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The last survivor of the real life World War Two 'Great Escape' has died aged 99.

Airman Richard Churchill was one of 76 men who escaped Nazi prisoner of war camp, Stalag Luft III, by digging and crawling through tiny tunnels in 1944.

Tragically, only three men fully escaped - with some 50 men being captured and shot.

However, Richard, from Devon, was recaptured three days after his escape.

He had been hiding in a barn, where a farmer discovered him and a comrade and handed them over to German forces.

The RAF man believed he was kept alive because the Germans believed he was related to Winston Churchill.

Speaking about the war camp to the BBC last year, Richard said: "You fell into a certain category.

(Image: BBC)

'Were you going to sit and enjoy the very few delights of a barbed wire prison camp until you were rescued by your comrades - If you were rescued.

"Or were you going to try and get out of the place and rejoin and drop something on them?

"You could be a quiet person, do nothing much, above all don't annoy the Germans or the Gestapo, or you can try and do the opposite and feel better as the result of doing it."

The Great Escape was immortalised in the 1963 film starring Sir Richard Attenborough and Steve McQueen, documenting the prisoners' daring bid for freedom from Stalag.

The Stalag camp was established in March 1942 in the German province of Lower Silesia, near the town of Sagan - now Zagan in Poland.

(Image: BBC)

The site was selected specifically because its sandy soil made it difficult for prisoners of war to escape by tunnelling.

Tunnels dug by the escaping prisoners were dug around 9m deep and were 2ft square, with larger champers dug out to house an air pump and staging posts.

The sandy walls were strengthened by pieces of wood scavenged from the camp site and some from the prisoners' beds.

Daring prisoners stored sand from a day of digging in pouches made from towels or long underpants attached inside their trousers.

They would then scatter the sand and debris from the bottom of their trousers as they walked around the camp site.