The highly emotive Second War Great Escaper’s campaign group of three awarded to Wellington pilot, Squadron Leader T. G. Kirby-Green, Royal Air Force, who had been shot down returning from a raid to Duisburg, 16/17 October 1941, only to be taken POW and imprisoned in the infamous Stalag Luft III at Sagan.

Kirby-Green was almost immediately recruited by Roger Bushell (Big-X) on to the camp’s escape committee, where he worked in Arnost Valenta’s intelligence section. On the night of the escape, 24/25 March 1944, Kirby-Green almost did not make it out of ‘Harry’, when he derailed his trolley between Piccadilly and Leicester Square, and brought down a metre of tunnel on top of him. Paired with Flying Officer George Kidder as an escape partner, and disguised as a Spanish labourer, Kirby-Green managed to catch a series of trains before being captured, interrogated, tortured and eventually killed - one of 50 escapers murdered by the Gestapo

1939-45 Star; Air Crew Europe Star; War Medal 1939-45, with M.I.D. Oak Leaf, with named Air Council enclosure ‘Squadron Leader T. G. Kirby-Green, in card box of issue addressed to ‘Mrs M. D. Langlois, 123A, Old Church Street, Chelsea, London, SW3’, good very fine (3) £1,800-£2,200

M.I.D. London Gazette 23 September 1941 and 8 June 1944 (Posthumously).


Thomas Gresham Kirby-Green was born in Dowa, Nyasaland, in February 1918. He was the son of Sir William Kirby-Green, the British District Governor. Kirby-Green was educated at Dover College, and subsequently gained a private pilot’s licence prior to being commissioned in the Royal Air Force in August 1936. He gained his ‘Wings’ and advanced to Flying Officer in January 1939.

Kirby-Green was posted for operational flying to 9 Squadron (Wellingtons) at Honington in January 1940:

‘Kirby-Green joined the R.A.F. in 1936, having first tried to join the fight against Franco in Spain. When war broke out he was attached to Bomber Command. He flew an astonishing twenty-seven raids in the first half of 1940 (most bomber crews were lucky if they got past five), before being relocated as a training officer with a free Czech squadron [311 Squadron]. Thereafter he flew Wellingtons, and it was on his thirty-seventh raid that he was shot down, in October 1941. He was considered such a catch that his capture was announced by Lord Haw Haw (William Joyce) in the German propaganda radio transmitted to Britain. Kirby-Green was hardly a typical R.A.F. officer. He loved Cuban music, and was passionate about Latin America. He played the maracas and the drums. He loved to cook. He was a passable artist and counted Matisse and Gauguin among his favourite painters.’ (The Great Escape by A. Gill refers).

Towards the end of 1940 Kirby-Green advanced to Flight Lieutenant, and married Maria Dorothea Diane Hayman. He completed his instructional tour, advanced to Squadron Leader, and returned to operational flying when he was posted to 40 Squadron (Wellingtons) in September 1941. Kirby-Green’s Wellington was shot down returning from a raid to Duisburg, 16/17 October 1941. In a letter home to his wife, Kirby-Green wrote the following:

‘We were on our way home when we were extremely hard hit all controls were completely 'dead' and the aircraft was spinning and losing height extremely fast. I gave the order to jump. My parachute opened almost at the same time as I hit the ground with the result that I injured my spine and could not walk.

The aircraft crashed about three seconds after I landed and about 30 yards from me. Martin was found in the tail of the aircraft dead. The others were found some short distance away but on very much higher ground with their chutes open, killed instantaneously.’

Of the crew of six only Kirby-Green survived, and he was taken prisoner of war in the Reichswald Forrest. He was eventually transferred to Stalag Luft III:

‘Winter was now setting in, although that meant the end of the escaping season, it did not signal any slowdown in tunnelling activity, though burrowing through much harder cold ground was considerably more difficult. The winter also brought a fresh intake of prisoners, who included fellow crew-members Lester Bull and William ‘Jack’ Grisman, whose Wellington bomber had been shot down over France early in November, both of whom quickly became involved in tunnel work. They were soon joined, in another transport of prisoners, by Flight Lieutenant Roy Langlois, from the Channel Islands, and the dashing and eccentric Tom Kirby-Green... Kirby-Green and Langlois were both participants in the Great Escape. Langlois made it home after the war. Kirby-Green did not. Later on, Langlois would marry Kirby-Green’s widow, Maria.’ (The Great Escape by A. Gill refers).

Kirby-Green was recruited by Roger Bushell (Big-X) to join the escape committee (X Organisation) at Stalag Luft III. He worked under Arnost Valenta in the intelligence gathering section:

‘Valenta’s intelligence section continued to gather and disseminate information. Bushell remained the authority on Germany, Tom Kirby-Green was responsible for Spain, while Bob van der Stok looked after the Netherlands still. Arnold Christensen stayed in charge of Denmark, and a Norwegian, Sergeant Halldor Espelid, looked after Scandinavia with his compatriot, Second Lieutenant Nils Fuglesang.’ (Ibid)

Kirby-Green collated any information that may be of use for escapers heading for the Spanish border, he also taught Spanish. Kirby-Green was paired with the Canadian, Flying Officer George Kidder as an escape partner. They were to pose as Spanish labourers, once they escaped.

The Great Escape

On the evening of 24/25 March 1944, having quickly written a last letter to his wife, Kirby-Green found himself making a bid for freedom in the tunnel called Harry:

‘It was at about 11.30pm that the air-raid sirens sounded. Air-raids meant blackouts, and instantly the electric power in the Stalag Luft III was cut off. The tunnel was plunged into darkness. Down in the tunnel, Harry Day organised the lighting of the fat-lamps, which were there for just such an emergency, but several men panicked in the darkness, and it was a full half-hour before order was restored. Then a hauling rope snapped and had to be replaced. At the tunnel’s entrance, Ker-Ramsay was beginning to make escapers shed some of their loads, for ease of passage, but it was clear now that the full two hundred wouldn’t make it out. Privately, Ker-Ramsay wondered if they’d get even a hundred out. The only thing to do was to press on and get as many clear as possible. At least the escapers were helped by the fact that the whole camp, including the searchlights in the watchtowers, was also blacked out.

There was another setback soon afterwards when Tom Kirby-Green derailed his trolley between Piccadilly and Leicester Square. To save time, he decided to try to right it himself, but in his efforts he dislodged some shoring and brought down a metre of tunnel on top of him. The hauler in Leicester Square, Flying Officer Hank Birkland of the Royal Canadian Air Force, felt his rope tighten and looked down the tunnel towards Piccadilly. He couldn’t see the line of fat-lamps all the way back, and knew there’d been a fall. Leaving his position, he edged his way painfully down the track and reached the half-buried Kirby-Green, whom he carefully hauled clear. Then he pressed himself flat to the tunnel’s floor while Kirby-Green crawled over him and on towards the exit shaft, cautiously pushing his kit ahead of him. After he’d gone, Birkland set about repairing the damage. No boards had snapped, so he was able to shovel back most of the sand and re-shore, pummelling the excess sand as flat as he could between the rails. Then he righted the trolley and gave the signal for it to be pulled back to Piccadilly before working his way backwards to his own hauling station. He was exhausted. The job had taken a whole hour.’ (Ibid)

Kidder and Kirby-Green made it clear of Harry’s exit and the woods, and arrived at Sagan train station:

‘Meanwhile, a fresh batch of escapers was beginning to gather at the station, waiting for the right trains to come in. One or two, including Bob van der Stok, had a close call when a female member of the camp’s censor department showed a certain amount of suspicion and approached them, but they managed to allay her doubts. A number of camp guards about to go on leave were waiting for trains, which racked the nerves of the escapers further, but a group, including van der Stok, Dennis Cochran, Gordon Kidder and Tom Kirby-Green, managed to embark safely on the next Breslau train, which pulled out at 1.00 am.....

As for Gordon Kidder and Tom Kirby-Green, they got as far as Breslau, and made a connection with a train bound for Czechoslovakia; but they were arrested at Hodonin in southern Moravia on 28 March and taken to the prison at Zlín. There they were interrogated and - uniquely among the recaptured POWs - tortured. It is almost certain that one of the prisoners had his handcuffs torn off one wrist without their having been opened.’ (Ibid)

Post-war investigation discovered that a Czech driver called Kiowsky, who worked for the Gestapo:

‘Had driven Kirby-Green from Zlín, where he had been held with Kidder, in the direction of Breslau via Moravská Ostrava, together with a Gestapo official called Erich Zacharias. Kidder travelled with them in another car. About ten kilometres before Moravská, both cars drew over to the side of the road. The excuse of stopping to have a break to urinate was used again, and Zacharias shot Kirby-Green, while a Gestapo colleague, Adolf Knüppelberg, travelling with Kidder, shot him.’ (Ibid)

Thus Kirby-Green became one of the 50 escapers who were executed and murdered by the Gestapo. His remains were originally buried at Sagan, before being moved to the Poznan Old Garrison Cemetery.

Withdrawn