Thomas Kirby-Green

Thomas Gresham Kirby-Green (27 February 1918 – 29 March 1944) was a British Royal Air Force officer, the pilot of a Vickers Wellington bomber, who was taken prisoner during the Second World War.

On leaving school in 1935 he lived with his parents in Tangier and gained a private pilot's licence prior to joining the Royal Air Force.

Kirby-Green was commissioned on 24 August 1936, he trained as a service pilot at No. 8 Flying Training School Montrose and joined No. 216 Squadron RAF flying transport aircraft in Egypt from 27 May 1937 before being confirmed as a pilot officer on 29 June 1937.

During this period he regularly sailed to Tangier to visit his parents whilst on leave.

In January 1938 he was transferred to No. 99 Squadron RAF at RAF Mildenhall and with the squadron converted to the new Vickers Wellington bomber later that year.

During 1938 he competed in the RAF Athletics Championships representing the base and competing against Ian Cross representing RAF Marham who would also be involved in the "Great Escape" in 1944.

He was promoted flying officer on 29 January 1939.

In January 1940, after completing a gunnery course, he joined No. 9 Squadron RAF to fly Vickers Wellingtons operationally from RAF Honington and by the end of July 1940 he had completed 27 operations.

That September he was rested and posted to the newly formed No. 311 Squadron RAF a Czech squadron, as a flight instructor.

He always wore Czech insignia on his RAF uniform to honour his Czech friends.

Kirby-Green was promoted flight lieutenant on 3 September 1940.

Near the end of 1940 he married Maria Dorothea Diane Hayman in south-west London and they set up home at Hamerton near Huntingdon.

In September 1941 he completed a highly successful instructional tour with the Czechs being posted away to No. 40 Squadron RAF for a second tour of ops.

His commanding officer was "Pick" Pickard DSO DFC.

On 10 September 1941 he participated in a bombing attack on Turin, Italy and was the only pilot of the squadron to reach and bomb the target due to the terrible weather conditions.

He was promoted acting squadron leader and flight commander and received a Mention in Despatches.

At 01:06 hours on the morning of 17 October 1941 he took off from RAF Alconbury on his 37th operation flying a Wellington Mark Ic bomber (serial number "Z8862", squadron codes BL-B) to bomb factories in Duisburg but Kirby-Green's aircraft was shot down.

All of the rest of the crew were killed and Kirby-Green became a prisoner of war.

Percy Pickard flew down to break the news to his wife and said that he was sure that Kirby-Green would be a prisoner of war and then on 16 November 1941 William Joyce, Lord Haw Haw the American born Irish-British Nazi collaborator broadcasting from Berlin made specific reference to the capture of Squadron Leader Kirby-Green.

By this time he had passed through interrogation camp at Dulag Luft and was in Stalag Luft I at Barth where he was a colourful and noisy character.

As a prisoner of war Kirby-Green received exotic parcels from family in Tangier with fruits, nuts, gramophone records of Latin music and bright clothing.

He and Johnny Stower gave classes teaching the Spanish language.

After transfer to Stalag Luft III he became more closely associated with Roger Bushell who was Big-X running the escape activities.

Bushell recruited him as the senior security officer for the escape committee.

He became Big-S and introduced a "duty-pilot" scheme which involved maintaining a watch on all German activities.

He was also an enthusiastic tunneller, and collated all available information on Spain, anything which might assist an escaper heading for that frontier.

The original escape plan teamed Gordon Kidder up with Dick Churchill to travel posing as Rumanian woodcutters, but after Churchill was removed to another camp, Kidder was paired with deeply sun-tanned Tom Kirby-Green, who had been in charge of security for organizer Roger Bushells "escape committee"; they would instead pose as Spanish labourers.

He took part in the 'Great Escape' from Stalag Luft III in March 1944, but was one of the men recaptured and subsequently executed by the Gestapo.

Kirby-Green was born in Dowa, Nyasaland where his father Sir William Kirby-Green was the British District Governor.

His father was upcountry at the time of his birth and found a baby abandoned in the bush at the same time as his son was born.

He rescued the child, named him "Putti" and brought him up as another son.

After growing up in Africa, Kirby-Green was sent to boarding school in England at Dover College where he became a house prefect and a member of the rugby team.

Despite Kirby-Green being buried by a cave-in in the tunnel, he and Kidder were amongst the first 24 from the total of 76 men who escaped the prison camp on the night of 24–25 March 1944, in the escape now known as "the Great Escape".

The pair cleared the tunnel exit before the alarm was sounded and made it to the local railway station, where they were almost exposed when questioned by a female member of the prison camp censor staff.

She involved a policeman, who was convinced by their mixture of Spanish and broken German and let them go.

They boarded the train for Breslau, where they then changed trains for Czechoslovakia, hoping for a further connection to Yugoslavia or Hungary where Kirby-Green had friends.

But after crossing the border they were recaptured at Hodonín in southern Moravia (close to the Austrian frontier) on 28 March 1944.

While held at Zlín prison they were interrogated under torture.

The two escapees were taken away by the Zlín Gestapo in two cars which headed out onto the Breslau road, and were shot near Moravská Ostrava (today part of Ostrava), their bodies being cremated in the local crematorium there.

Urns returned to Stalag Luft III were marked with the date 29 March 1944 and the name of the town Mahrisch.