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Squadron Leader Frank Day
Last Updated: 9:08PM BST 16/07/2008
Squadron Leader Frank "Fearless" Day, who has died aged 91, came close to freedom during the Great Escape from Stalag Luft III; he was near the end of the tunnel when the exit was discovered, by which time 76 airmen had broken free, but he was forced to retreat and was soon in solitary confinement. In the spring of 1943 the escape committee decided to construct three tunnels and make a mass breakout. Day volunteered to assist but his health did not allow him to go underground as a digger. He became one of a large army of prisoners responsible for dispersing the excavated sand. They did this by filling bags, which they suspended inside their trouser legs, an encumbrance that made them walk in an ungainly fashion, attracting the codename "penguins". By pulling a drawstring inside their pockets to open the bags they were able to scatter the sand around the compound.
The first 40 men to go down the 330-foot tunnel "Harry" had the most realistic chance of success. They knew the language and had been well-equipped. Day was amongst the second batch of escapers known as the "hard arsers". They too had escape maps but a motley collection of clothing. In Day's case this included an Army greatcoat. The "hard arsers" planned to jump freight trains but Day had decided on an equally improbable method, and was going to head for the nearest airfield and attempt to steal an aircraft.
On the night of March 24 1944, the escapers broke the surface outside the prison fence much later than they had hoped and delays had built up. Day had reached one of the tunnel's holding areas, "Piccadilly Circus", with a few men ahead of him, when the tunnel exit was discovered. By the time he had managed to reverse to the entrance of the tunnel under the stove of Hut 104, the German sentries had arrived and Day was arrested as he emerged. With 10 others he was promptly marched off to solitary confinement, the "cooler", to a regime of two slices of bread in the morning and as much water as they wanted. A few days later, he learned that 50 of the escapers had been shot on the orders
The son of a London wine merchant, Frank Barton Day was born on May 5 1917 at Chiswick and attended Uppingham School. In the late 1930s he was learning Arabic in readiness for a career with Shell when a legacy allowed him to learn to fly. He joined the RAF Volunteer Reserve in December 1937 when he completed his pilot training and soon became a flying instructor.
During one flight in his Tiger Moth he spotted a courting couple in a haystack and decided to buzz them. He misjudged his height, hit the haystack and damaged the aircraft. He was summoned to his CO's office and officially reprimanded for "a careless act in the air". However, this misdemeanour produced a great benefit since it allowed him to meet an attractive WAAF cipher officer, Antoinette Kaye, who was working in the next office, and a few months later they were married.
Day converted to the Spitfire and joined No 122 Squadron, initially based in Scotland, before moving south to fly sweeps over France. In April 1942 he left for the Middle East and joined a photographic reconnaissance unit flying high-level Spitfires. On September 23 1942 he took off from an airfield near Alexandria on a solo reconnaissance over the Aegean Sea. Off the coast of Crete, Messerschmitt Bf 109s attacked him. His knee and right hand were badly injured, including the loss of his thumb. Using his left hand only, he had great difficulty opening the hood of his stricken Spitfire. Eventually he managed to bale out and he landed in the sea off the coast of Crete, where he spent the next 24 hours before being rescued by Italian forces who looked after him well. Taken to hospital on the island, he had to endure a bombing raid before travelling to Germany where, initially, he received rough treatment, which further aggravated the wound to his knee.
During his stay in Stalag Luft III, Rupert Davies (who later gained fame for his portrayal of Maigret) and Peter Butterworth staged plays and revues and Day became a proficient make-up artist. He also became adept at converting bread and potato into alcohol using a trombone tube "for special occasions, like Easter and Christmas". In January 1945, with minimal notice to the PoWs, the Germans evacuated the camp as the Soviet Army advanced.
The next few weeks, in the depth of one of the worst winters on record, the prisoners on the infamous "Long March" suffered great privations and many died. Eventually, in May 1945, the RAF flew Day and his fellow prisoners back to England.
Day's injuries prevented him from returning to flying duties and he left the RAF as a squadron leader. Initially he worked for the pharmacists Savory and Moores, becoming the company's managing director in 1955.
Five years later he bought an electrical firm supplying the military, before buying out a small cheese-making enterprise run by two grocers, Harvey and Brockless, which he and his sons built up into a major cheese wholesaler.
Day had many interests. He took part in the Cowes to Torbay powerboat race for a number of years and was particularly fond of his green parrot, his trawler and a 1934 Rolls Royce. He bought the dilapidated trawler and sailed it from Banff to Littlehampton in Sussex, where he overhauled it and used it for fishing and family trips. In his later years he gave much devoted voluntary service to a local hospice.
At his 90th birthday celebrations, during which a Spitfire gave a display for him, he commented "I might be the oldest surviving caterpillar", referring to the Caterpillar Club, founded for those whose lives had been saved by parachute. He added: "I might also be one of the last penguins too."
He could have gone on to point out that he was also probably the oldest goldfish – aircrew who survived after landing in the sea.
He received the Air Efficiency Award for his RAF service.
Frank Day died on June 29. His wife died in 1996 and their two sons survive him

What an amazing life he led.....Thanks for posting, Andy. I was just coming to do the same.

Yes, Many thanks, Andy.

I watched The Great Escape a few nights ago and it will always be one of the classic WWII movies ... at least to me.

Dave

30 minutes ago I saw a document movie about one of the escape leaders - Czech Arnost Valenta, RAF member who was between first men escaping through "Harry" tunnel (hope I am not mistaken). He was catch in nearby willage by Landesschutz and executed between 50 men decided by Hitler. On of the great Czechs to remember...

Jan