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The Fifty: The Fallen Heroes of the Great Escape
This work profiles fallen prisoners of war from a famed escape, detailing their backgrounds, fates, and the memory of their families.
The Great Escape has gone down in history as a story of bravery and cunning that ultimately led to the killing of fifty prisoners of war, all officially recorded as ‘beim Fluchtversuch erschossen’ – shot whilst attempting to escape.
While the names of surviving escapers may be familiar, having lived to tell their stories, most of the murdered fifty are less well known, and many receive no more than a footnote in the stories, films and documentaries created thus far. So, who were these men? Where did they come from? How much fighting had they done? And how did they come to be prisoners of war?
In The Fifty – The Fallen Heroes of the Great Escape, authors Steve Darlow and Sean Feast present the stories of the killed escapers. They look at their early lives, operational careers, and how they came to be in Stalag Luft 3. They touch upon the very human side of the escape and its aftermath, how the families came to be told, and their practical struggles even thirty years after the event to conclude their loved ones’ affairs in obtaining proof of how, where, and when they died. Crucially, the authors look at the way in which the lives of the murdered men are commemorated, and how their families wished them to be remembered.
Brought together in a single volume, The Fifty presents a series of profiles of the fallen heroes – an homage for those whose bid for freedom ended in the most tragic circumstances.
The Great Escape has gone down in history as a story of bravery and cunning that ultimately led to the killing of fifty prisoners of war, all officially recorded as ‘beim Fluchtversuch erschossen’ – shot whilst attempting to escape.
While the names of surviving escapers may be familiar, having lived to tell their stories, most of the murdered fifty are less well known, and many receive no more than a footnote in the stories, films and documentaries created thus far. So, who were these men? Where did they come from? How much fighting had they done? And how did they come to be prisoners of war?
In The Fifty – The Fallen Heroes of the Great Escape, authors Steve Darlow and Sean Feast present the stories of the killed escapers. They look at their early lives, operational careers, and how they came to be in Stalag Luft 3. They touch upon the very human side of the escape and its aftermath, how the families came to be told, and their practical struggles even thirty years after the event to conclude their loved ones’ affairs in obtaining proof of how, where, and when they died. Crucially, the authors look at the way in which the lives of the murdered men are commemorated, and how their families wished them to be remembered.
Brought together in a single volume, The Fifty presents a series of profiles of the fallen heroes – an homage for those whose bid for freedom ended in the most tragic circumstances.
240 pages, Hardcover
Published October 15, 2026
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November 1, 2026
On the evening of March 24-25 seventy-six Allied officers attempted to break out of the Stalag Luft III POW camp and escape to safety. This event has gone down in history as "The Great Escape". Seventy-three of the POW escapees were ordered to be executed on direct oral orders of Adolf Hitler. Ultimately this was amended to 50. All of these men were captured and murdered by the Gestapo or German police. The dead included British, South Africans, Canadians, Irish, Poles, Czechs, Belgians, Norse, Lithuanians, Australians, and New Zealanders, including a Māori. Contrary to initial German reports, the none of the murdered POWs were attempting to escape at the time of the executions. Most were shot in the back or back of the head and then cremated.
This is a hard book to rate. In the end I decided to give the book 5 stars for what it is and not for readability. It is an account of the murder of 50 Allied officers by the Nazis.
The book has very little about the details of The Great Escape, nor about the hunt and capture of the murderers. It is an account of each and every of the murdered officers. Each account is 3-5 pages long and describes the early life, air force career and final missions of the officers. It then describes their participation in the preparation for the escape, their capture and their deaths. It is a testimony to their lives and their deaths.
As a note, the chapters come off as formulaic. Many of the backgrounds are very similar. The missions vary, but the deaths remain the same. Unless you write a book about each officer, this is a given. It is a good solid history but due to the format and contents it is not a thriller. It is a mosaic of murder victims.
This is a hard book to rate. In the end I decided to give the book 5 stars for what it is and not for readability. It is an account of the murder of 50 Allied officers by the Nazis.
The book has very little about the details of The Great Escape, nor about the hunt and capture of the murderers. It is an account of each and every of the murdered officers. Each account is 3-5 pages long and describes the early life, air force career and final missions of the officers. It then describes their participation in the preparation for the escape, their capture and their deaths. It is a testimony to their lives and their deaths.
As a note, the chapters come off as formulaic. Many of the backgrounds are very similar. The missions vary, but the deaths remain the same. Unless you write a book about each officer, this is a given. It is a good solid history but due to the format and contents it is not a thriller. It is a mosaic of murder victims.
Displaying 1 - 1 of 1 review