FLIGHT LIEUTENANT 'BILL' HORACE SPENCER WILLS FORDYCE SERVICE NUMBER 400396
Bill's Service record is available at the National Archives here by typing in his Surname, select from the drop down menu category: Air Force personnel records and Service number 400396. Bill took part in the "Great Escape" and his story is written about in the 458 Official Squadron History book 'We Find and Destroy' (current/2002 edition) on pages 194 & 195.
Part of his story is also outlined at this AWM webpage at the Australian War Memorial website. Where it says:
"This artist of this drawing was drawn by Bill Fordyce, a survivor from 'The Great Escape', a mass escape of World War II allied prisoners made famous by the movie starring Steve McQueen. Fordyce, a pilot and commercial artist, was captured and imprisoned in Italy and then moved to Stalag Luft III in Poland with other captured RAAF aviators. It was from here that he and 200 other men planned to escape. They dug elaborate tunnels and eventually succeeded in staging a mass breakout. German guards discovered the escape operation and recaptured 50 of the 76 allied prisoner escapees, including five Australians, who were all shot and killed on orders of Hitler. Fordyce was billeted to be the 86th escapee and was the last into the tunnel. He made it back through the tunnel and into the camp undetected after German guards discovered the escape and began to shoot into the tunnel. Fordyce produced a series of caricatures of his fellow prisoners of war in Stalag Luft III. Drawn with dignity and care, the caricatures include symbols related to each man's personality and story."
We welcome the family to Contact us to add more content to this/his webpage.