Eric Dowling, Great Escape Planner
Monday, August 11th, 2008
Eric Dowling, Royal Air Force Flight Lt. nicknamed “Digger” who helped create the tunnels used to breakout of the Stalag Luft III prison in what was then eastern Germany died July 21, a day before his 93rd birthday. The work he contributed - forging documents, creating maps and digging three secret tunnels known as Tom, Dick and Harry - brought to fruition what is now known as The Great Escape. The story inspired the 1963 movie “The Great Escape” starting Steve McQueen. Mr. Dowling was not one of the 76 men that crawled free from the prison. Of the 76 prisons, only three successfully escaped. Fifty of the captured escapees were executed by orders given by Adolf Hitler.