Veteran of WWII's 'Great Escape' dies
JOHANNESBURG, South Africa - Ian Tapson, one of the last survivors of a team of World War II soldiers who planned and executed a breakout from a German POW camp later immortalized in the film "The Great Escape," has died. He was 84.
Tapson died at Settler's Park, a retirement complex in the coastal town of Port Alfred on March 31, said Wally Vandermeulen, chairman of the Port Alfred branch of the South Africa Air Force Association.
The escape was immortalized in Paul Brickhill's book "The Great Escape" and in the movie of the same title, starring Steve McQueen, James Garner and Richard Attenborough.
Tapson was a lieutenant in the South African Air Force flying Kittyhawk fighter-bombers when his plane was crippled by anti-aircraft fire over Tunisia and he was forced to crash-land. He was captured and was sent to Stalag III prisoner of war camp at Sagan, Silesia, near the Polish border.