Description:

THE GREAT ESCAPE SURVIVOR: BERTRAM ‘JIMMY' JAMES
(1915-2008) British survivor of ‘The Great Escape', James was a Royal Air Force officer and second pilot of a Wellington bomber when he was shot down over the Netherlands on 5 June 1940 and taken prisoner. Within a matter of days at Stalag Luft I, James and wing commander John ‘Death' Shore began planning an escape. Digging a highly audacious tunnel, Shore managed to clear the wire and escape, while James was caught in the act and sent directly to the ‘cooler'. Over the next five years, he made 13 efforts to escape from various prisons and camps, including Stalag Luft III, the site in March 1944 of the ‘Great Escape'. A central figure in that event, James, together with Peter Fanshawe, was largely responsible for depositing the soil from tunnel ‘Harry' under seat 13 in the camp theater. Following their escape, James and his partner were recaptured while buying train tickets. Fanshawe was later executed by the Gestapo. Spared the execution that fifty others suffered, James was sent instead to the Sachsenhausen concentration camp from which he also escaped using a small knife to dig an escape tunnel over 110 meters long. On the run for several weeks, he was finally arrested, sent back to Sachsenhausen and then through several other camps including Dachau before being liberated in May, 1945. Important signed book from his imprisonment at the Sachsenhausen concentration camp, James' handwritten notebook which he titled ‘Russian Vocabulary', signs ‘James', and dates ‘26/5/44' on the cover. Approx. 38 of the 60 or so lined 12mo. pages bear pencil entries of Russian words written in Cyrillic with English translations alongside, in alphabetical order. The book contains prison camp essentials: ‘hell...long whip...homemade wine...challenge...innocent...amusing talker...'jerry'...water in soup...confession...fine ash...morgue...bloody...groan...spade...big glass of vodka...', and much more. The pencil entries on the cover contrast poorly but are legible, the cover bearing a split about 2 in. along the spine, contents very good. At Sachsenhausen, James was held in a special wing holding high-profile or valuable prisoners, including the son of Josef Stalin.

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November 29, 2023 10:00 AM EST
Elkton, MD, US

Alexander Historical Auctions LLC

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