Jack Harrison, the last survivor of the ‘Great Escape’ plot has died. He was 97 years old. Harrison died on Friday, at Erskine veterans in Bishopton, Scotland. His family confirmed the news of his death on Monday.

Harrison was part of the Royal Air force. He was a pilot and but he was unfortunate enough to be shot down in 1942, by the German military. He survived the crash, but was captured by the enemy forces and sent to Stalag Luft III. The flight was Harrison’s first flight, as a pilot of the Royal Air Force.

While in jail, Harrison was part of the prisoners who planned an escape from the prison. During the actual prison break, only 77 prisoners were able to break free, before guards detected the jailbreak. Harrison was the 98th to escape in the plan, but he could not actually escape, because of the guards had detected that the prisoners were trying to escape.

All the 77 escapees except 3 were recaptured and fifty of them were executed on the orders of Adolf Hitler. Another 23 were returned to the prison custody. The story of the attempted escape was retold in the movie “The Great Escape”.

Jack has made good on his greatest escape. Rest in Peace

The great escape the movie was loosely based on true events, although exciting it was again mainly made for audiences in the USA, one of the instances depicted actually happend when the gestapo is talking to two of them at the border ( Gordon Jackson and Richard Attenborough )the gestapo man is speaking French and then says "good luck" and Gordon Jacksons character replies thank you in English.Most of the escapees were executed by the roadside on the pretence of a toilet stop in ones or two's.After the war one of the executioners admitted his part saying he was acting under orders this defence was dismissed and the man was executed.