‘Great Escape’ hero told he didn’t merit compensation

A hero of the ‘Great Escape’ who spent five months in solitary confinement in a German concentration camp was denied compensation by the British government after being told he had not endured enough hardship.

Flight Lieutenant Bertram ‘Jimmy’ James was held prisoner for a year in Sachsenhausen camp after he and Allied officers were recaptured and spared execution following the daring escape from Stalag Luft III in March 1944.

Flt Lt James and his fellow detainees were kept under close guard by SS troops at the camp’s Sonderlager A compound, and after trying to escape he was held in solitary confinement and lived under the constant threat of execution.