NANAIMO, British Columbia, April 13 (UPI) -- A Canadian farmer who participated in the World War II prison camp break depicted in the movie "The Great Escape" has died.
John Henry Colwell was 90, the Nanaimo Daily News reported.
Colwell, born in India, spent most of his life on the farm in Lantzville on Vancouver Island that his parents bought in the 1930s.
In 1940, Colwell joined the Royal Canadian Air Force, where he became a navigator in a Halifax bomber. He was captured by the Germans in 1943 when he escaped from a burning airplane over The Netherlands.
Imprisoned in Stalag Luft III, Colwell was one of the 250 men involved in digging tunnels out of the camp. He was a "penguin," one of the inmates who disposed of dirt from the tunnels by spreading it in the prison compound from bags concealed in their trouser legs.
Colwell was No. 146 on the night of the breakout. The escape was discovered when 76 prisoners had gone through the tunnels.
Most of those who escaped were recaptured and 50 were shot. Only three got out of Germany.
Colwell remained in custody until a week before the German surrender. He returned to British Columbia and bought his parents' farm.
