Paul Chester Jerome Brickhill (20 December 1916 – 23 April 1991) was an Australian writer, whose World War II books were turned into popular movies.
He was born in Melbourne, Victoria and educated at North Sydney Boys High School. Brickhill worked as a journalist before World War II, and during the war was a fighter pilot in the Royal Australian Air Force. He was shot down over Tunisia in 1943, and taken prisoner of war by the Germans. Brickhill ...
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Paul Chester Jerome Brickhill (20 December 1916 – 23 April 1991) was an Australian writer, whose World War II books were turned into popular movies.
He was born in Melbourne, Victoria and educated at North Sydney Boys High School. Brickhill worked as a journalist before World War II, and during the war was a fighter pilot in the Royal Australian Air Force. He was shot down over Tunisia in 1943, and taken prisoner of war by the Germans. Brickhill witnessed the preparation of, and the consequences of, the mass escape from Stalag Luft III (known as "the Great Escape"). Brickhill was barred from participating in the actual escape due to claustrophobia although he was active in implementing the plan.
After the war he wrote the first major account of the escape in The Great Escape (New York: Norton, 1950), bringing the incident to a wide public attention. He went on to write two other best-selling war books: The Dam Busters, the story of Operation Chastise and the destruction of dams in the...
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