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.

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

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