John Fancy (The Mole) RIP

Kyt · Oct 3, 2008

The Mole, Britain's most prolific PoW tunnel digger in World War Two, dies aged 95 | Mail Online

Britain's most prolific wartime tunnel-digger and one of the men behind the Great Escape has died aged 95.

Nicknamed The Mole, John Fancy helped dozens of his fellow inmates escape from prisoner-of-war camps in Poland, Lithuania and Germany.

Warrant Officer Fancy, an RAF navigator who trained in land management before enlisting, was captured in 1940 after being shot down on a bombing mission over occupied France.

During five years of captivity in a number of camps, he dug at least eight tunnels and escaped three times himself but was recaptured on each occasion.

He was sent to Stalag Luft III in Sagan, Poland, in 1942.

There his expertise was used to help plot the break-out of 76 men that became known as the Great Escape.

The plan was to dig three tunnels - Tom, Dick and Harry; the first of which, Tom, was built by Mr Fancy and others in the corner of a hall.

In order to keep the tunnels from being detected, they were 30ft below the surface and were only 2ft square.

Although Mr Fancy was transferred away from the camp and Tom was later discovered, 76 men did escape through Dick the following year.

Of these, only three evaded capture - 50 men were killed and the rest were sent back to the camp.

Two decades later, the escape attempt caught the imagination of movie bosses and inspired the 1963 Hollywood blockbuster The Great Escape, which starred Steve McQueen, James Garner and Richard Attenborough.

Mr Fancy dug his tunnels using various improvised tools including a knife issued to him by his German captors.

He was finally released from his last camp in 1945 and became a full-time gardener, land manager and author of two books about his exploits.

Writing about his time at Stalag Luft III, he said: 'During our stay in this dump all manner of escape attempts had been made, so far, with very limited success.'

After several failed escape attempts Mr Fancy was moved to the Stalag Luft VI camp in Heydekrug, Lithuania, for the remainder of the war.

Describing his first tunnel experience a few years earlier at Stalag Luft I - another PoW camp - he wrote that a fellow prisoner 'borrowed' a shovel from the cookhouse and he set about digging under the floorboards.

He added: 'I quickly found that the shovel was too weak to handle the hard packed soil once I got below the surface, and progress was not fast enough to satisfy my restless spirit.

'I sent up for my strong metal table knife - so thoughtfully provided by the kind Germans, and with this I was able to make much better progress by loosening up the soil which I could then shovel out.

'This was a great improvement, by the time we were obliged to pack up, I had sunk a shaft six feet deep by two feet square, the lads dispersing the soil in any old piece of cloth they could lay their hands on.'

Following three weeks of hard work at this tunnel, Mr Fancy reached a point halfway between the inside of the camp and the main barricade outside.

But a night of heavy rainfall caused a huge overnight collapse inside the tunnel and he was forced to abandon his attempt.

But it was at Sagan - the site of The Great Escape - that Mr Fancy had his worst tunneling experience.

He was completely buried during a collapse of a 30 yard tunnel and only survived because his friend dug down to free his head to allow him to breathe.

At the end of the war, when Mr Fancy was liberated from Lithuania by allied soldiers, they described finding him as 'a six-stone, lice-ridden, walking skeleton - but still digging his way under the wire'.

The war hero was today described by his daughter Janet Fancy as an 'extraordinary' man.

Janet, 68, of Kingsbridge, Devon, said: 'He was wonderful, and above all else he was a doer. He never left anything to anyone else, if he could do it himself he got stuck in.

'My father took a lot of risks during the war trying to do his bit to get soldiers out of the camps.

'He dug at least eight very deep and long tunnels - three of which we know were successfully used to escape through.

'During his long stint as a prisoner of war he acquired the reputation as the most determined escapologist the Germans had ever encountered.

'It was hard work that required great skill and patience. For a lot of it he used a knife supplied by the Germans for the prisoners to eat their meals with.

'It is rounded and quite large with the German eagle emblem inscribed on it. He kept it after the war and we have it to this day as a reminder.

'After surviving a plane crash and five years of imprisonment the whole family rather felt he was indestructible. He will be greatly missed.'
Click to expand...

Kyt · Oct 3, 2008

Blenheim L9214 of 110 Squadron
Mission to Sedan 14th May 1940

Took off at 1650 from Wattisham. Cause of loss and crash-site not established.

F/O G O M.Wright PoW
Sgt J Fancy PoW
LAC W W Street PoW

liverpool annie · Oct 3, 2008

Kyt said: ↑

Blenheim L9214 of 110 Squadron
Mission to Sedan 14th May 1940

Took off at 1650 from Wattisham. Cause of loss and crash-site not established.

F/O G O M.Wright PoW
Sgt J Fancy PoW
LAC W W Street PoW
Click to expand...

Another Great British hero .... RIP John Fancy

Sgt J.Fancy was interned in Camps 12A/8B/L1/L3/L6, PoW No.13081 with LAC W.W.Street, PoW No.21990. Both took part in an abortive tunnel escape in L6 29Aug43. F/O G.O.M.Wright in Camp L3, PoW No.599.

Adrian Roberts · Oct 3, 2008

Slightly more detail in this Telegraph obit.
He helped deliver Blenheims to Finland in February 1940.

John Fancy - Telegraph

Kyt · Oct 4, 2008

Nice little video interview with his daughter

BBC NEWS | UK | WWII tunnel digger 'Mole' dies

Antipodean Andy · Oct 4, 2008

Something tells me his spirit will finally get some rest. RIP.

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