1941 he sailed from Greenock with the 8th Royal Tanks for the Middle East and the 8th Army.
After the Sidi Rezegh battle in November 1941, his regiment was again engaged in a furious encounter on New Year’s Eve. This time the tank commander was killed, the gunner lost a leg and Fraser suffered burns. On another occasion, in the summer of 1942, the tracks were blown off his tank by enemy fire, rendering it immobile. The crew baled out to take refuge beneath the hull but another shell lifted the tank so that it crushed three of the crew. Fraser was unhurt but hit in the leg by machinegun fire as he crawled away.
On return to the desert from hospital in Cairo, he was selected to drive the new Army Commander’s “charger” tank and remained in that role until the spring of 1943. Subsequently he served in Italy with 6th Royal Tank Regiment and was mentioned in dispatches at the crossing of the River Senio in April 1945.
He continued in the Army after the war, serving in India during the approach to Partition in 1947 and later in Korea. Promoted sergeant and later to warrant officer, in 1955 he was the squadron sergeant-major of the vehicle park squadron at the Royal Armoured Corps driving and maintenance school at Bovington, Dorset. So diligently did he perform his duties, acting as the squadron’s second-in-command and administrative officer, that he was awarded the British Empire Medal in 1956.
On completion of his 22 years’ service, he worked as postman in Colchester, becoming involved in the trades union movement and also serving as a local councillor.
His wife predeceased him. He is survived by three children.
Squadron Sergeant-Major James Fraser, MM, BEM, Royal Tank Regiment, was born on September 19, 1920. He died on March 21, 2013, aged 92
Lieutenant-Colonel Michael Gow of the 2nd Battalion, The Scots Guards, in 1965
Commander of the British Army of the Rhine who won his allies’ trust during turbulent political times
Michael Gow appeared the archetypal General but he had a light-hearted manner useful for taking some of the sting out of serious issues. His rise to prominence inevitably drew comment that he owed much to influence within the Household Division, but his command of Nato’s Northern Army Group earned the confidence and friendship of his Allied subordinates.
James Michael Gow was born in 1924, the son of J. C. Gow, sometime manager of Cammell Laird’s steel works. He was educated at Winchester, where he excelled at cricket and soccer. Commissioned into the Scots Guards in June 1943, he served with 3rd (Tank) Battalion Scots Guards during the North West Europe campaign in the 6th Guards (Tank) Brigade and later the Guards Armoured Division. Equipped with Churchill infantry support tanks, this battalion helped to debunk the myth that it was wasteful to put tall guardsmen into tanks.
He took part in the battles of Caumont in Normandy at the end of July 1944 and at Estry in August against combat-hardened German panzer divisions. These and later engagements with the Guards Armoured Division were useful preparation for dealing with Nato plans to stem any onslaught of Soviet armour more than 30 years later.
Returning to 3rd Scots Guards from hospital in April 1945 after being blown up in a scout car, he was informed that he was to take the place of the battalion quartermaster who had been taken prisoner. He got to grips with an armoured regiment’s demands for ammunition, petrol, food and spares but subsequently would dismiss any credit for this, pointing out that the war in Europe was by then almost over.
His wartime battalion brought the friendships of officers who subsequently became the Archbishop of Canterbury (Lord Runcie), Home Secretary (Lord Whitelaw), the Chief Scout of the Commonwealth (Lord Maclean) and the chairman of United Biscuits (Lord Laing of Dunphail).
His interest in military ceremonial was stimulated by his involvement in London duties in the immediate postwar years. In retirement he became an authority on the subject and on the ceremonial units of foreign armies.
He returned to active service in 1949 when he joined 2nd Battalion Scots Guards in 2nd Guards Brigade in Malaya, where the communist insurrection had erupted in 1948. The terrorists adopted bold tactics early in the campaign and suffered severely. The Scots Guards killed 100 terrorists, captured 11 and wounded 24, a tally that later battalions found difficult to match as the enemy moved deeper into the jungle.
He then spent a year as an equerry to the Duke of Gloucester. He tried to avoid the post, fearing that it would take him out of the regimental swim, but accepted it on hearing of the death of George VI, knowing that he would be involved in the Coronation. At one of the rehearsals at Westminster Abbey, after the Duke had practised his declaration of allegiance, he heard the Queen say, “That was not very well done, Uncle Harry, please do it again.”
After Staff College in 1954 he became Brigade Major (chief of staff) of 11th Infantry Brigade in the Army of the Rhine commanded by Brigadier (later Lieutenant-General Sir) Dick Fyffe of the Rifle Brigade. Fyffe was an experienced, cerebral officer from whom Gow learnt much. It was not long before he joined the directing staff at Camberley, then took over command of 2nd Scots Guards in 1964.
He commanded 4th Guards Brigade in Germany 1968-69 and after the 1970 course at the Royal College of Defence Studies was appointed Assistant Chief of Staff (Intelligence) at Nato’s Headquarters Northern Army Group and Head of Rhine Army’s counter-intelligence staff. This was outside his experience but brought him into close contact with the British, US and Nato intelligence agencies, providing him with invaluable background on the threat to Nato’s Central Region.
After promotion to major-general and command of 4th Armoured Division in Germany he returned to London as Director of Army Training in the Ministry of Defence, then Scotland as GOC on his advance to lieutenant-general in 1979. He was appointed KCB in 1980 and it was generally expected that he would retire from Edinburgh. Instead he was promoted to command Northern Army Group and BAOR. Although he did not seek to introduce radical changes or reforms on how Northern Army Group fitted into the Nato pattern of deterrence in Western Europe, he won the confidence of Allied commanders and staffs and kept stable a structure under constant threat of financial cuts restricting modernisation and training.
In 1983 he was the UK member of a Nato European group that toured the US, appearing on radio and television and addressing audiences in Washington and other cities, presenting the economic, military and political issues confronting Nato.
Gow was Colonel Commandant of the Scottish Division 1979-80 and of the Intelligence Corps 1973-86. He was County Commissioner, British Scouts Western Europe 1980-83. On leaving Germany, he returned to London as Commandant of the RCDS until his retirement. He had been advanced to GCB in 1981 and was an ADC (General) to the Queen 1981-84. At the time of his retirement in January 1986, he was the senior general in the Army.
Subsequently he launched himself into numerous charitable and public duties. He was president of the Royal British Legion Scotland and of the Earl Haig Fund Scotland 1986-96, a member of the Queen’s Body Guard for Scotland, Royal Company of Archers, from 1964 and Captain 2000 to 2006. In addition he was an Elder of the Church of Scotland and a Deputy Lieutenant for Edinburgh from 1994.
His publications included Trooping the Colour (1989), Jottings in a General’s Notebook (1989) and General Reflections (1991). He is survived by his wife, Jane, whom he married in 1946, a son and four daughters.
General Sir Michael Gow, GCB, Commander Northern Army Group and BAOR 1980-83, was born on June 3, 1924. He died on March 26, 2013, aged 88
