Flight Lieutenant Tony Hayter from the Great Escape
For the whole time Fl Lt Tony Hayter was in the RAF he wrote regular letters to his girlfriend, Cynthia Henstock, whom he clearly hoped to marry one day. These started with his initial training, then on to the Middle East and finally from Stalag Luft III.
They describe quite a dull uneventful life but the reality was very different. He was shot down over Sicily in 1942 and taken to Stalag Luft III in Poland. Once there it seems he was immediately involved in preparations for the "Great Escape". He started giving German lessons, he was also attending lectures on navigation.
The breakout took place in 1944 but sadly he was one of the people recaptured, and one of the 50 who were shot. There is now a memorial to those men at the site of the camp.
