Paweł "Peter" W. Tobolski (21 March 1906not before 2 April 1944) was a Polish airman who fought in

World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

, murdered after the "Great Escape" from the Stalag Luft III prisoner of war camp. He was a navigator with the rank of

flying officer Flying officer (Fg Offr or F/O) is a junior officer rank used by some air forces, with origins from the Royal Air Force. The rank is used by air forces of many countries that have historical British influence. Flying officer is immediately ...

in No. 301 Polish Bomber Squadron, an

expatriate An expatriate (often shortened to expat) is a person who resides outside their native country. The term often refers to a professional, skilled worker, or student from an affluent country. However, it may also refer to retirees, artists and ...

unit that fought as part of the

Royal Air Force The Royal Air Force (RAF) is the Air force, air and space force of the United Kingdom, British Overseas Territories and Crown Dependencies. It was formed towards the end of the World War I, First World War on 1 April 1918, on the merger of t ...

against

Nazi Germany Nazi Germany, officially known as the German Reich and later the Greater German Reich, was the German Reich, German state between 1933 and 1945, when Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party controlled the country, transforming it into a Totalit ...

. He took part in two combat missions. In his second mission, a thousand-bomber raid against Bremen at night of 25/26 June 1942, his bomber

Vickers Wellington The Vickers Wellington (nicknamed the Wimpy) is a British twin-engined, long-range medium bomber. It was designed during the mid-1930s at Brooklands in Weybridge, Surrey. Led by Vickers-Armstrongs' chief designer Rex Pierson, a key feature of t ...

no. Z1479 GR-A (the squadron commander's) was shot down by anti-aircraft artillery near Dornumergrode; and he was captured and imprisoned in

Stalag Luft III Stalag Luft III (; literally "Main Camp, Air, III"; SL III) was a ''Luftwaffe''-run prisoner-of-war (POW) camp during the Second World War, which held captured Western Allied air force personnel. The camp was established in March 1942 near th ...

. He was one of 76 men who took part in the "Great Escape" on 25 March 1944; an event memorialised in the 1950 book '' The Great Escape'' and in the 1963 film of the same name. On the night of the escape he was dressed as a German soldier and his escape plan was to escort Harry “wings” Day to Berlin for interrogation. Being dressed as a German soldier required him to get his travel documents stamped by the local German barracks and thus spent a night in the barracks to get the required stamp. If he did not get the stamp he would have been treated as a German deserted soldier. He was eventually caught when his escape partner Harry “Wings” Day was betrayed by some French workers the two were in contact with. He was soon recaptured, in

Stettin Szczecin ( , , ; ; ; or ) is the capital and largest city of the West Pomeranian Voivodeship in northwestern Poland. Located near the Baltic Sea and the German border, it is a major seaport, the largest city of northwestern Poland, and se ...

. He was one of the 50 escapees

murdered Murder is the unlawful killing of another human without justification or valid excuse committed with the necessary intention as defined by the law in a specific jurisdiction. ("The killing of another person without justification or excu ...

by the

Gestapo The (, ), Syllabic abbreviation, 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 F ...

on the orders of

Adolf Hitler Adolf Hitler (20 April 1889 – 30 April 1945) was an Austrian-born German politician who was the dictator of Nazi Germany from 1933 until Death of Adolf Hitler, his suicide in 1945. Adolf Hitler's rise to power, He rose to power as the lea ...

. He is buried in Poznan Old Garrison Cemetery in Poland, in a British Commonwealth War Grave, next to others who had escaped with him and who had shared his fate. His name is inscribed on the memorial to "The Fifty" near

Żagań Żagań (French language, French and , ) is a town in western Poland, on the Bóbr river, with 25,731 inhabitants (2019), capital of Żagań County in the Lubusz Voivodeship, located in the historic region of Lower Silesia. Founded in the 12th ce ...

, Poland.

References

1906 births 1944 deaths Place of birth missing Polish prisoners of war in World War II World War II prisoners of war held by Germany Participants in the Great Escape from Stalag Luft III Polish military personnel killed in World War II Extrajudicial killings by the Nazi regime Non-British Royal Air Force personnel of World War II Royal Air Force personnel killed in World War II Polish Air Force officers {{World-War-II-bio-stub