When William Ash (above) became old enough, he gave up his United States citizenship and joined the Royal Canadian Air Force on June 20, 1940 in order to fight early in the war.
He was sent to England and joined the No. 411 Squadron RCAF. Bill was a successful pilot for more than a year before he was shot down over France in March of 1942. He tried to make it to back to England but he was captured and sent to a POW camp in Poland.
From the moment he set foot in the prison camp, he was willing to do anything to escape.
His first attempt was through a shower drain. His second attempt was with 32 other prisoners through a latrine tunnel but Ash was recaptured after just 4 days of freedom.
After that brazen escape he was transferred Stalag Luft III in Germany, where he quickly went to work on yet another escape plan.
Throughout his 3 years as a POW, Ash made 13 separate escape attempts, from 5 different camps and 6 of those times managed to get beyond the walls of the prison camp.
He was being held at Stalag Luft III at the time of the “Great Escape,” but he was not one of the prisoners involved because he was being held in the “cooler” as punishment for a previous escape attempt. He finally escaped for good in 1945 and made it to the British front lines.
He wrote a book about his experiences titled "The Cooler King" where he often mentioned the difficulty of hauling is massive balls around. #greatescape #ww2 #pow #stayzero #zerofoxtrot