Darrell Larlee

“One of my favorite memories was our yearly trips home to Canada to visit Uncle Darrell at the point outside Saint John, N.B. My cousin Peter, though, remembers that my uncle didn’t like to talk about his time in WWII. Peter said, ‘He just refused to talk about it.’ Uncle Darrell would say, ‘That’s all past. That’s all behind me, and there’s nothing to talk about.'”

– Ian Larlee ’76

Darrell Larlee, remembered by his nephew, Ian Larlee

Darrell Larlee, shot down over Germany, survived “The Great Escape” POW camp.

Darrell Larlee joined the Royal Canadian Air Force in 1940. Told that at 145 pounds he was too light to be a pilot, he became a tailgunner, flying terrifying bombing missions. He underwent training at the No. 1 Gunnery School in Jarvis, Ontario, and in late 1941 was posted to Bournemouth, England. From there, Larlee went to gunnery training school for a refresher course at Stormy Downs, Wales.

Assigned to the 419th Bombardment Squadron, Larlee successfully completed 18 missions over Germany. In 1943, his plane was shot down over Germany. He parachuted into enemy territory, where he was captured and sent to Stalag Luft III, a prisoner of war camp south of Berlin. Stalag III served as the inspiration for the 1963 film “The Great Escape.”

During Larlee’s time at Stalag III, he was a member of the famous “X Organization,” which undertook the amazing engineering feat of digging the “Tom, Dick and Harry” tunnels beneath the supposedly escape-proof prison camp.

In 1944, 80 men fled through one of the tunnels; however, Larlee, who had a bad leg, was not among them. Of the escapees, only three made it to freedom. The rest were captured, and Adolf Hitler personally ordered 50 of them executed.

While Larlee would remember performing many tasks while confined to Stalag III, from tunneling to disposing of dirt, he was proudest of his cooking.

“He said he could feed six men with one potato,” wrote his son Robert Larlee. Fearing he would be accused of benefiting from his role as cook, Larlee always gave himself the smallest portion.

Read more about Darrell Larlee’s role in WWII.