Last survivor of The Great Escape prisoner-of-war camp dies, aged 92.

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A grandfather believed to be the last survivor of The Great Escape prisoner-of-war camp has died aged 92.

RAF serviceman Richard Birtle was captured during the trial run for the D-Day landings in Dieppe, France, in August 1942 before being incarcerated in the notorious Stalag III camp. He then teamed up with other prisoners who plotted a daring escape by digging tunnels underneath the camp and worked as a 'penguin' - the men who dispersed soil through their trousers.

More than 600 prisoners were involved in the construction of three tunnels - codenamed Tom, Dick and Harry, at the camp in the German Province of Lower Silesia near the town of Sagan, now Zagan in Poland, 100 miles southeast of Berlin.

Tom and Dick had to be abandoned with Harry becoming the focus of their escape route. Out of those, only 200 of the higher ranking captives, those who could speak German and had put a lot of work into digging the tunnels, would have time to escape in the plan. As Mr Birtle was not an officer he would not be one of the prisoners to escape but still helped construct the tunnels nonetheless. But a series of problems on the night of the escape on March 24 1944, including the Harry tunnel coming up short and in close proximity to a guard tower, meant that only 76 prisoners escaped.

The 77th man to exit the tunnel was spotted by a guard alerting the rest of the camp and 73 of the escaped prisoners were captured. Fifty of those were executed. The plot became the inspiration behind the classic war film The Great Escape starring Hollywood legend Steve McQueen. The grandfather-of-two only narrowly escaped an SS death squad himself before being liberated by American troops on April 29 1945 after three years being held captive in the camp.

Shockingly a line of fellow prisoners were shot in front of him and their skin was horrifically 'used to make lamp shades'. Mr Birtle suffered a heart attacks on March 29 and was rushed to the Queen Elizabeth the Queen Mother Hospital, in Margate, Kent, where he suffered another fatal heart attack on April 5. His daughter Veronica Lithgow, 64, paid tribute to her 'brave' and 'loving' father. She said: 'He was a wonderful man who was very kind and extremely generous.

'He had to endure some real hardship throughout the war and I suppose it is a bit of a miracle that he managed to make it to such a ripe old age. 'He was in the camp for three years - the Luftwaffe actually got on with the POWs and treated them well. 'But at some point the SS took over and they brought with them a much more brutal regime. 'My dad was pretty terrified and they divided the men into two lines before sending them off in different directions.
'One group were shot dead but my dad was in the other line and thankfully allowed to live. 'It was a brutal place - he said the skin of the dead soldiers was made into lampshades. 'As he was not an officer he was not allowed to escape but he certainly helped as much as he could.

'He was one of the penguins and had to disperse soil from his trouser pockets - someone also said he helped dig the tunnels but he did not like to talk about it. 'I think he must be the last survivor from the camp as all the others I know are sadly dead.' Following the war Richard returned to his home town of Herne Bay, Kent, and married his childhood sweetheart Audrey, 85, in 1945. The couple opened a fishmongers before they had their only daughter Veronica, in 1947. Richard went on to become a postman before he retired in 1985. He was a chairman of the Herne Bay RAF association and a keen bowls player. An RAF flag was poignantly draped across his coffin during his funeral which was attended by dozens of loved ones last week.

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Sadly we're going to see a lot of WW2 veterans passing in the next ten years. Most of them are well into their late 80s and early 90s at this stage.