The Great Escape

Update 4, 14th February 2003 - Personal memories by an old friend. We are privileged to have a first hand account of James Long's schooldays and pre-service life from his friend Leslie Bowerman, another Old Huisher from around 1920.Some of his recollections have been added below, after the entry for Flt. Lt. Long, in order to preserve the logic of the story.

Update 3, 20th November 2002. An international committee has been formed with the intention of creating a permanent memorial to the murdered 50 and their comrades on the site of Stalag Luft 3 at Sagan, Poland. They have a website www.thegreatescapememorialproject.com which contains background information on the appeal with details of the Committee, photos of the campsite today and illustrations of the proposed memorial.

Update 2, 4th August 2002. Squadron Leader B.A. 'Jimmy' James was the guest speaker at last night's meeting of the Somerset Aviation Enthusiasts at Langport. Before the meeting I was pleased to be able to meet Jimmy and to tell him of 'Cookie' Long's local origins and present him with a small dossier of Great Escape material that has come my way as a result of this oldhuish web page. Jimmy knew Cookie well and at one time shared a room with him. He was also closely involved with the helmet story below and continues to lecture on his PoW experiences in his 87/88th year.

Update 1, 2nd August 2000. Ruth Leary at ruth@wild-dream.com is researching a possible film for a C5 TV series 'Great Escapes'. Anyone who can put her in touch with any of the escapers or their families is invited to contact her with their stories. I'm delighted to say that she got her first reply via this page within an hour - from Canada!

James 'Cookie' Long, Old Huisher

The Somerset County Gazette for 24 April 1998 features a story about the remarkable return of a WW2 airman's helmet. James Long, an Old Huisher, was shot down over Holland during a raid on Cologne on 27 March 1941. The crew escaped injury but were taken prisoner, ending up in Stalag Luft III in 1944 where he took part in 'The Great Escape'. He and 49 others were recaptured and executed.

James Long's brother, holding photograph (53.6kb)

On his landing in Holland however his helmet had been found by a farmer and passed to a young man called Nick Nolke who kept it and eventually returned it to the base from which the Wellington bomber flew on its last mission 57 years earlier. The helmet was restored to James Long's family in a ceremony at RAF Honington on Monday 20 April 1998.

The cutting has been sent to another member of the Great Escape team, George McKiel now of Nova Scotia, and who, as I understand it, played a supporting role but did not actually take part in the escape. He is the nephew of our original neighbours here 29 years ago and my wife has kept in touch with George ever since.

With acknowledgements to the Somerset County Gazette, report by Becky Brown, 24.4.98

February 03 Our letter to the County Gazette (Update 3 above) drawing readers' attention to the Appeal for the construction of a permanent memorial brought an immediate response from 'Cookie' Long's old friend, Leslie Bowerman. Here is a summary of his recollections:

"I was a few years older than Leslie - he was James Leslie Robert Long - but we had known each other from boyhood. He was known to me as Leslie; 'Cookie' was a name he acquired during his time as a Prisoner of War. We had met through the Octagon Chapel in Middle Street where Leslie's father was a minister, and I knew all the family.

"Leslie's brother Norman who received the flying helmet on behalf of the family was an airman too. He served in the Royal Naval Air Service. Leslie had joined the RAFVR and was interested in all forms of high performance transport. We went to motor racing events together and saw the Auto Unions race in England in the late 1930s. (This possibly refers to the British Grands Prix at Donington, 1937/38 where Rosemeyer ('37) and Nuvolari ('38) won for Auto Union)

"With his Volunteer Reserve service, Leslie was a natural for immediate aircrew duties when war was declared. After his capture, we received a few postcards from him. In one of them he refers to Christmas 1943 and his 'hopes to see us again before the next one'. I also have a few newspaper photographs of the time but sadly I did not know about the return of his helmet to his brother until it was reported in the Gazette or I would have hoped to have been there and to have met Norman, who now lives in Canada.

"Some years ago a gentleman in Canada appealed for information about the fifty murdered airmen with a view to publishing a brief biography of each one. I responded and sent him some notes on Leslie's early life but the project seemed to die when someone else published first. I still have a copy of the notes I sent him.

"Apart from the cards, we had little knowledge of what was happening in Stalag Luft 3 but the reference in 'The Longest Tunnel' (Alan Burgess, Bloomsbury 1990) about Cookie clearing roof falls in record time during the Escape is very true to life. He was always a strong fit man. We heard later that he had been involved in other escapes, once reaching the French coast.

"The news of his death was devastating. Originally there were believed to be 47 killed and the news of a further three, including Leslie, reached home just as his father was about to perform a wedding at the chapel. He would not hear of standing down and the wedding went ahead".

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Flt. Lt. J.L.R. Long, b. 21 Feb 1915, crashed 27 Mar 1941, PoW, escaped 24 Mar 1944, last seen alive 12 April 1944

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October 99. A sequel to the original note about the flying helmet is that Bill Bale of Canada has received a copy of the cutting from a friend and wrote to the County Gazette seeking news of the present whereabouts of Norman and, if possible, a copy of a photograph of Form VB, 1938-39. I will be happy to pass on any information.

Bill subsequently wrote (Nov 99):

Thank you so much for your letter of the 9th..I have taken my time replying to it in order to see what effect my trolling would have.As it happens, some-one evidently sent a copy of the letter to Norman Long, who then phoned me about a week ago.

We had quite a chat about old times. Apparently he now lives in Ottawa, but was living in Victoria at the same time as we used to visit our daughter there.

I have also recently been in touch with Ken Rice, another old boy who used to live near me in the l930s and who now lives in the USA.

Also received a letter from a Peter Watkin of Taunton who meets Norman Long on holiday in Spain and who gave me some information.

My c.v. is:-
Bale, William R.(Bill): Huish's l934-l939; Worked in Taunton Public Library; RAF l942-45; City of Laicester P.L.; Dagenham P.L.; Essex County Libraries; Lethbridge, Alberta P.L.; and retired as Director of Parkland Regional Library, Alberta,Canada.

Kind regards Bill Bale.