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Paul Brickhill
Paul Chester Jerome Brickhill (20 December 1916 – 23 April 1991) was an Australian fighter pilot, prisoner of war, and author who wrote The Great Escape, The Dam Busters, and Reach for the Sky.
Brickhill was born in Melbourne, Victoria to journalist George Russell Brickhill (1879–1965) and Izitella Victoria (née Bradshaw) Brickhill (1885–1966). He was the third son of the couple's five children, the others being Russell (1911–2002), Ayde Geoffrey (1914–), Lloyd (1918–2011), and Clive (1923–2009). When Brickhill was 11 the family moved to Sydney, where he was educated at North Sydney Boys High School. A classmate, and friend, was actor Peter Finch.
Brickhill left school in 1931 after his father had been made redundant as a result of the Depression. While his other brothers continued with their education it was necessary for Brickhill, who was regarded as the least academic child, to get a job to assist his older brother Russell in bringing money into the family. He was sacked from his first two jobs due to his stutter. He then got a job as office boy and then lift boy at the Adelaide Steamship Company. That job did not last long, as Peter Finch, who was by then working as a copy boy, was able to convince a news editor at The Sun to interview Brickhill in 1932. Brickhill was hired as a copy boy, and within a year was promoted to cadet journalist. Within a few years he had worked his way up to journalist, and by 1940 was a sub-editor.
Brickhill was unimpressed by war fever, until the shock of the invasion of France and subsequent withdrawal from Dunkirk, coupled with boredom with his deskbound sub-editor job, induced him to enlist on 6 January 1941 with the Royal Australian Air Force (RAAF). His flight training commenced in March 1941 at the Number 8 Elementary Flying Training School at Narrandera, New South Wales as undertaken in Australia Under the Empire Air Training Scheme. Brickhill undertook advanced training as a fighter pilot in Canada and the United Kingdom before being assigned to No. 92 Squadron RAF, a unit equipped with Spitfires and part of the Desert Air Force in North Africa.
On 17 March 1943, he was shot down over Tunisia and became a prisoner of war. He was flown to Italy on 23 March, then sent by train to Germany. After being held at the Dulag Luft at Oberursel, a central receiving and interrogation station for captured enemy airmen for the Luftwaffe, he was sent to Stalag Luft III, in Lower Silesia, 150 km southeast of Berlin, arriving there on 4 April 1943. Brickhill became involved with organizing the camp's escape, initially as a lookout or "stooge", before volunteering to work as a digger on the "Tom" tunnel. He developed claustrophobia, so he was put in charge of security for the forgers. Because of his claustrophobia and the risk that he would panic and block the escape of those behind him, he was not allowed to take part in the escape attempt, which is known as "The Great Escape".
Following the announcement of the murder of the escapees who had been recaptured following the Great Escape, Brickhill became determined to document the event. Discussing the subject with fellow prisoner Conrad Norton, they found that many of their fellow prisoners had other tales of daring escapes that would justify a book following the end of the war. As Brickhill had been involved in "The Great Escape", he concentrated on that story, while Norton collected individual tales. Since the prisoners were forbidden from writing anything other than letters and postcards, they collected every piece of paper they could find and, writing in as small a hand as possible, they collected stories and hid them from the guards.
Following the end of the war, while the terms of his enlistment with the RAAF had been that he had to serve for 12 months following the cessation of hostilities, Brickhill was granted six months' leave without pay. During his leave he returned to journalism, working as a London-based correspondent for Associated Newspapers. Meanwhile, outside of working hours he had typed up his and Norton's stories and selected David Higham as their literary agent. With Higham's help the manuscript was accepted by Faber & Faber and published as Escape to Danger in 1946.
After working for Associated Newspapers for a period, Brickhill returned to Australia, taking a job as a sub-editor at The Sun newspaper in Sydney, Australia.
Paul Brickhill
Paul Chester Jerome Brickhill (20 December 1916 – 23 April 1991) was an Australian fighter pilot, prisoner of war, and author who wrote The Great Escape, The Dam Busters, and Reach for the Sky.
Brickhill was born in Melbourne, Victoria to journalist George Russell Brickhill (1879–1965) and Izitella Victoria (née Bradshaw) Brickhill (1885–1966). He was the third son of the couple's five children, the others being Russell (1911–2002), Ayde Geoffrey (1914–), Lloyd (1918–2011), and Clive (1923–2009). When Brickhill was 11 the family moved to Sydney, where he was educated at North Sydney Boys High School. A classmate, and friend, was actor Peter Finch.
Brickhill left school in 1931 after his father had been made redundant as a result of the Depression. While his other brothers continued with their education it was necessary for Brickhill, who was regarded as the least academic child, to get a job to assist his older brother Russell in bringing money into the family. He was sacked from his first two jobs due to his stutter. He then got a job as office boy and then lift boy at the Adelaide Steamship Company. That job did not last long, as Peter Finch, who was by then working as a copy boy, was able to convince a news editor at The Sun to interview Brickhill in 1932. Brickhill was hired as a copy boy, and within a year was promoted to cadet journalist. Within a few years he had worked his way up to journalist, and by 1940 was a sub-editor.
Brickhill was unimpressed by war fever, until the shock of the invasion of France and subsequent withdrawal from Dunkirk, coupled with boredom with his deskbound sub-editor job, induced him to enlist on 6 January 1941 with the Royal Australian Air Force (RAAF). His flight training commenced in March 1941 at the Number 8 Elementary Flying Training School at Narrandera, New South Wales as undertaken in Australia Under the Empire Air Training Scheme. Brickhill undertook advanced training as a fighter pilot in Canada and the United Kingdom before being assigned to No. 92 Squadron RAF, a unit equipped with Spitfires and part of the Desert Air Force in North Africa.
On 17 March 1943, he was shot down over Tunisia and became a prisoner of war. He was flown to Italy on 23 March, then sent by train to Germany. After being held at the Dulag Luft at Oberursel, a central receiving and interrogation station for captured enemy airmen for the Luftwaffe, he was sent to Stalag Luft III, in Lower Silesia, 150 km southeast of Berlin, arriving there on 4 April 1943. Brickhill became involved with organizing the camp's escape, initially as a lookout or "stooge", before volunteering to work as a digger on the "Tom" tunnel. He developed claustrophobia, so he was put in charge of security for the forgers. Because of his claustrophobia and the risk that he would panic and block the escape of those behind him, he was not allowed to take part in the escape attempt, which is known as "The Great Escape".
Following the announcement of the murder of the escapees who had been recaptured following the Great Escape, Brickhill became determined to document the event. Discussing the subject with fellow prisoner Conrad Norton, they found that many of their fellow prisoners had other tales of daring escapes that would justify a book following the end of the war. As Brickhill had been involved in "The Great Escape", he concentrated on that story, while Norton collected individual tales. Since the prisoners were forbidden from writing anything other than letters and postcards, they collected every piece of paper they could find and, writing in as small a hand as possible, they collected stories and hid them from the guards.
Following the end of the war, while the terms of his enlistment with the RAAF had been that he had to serve for 12 months following the cessation of hostilities, Brickhill was granted six months' leave without pay. During his leave he returned to journalism, working as a London-based correspondent for Associated Newspapers. Meanwhile, outside of working hours he had typed up his and Norton's stories and selected David Higham as their literary agent. With Higham's help the manuscript was accepted by Faber & Faber and published as Escape to Danger in 1946.
After working for Associated Newspapers for a period, Brickhill returned to Australia, taking a job as a sub-editor at The Sun newspaper in Sydney, Australia.
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