Great Escape From Stalag Luft III Nazi WW2 Camp POW MULTI Rare Hand Signed FDC

STB020 This is stunning The Great Escape From Stalag Luft III collectors official limited first day cover hand signed by historic escapees Bertram Arthur James and Ivo Peter Tonder where their signatures rests perfectly accompanying the special hand commemorative franks.  This comes with full lifetime COA as the signings have been officially certified by the publishers with full hallmarking and authenticity of the series further detailed in absolute brand new mint condition. You wont source better.

Bertram Arthur "Jimmy" James MC, RAF (17 April 1915 18 January 2008) was a British survivor of The Great Escape. He was an officer of the Royal Air Force, ultimately reaching (some years after the Great Escape) the rank of Squadron Leader.

In Berlin, SS-GruppenfÔøΩhrer Nebe was ordered by Heinrich MÔøΩller, Chief of the Gestapo, to select and kill fifty of the seventy-three recaptured prisoners in what became known as the "Stalag Luft III murders". Fifty were then executed, James being one of a handful sent instead to the Sachsenhausen concentration camp. On 23 September 1944, James escaped from Sachsenhausen, accompanied by Jack Churchill, Harry Day, Johnnie Dodge and Sydney Dowse using small cutlery knives to dig an escape tunnel over 110 metres long. On the run for several weeks, he was finally arrested in Pomerania before being transferred back to solitary confinement in Sachsenhausen. James's cell was tiny, just enough to stand up and stretch. For over 4 months Jimmy James suffered daily harassment from the guards, mock executions and, of course, virtually no food. As the Red Army was approaching, the SS decided to move the Prominenten prisoners further south, possibly to act as a bargaining chip with the Allies - though this has never been confirmed. Following a torturous journey via Dachau and FlossenbÔøΩrg concentration camps, James and other Prominenten were moved to the South Tyrol where they were eventually liberated by partisans and US Army troops in May 1945.