Alastair Donald Mackintosh "Sandy" Gunn (27 September 1919 – 6 April 1944), was a Scottish
Supermarine Spitfire
The Supermarine Spitfire is a British single-seat fighter aircraft used by the Royal Air Force and other Allied countries before, during, and after World War II. Many variants of the Spitfire were built, from the Mk 1 to the Rolls-Royce Grif ...
photo reconnaissance pilot who was taken prisoner during the
Second World War
World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...
. Gunn took part in the "Great Escape" from
Stalag Luft III
, partof = ''Luftwaffe''
, location = Sagan, Lower Silesia, Nazi Germany (now Żagań, Poland)
, image =
, caption = Model of the set used to film the movie ''The Great Escape.'' It depicts a smaller version of a single compound in ''Stalag ...
in March 1944, and was one of the men re-captured and subsequently executed by the ''
Gestapo
The (), abbreviated Gestapo (; ), was the official secret police of Nazi Germany and in German-occupied Europe.
The force was created by Hermann Göring in 1933 by combining the various political police agencies of Prussia into one organi ...
''.
Pre-war life
Gunn was born at home in
Auchterarder,
Perthshire
Perthshire (locally: ; gd, Siorrachd Pheairt), officially the County of Perth, is a historic county and registration county in central Scotland. Geographically it extends from Strathmore in the east, to the Pass of Drumochter in the north, ...
, the son of surgeon James Turner Gunn, MB, ChB, FRCS and Adelaide Lucy Frances
ee MacdonaldGunn. He was reportedly a fine athlete at school, being a member of 1st XV rugby & 1st XI cricket team. He attended
Cargilfield Preparatory School and
Fettes College
Fettes College () is a co-educational independent boarding and day school in Edinburgh, Scotland, with over two-thirds of its pupils in residence on campus. The school was originally a boarding school for boys only and became co-ed in 1983. In ...
, both in Edinburgh, and was a school prefec
After leaving school, Gunn became an engineering apprentice at the Govan, Glasgow shipyard of
Harland and Wolff
Harland & Wolff is a British shipbuilding company based in Belfast, Northern Ireland. It specialises in ship repair, shipbuilding and offshore construction. Harland & Wolff is famous for having built the majority of the ocean liners for the W ...
. After a year he gained entry to
Pembroke College, Cambridge
Pembroke College (officially "The Master, Fellows and Scholars of the College or Hall of Valence-Mary") is a constituent college of the University of Cambridge, England. The college is the third-oldest college of the university and has over 700 ...
to study mechanical sciences hoping for a career as a diesel engineer.
Early war service
![Spitfire 1 PRU RAF in flight c1941](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/8/89/Spitfire_1_PRU_RAF_in_flight_c1941.jpg)
Gunn enlisted in the
Royal Air Force
The Royal Air Force (RAF) is the United Kingdom's air and space force. It was formed towards the end of the First World War on 1 April 1918, becoming the first independent air force in the world, by regrouping the Royal Flying Corps (RFC) and ...
on 22 February 1940 and commenced active service on 22 June 1940 as an aircrew candidate (
airman 2nd class).
He began his flying training at
RAF Ansty
Royal Air Force Ansty or RAF Ansty is a former Royal Air Force station located east of Coventry city centre, Warwickshire, England, north-west of Rugby, Warwickshire. The airfield was opened in 1936 and after training many pupils closed in 19 ...
near Coventry, and later at
Blackpool
Blackpool is a seaside resort in Lancashire, England. Located on the North West England, northwest coast of England, it is the main settlement within the Borough of Blackpool, borough also called Blackpool. The town is by the Irish Sea, betw ...
.
On 18 January 1941 he received his
pilot's brevet and promotion to
sergeant
Sergeant (abbreviated to Sgt. and capitalized when used as a named person's title) is a rank in many uniformed organizations, principally military and policing forces. The alternative spelling, ''serjeant'', is used in The Rifles and other uni ...
. He was commissioned as a
Pilot Officer
Pilot officer (Plt Off officially in the RAF; in the RAAF and RNZAF; formerly P/O in all services, and still often used in the RAF) is the lowest commissioned rank in the Royal Air Force and the air forces of many other Commonwealth countri ...
on 25 January 1941. Gunn subsequently joined
No. 48 Squadron RAF
No. 48 Squadron was a Royal Air Force squadron that saw service in both the First and Second World Wars.
History First World War
No. 48 Squadron of the Royal Flying Corps was formed at Netheravon, Wiltshire, on 15 April 1916. The squadron w ...
of
RAF Coastal Command
RAF Coastal Command was a formation within the Royal Air Force (RAF). It was founded in 1936, when the RAF was restructured into Fighter, Bomber and Coastal Commands and played an important role during the Second World War. Maritime Aviation ...
flying
Avro Anson
The Avro Anson is a British twin-engined, multi-role aircraft built by the aircraft manufacturer Avro. Large numbers of the type served in a variety of roles for the Royal Air Force (RAF), Fleet Air Arm (FAA), Royal Canadian Air Force (RCAF) a ...
aircraft on photo reconnaissance missions. A reliable record flying with the squadron led to Gunn being posted to
RAF Benson
Royal Air Force Benson or RAF Benson is a Royal Air Force (RAF) station located at Benson, near Wallingford, in South Oxfordshire, England. It is a front-line station and home to the RAF's fleet of Westland Puma HC2 support helicopters, us ...
to fly stripped-down high-altitude conversion
Supermarine Spitfire
The Supermarine Spitfire is a British single-seat fighter aircraft used by the Royal Air Force and other Allied countries before, during, and after World War II. Many variants of the Spitfire were built, from the Mk 1 to the Rolls-Royce Grif ...
s with
the RAF in September 1941. In January 1942 he was posted to
RAF Wick
Wick most often refers to:
* Capillary action ("wicking")
** Candle wick, the cord used in a candle or oil lamp
** Solder wick, a copper-braided wire used to desolder electronic contacts
Wick or WICK may also refer to:
Places and placenames ...
in the north of Scotland. Wick was a noted photo reconnaissance aerodrome: for example, in May 1941, a Spitfire from Wick found and photographed the
German battleship Bismarck
''Bismarck'' was the first of two s built for Nazi Germany's . Named after Chancellor Otto von Bismarck, the ship was laid down at the Blohm & Voss shipyard in Hamburg in July 1936 and launched in February 1939. Work was completed in August 19 ...
in a Norwegian fjord. Bismarck was later sunk by the Royal Navy, but the
German battleship Tirpitz
''Tirpitz'' was the second of two s built for Nazi Germany's ''Kriegsmarine'' (navy) prior to and during the Second World War. Named after Grand Admiral Alfred von Tirpitz, the architect of the ''Kaiserliche Marine'' (Imperial Navy), the ship ...
remained a threat in Norway.
Gunn was promoted to
Flying Officer on 25 January 1942, and flew many long-range missions over German naval units on the Norwegian coast and in the North Atlantic, often in terrible weather conditions. On one occasion he crashed in the North Atlantic after his aircraft ran out of fuel.
Prisoner of war
At 0807 hours on the morning of 5 March 1942, Gunn took off from
RAF Wick
Wick most often refers to:
* Capillary action ("wicking")
** Candle wick, the cord used in a candle or oil lamp
** Solder wick, a copper-braided wire used to desolder electronic contacts
Wick or WICK may also refer to:
Places and placenames ...
in a Supermarine Spitfire on a photo reconnaissance mission of the German naval anchorages on the Norwegian coastline near
Trondheim
Trondheim ( , , ; sma, Tråante), historically Kaupangen, Nidaros and Trondhjem (), is a city and municipality in Trøndelag county, Norway. As of 2020, it had a population of 205,332, was the third most populous municipality in Norway, and ...
,
Norway
Norway, officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a Nordic country in Northern Europe, the mainland territory of which comprises the western and northernmost portion of the Scandinavian Peninsula. The remote Arctic island of Jan Mayen and t ...
. He was shot down with burn on hands and face by two
Messerschmitt
Messerschmitt AG () was a German share-ownership limited, aircraft manufacturing corporation named after its chief designer Willy Messerschmitt from mid-July 1938 onwards, and known primarily for its World War II fighter aircraft, in partic ...
Bf 109
The Messerschmitt Bf 109 is a German World War II fighter aircraft that was, along with the Focke-Wulf Fw 190, the backbone of the Luftwaffe's fighter force. The Bf 109 first saw operational service in 1937 during the Spanish Civil War an ...
s from ''
Jagdgruppe Losigkeit'', flown by
Leutnant
() is the lowest Junior officer rank in the armed forces the German (language), German-speaking of Germany (Bundeswehr), Austrian Armed Forces, and military of Switzerland.
History
The German noun (with the meaning "" (in English "deputy") fro ...
s
Heinz Knoke and Dieter Gerhard. Gunn bailed out before his Spitfire crashed near Langurda,
Surnadal
Surnadal () is a municipality in Møre og Romsdal county, Norway. It is part of the Nordmøre region. The administrative centre is the village of Skei. Other villages in Surnadal include Glærem, Mo, Stangvik, Surnadalsøra, Sylte, Todalsø ...
, Norway, and was made a prisoner of war.
Gunn was initially suspected by the Germans of having flown from a covert RAF base somewhere in northern Norway. He was questioned over a period of three weeks before being processed into the prison camp system. Gunn was sent to
Stalag Luft III
, partof = ''Luftwaffe''
, location = Sagan, Lower Silesia, Nazi Germany (now Żagań, Poland)
, image =
, caption = Model of the set used to film the movie ''The Great Escape.'' It depicts a smaller version of a single compound in ''Stalag ...
in the German province of
Lower Silesia
Lower Silesia ( pl, Dolny Śląsk; cz, Dolní Slezsko; german: Niederschlesien; szl, Dolny Ślōnsk; hsb, Delnja Šleska; dsb, Dolna Šlazyńska; Silesian German: ''Niederschläsing''; la, Silesia Inferior) is the northwestern part of the ...
near the town of
Sagan (now
Żagań
Żagań ( French and german: Sagan, hsb, Zahań, la, Saganum) is a town in western Poland, on the Bóbr river, with 25,731 inhabitants (2019). The town is the capital of Żagań County in the historic region of Silesia. Previously in the Zielon ...
,
Poland
Poland, officially the Republic of Poland, is a country in Central Europe. It is divided into 16 administrative provinces called voivodeships, covering an area of . Poland has a population of over 38 million and is the fifth-most populous ...
), where he became a regular member of the tunnelling team. In captivity, Gunn was promoted to
Flight Lieutenant
Flight lieutenant is a junior commissioned rank in air forces that use the Royal Air Force (RAF) system of ranks, especially in Commonwealth countries. It has a NATO rank code of OF-2. Flight lieutenant is abbreviated as Flt Lt in the India ...
(24 January 1943).
The 'Great Escape'
![The50Memorial](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/7/76/The50Memorial.jpg)
Gunn was one of 76 men who escaped the prison camp on the night of 24–25 March 1944 in the now famous "
Great Escape". The alarms sounded upon the discovery of the escape attempt when he had been outside the wire for less than an hour. Gunn was quickly arrested on the road to
Görlitz
Görlitz (; pl, Zgorzelec, hsb, Zhorjelc, cz, Zhořelec, :de:Ostlausitzer Mundart, East Lusatian dialect: ''Gerlz'', ''Gerltz'', ''Gerltsch'') is a town in the Germany, German state of Saxony. It is located on the Lusatian Neisse River, and ...
(to the south of the camp), and arrived at the collection point for recaptured officers at Görlitz prison.
The prisoners were interrogated harshly.
Mike Casey and Gunn were both told that they would lose their heads. At Görlitz prison on the morning of 6 April 1944,
Tony Bethell heard a truck arrive and saw three Germans in uniform call out the names of Denys Street,
Neville McGarr,
Jack Grisman, Sandy Gunn,
Harold Milford, and John F Williams.
Outcome
Gunn was one of 50 escapees
executed
Capital punishment, also known as the death penalty, is the state-sanctioned practice of deliberately killing a person as a punishment for an actual or supposed crime, usually following an authorized, rule-governed process to conclude that t ...
by the Gestapo. He was cremated at Breslau. Originally his remains were buried at Sagan, although his ashes are now interred in the Old Garrison Cemetery,
Poznan.
Gunn's name was amongst those in the list of the murdered prisoners, which was published in the press in the UK and Commonwealth countries when news broke on or about 20 May 1944.
:''See
Stalag Luft III murders
The Stalag Luft III murders were war crimes perpetrated by members of the Gestapo following the " Great Escape" of Allied prisoners of war from the German Air Force prison camp known as Stalag Luft III on March 25, 1944. Of the 76 successful escap ...
''
Post-war investigations saw a number of those guilty of the murders tracked down, arrested, and tried for their crimes; some were executed.
In 2018, wreckage of Gunn's aircraft was found in a peat bog near the Norwegian village of Surnadal and brought back to the UK.
Awards
*Mentioned in Despatches on 5 June 1942 for service as pilot officer
*Mentioned in Despatches for conspicuous gallantry as a prisoner of war
References
;Notes
;Bibliography
*
*
*
External links
''Lessons from History site''analyses their efforts using modern project management methods, as the prisoners formally structured their work as a project.
Further reading
by Mark Kozak-Holland.
{{DEFAULTSORT:Gunn, Alastair Donald Mackintosh
1919 births
1944 deaths
People educated at Cargilfield School
People educated at Fettes College
Royal Air Force officers
British World War II pilots
World War II prisoners of war held by Germany
Royal Air Force personnel killed in World War II
Participants in the Great Escape from Stalag Luft III
British escapees
Extrajudicial killings in World War II
British World War II prisoners of war
People from Perthshire
Shot-down aviators
Scottish airmen