M19 will, we hope, one day open up all the files, especially on the early part of Roger’s imprisonment in Germany as the public should know more about this man and the exceptional people involved, some of whom we have met. The question really is what the security services still have to protect (or hide) as only two escapers are actually alive as we write this review in May 2015 and disclosure would be historically fascinating to read. The nobbled, probably fake, dispatches originating from Sweden, printed in “The Daily Telegraph” using most ridiculous aliases like ‘Wing Commander Smith’, have unfortunately assisted the build-up of some silly myths about “Operation 200” or The “Great Escape” as it is now known. What we have with the biography is a much more rounded picture of Roger as a man: a most useful portrait as so few people remain alive who knew him, and after the various smatterings of the story appeared in other books.īrickhill had much trouble publishing his book at the end of the war. Pearson has produced an excellent, well researched and documented account of a most remarkable man taken from the papers in the IWM Bushell archive now available, and substantial interviews. Simon Pearson’s work will remain the definitive account for many years to come until the remaining official papers are eventually released in the middle of this century possibly, if at all, if the public are going to be allowed to see them. It’s an uplifting statement of what can be achieved against the greatest odds, and with such sad turns of event thrown in along the way, all of which are unfortunately true. “The Great Escaper” is the first full biography of Bushell. Anthony Eden made a statement in the Commons committing the British government to find and punish the murderers of the fifty airmen, including Bushell, involved in the escape.
What most people do not realise are the surprising efforts made by the government initially to prevent publication of the story, and the continued secrecy surrounding what went on after the escape in March 1944 as D Day and the end of the war approached. Most people are familiar with the story of ‘The Great Escape’ from the book written by Paul Brickhill which was permitted to be published in 1950, and the later blockbuster film produced in 1963- ‘a good film’ said Sydney Dowse, but a film nonetheless. LET’S HOPE THE GOVERNMENT WILL ONE DAY EXPLAIN WHAT REALLY HAPPENED AND THE ESCAPE’S IMPACT ON THE WARĪn appreciation by Phillip Taylor MBE and Elizabeth Taylor of Richmond Green Chambers ROGER BUSHELL: A GREAT INTELLIGENCE ASSET.
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