Return to Gallery > 04 - WWII - RAF
04 - WWII - RAF
The Great Escape - The Entrance by Ley Kenyon
The night of 24 March 1944 has gone down in history as one of the bravest and most daring escape attempts of the entire war. This was the night of ‘The Great Escape’. Over 200 inmates of the Prisoner of War camp Stalag Luft III in Zagan, Poland were ready and prepared with forged papers, maps, civilian clothes and an indomitable desire to be free. The Military Gallery, in conjunction with the RAF Museum in Hendon, are extremely proud to offer a very limited edition print of one of those six immortal images created by Ley Kenyon. ‘The Entrance’ shows the opening of tunnel ‘Harry’, hidden beneath the stove in Hut 104, one officer helping another into the 30- foot vertical shaft, as a ‘stooge’ keeps an eye out for patrolling German guards.
LIMITED EDITION - each print is signed by Flt Lt Alan Bryett, POW in Stalag Luft III, and involved in the escape as ‘stooge’ and ‘penguin’ – those that carried the ‘sausage bags’ filled with tunnel-earth down their trousers and dispersed it around the compound.
ESCAPERS EDITION - just 76 copies of the ‘Escapers Edition’ – representing the 76 men who managed to escape the camp – are signed by Flt Lt Alan Bryett and Sqn Ldr Dick Churchill, ‘penguin’ and number 63 out of the tunnel. Each print is conservation matted to include a button found in the area of Hut 104, issued with a full certificate of authenticity from the Great Escape Museum in Zagan, Poland.
ARTIST PROOFS - 25 Artist Proofs will be issued to include all the components of the ‘Escapers Edition’; plus the matted original signature of Battle of Britain pilot Flt Lt Mick Shand, number 76 from the tunnel; together with an original forged German security stamp made by prisoners in Stalag Luft III, issued with a full certificate of authenticity from the Great Escape Museum.
Edition size: (see above)
Print size: 15" w x 14" h
Matted size: 19" w x 181/2" h
