Great Escape NZ Pilot Book

World War 2 heavy bomber pilot Te Aute educated Porokuro Patapu John Pohe is the subject of renewed interest following the discovery of a fourth tunnel at Germany’s World War 2 Great Escape prison.

John Pohe was shot down, captured, placed in Sagan 111, and as an escapee was a central figure in the much storied Great Escape.  He was recaptured and executed at the side of the road by Gestapo on the express orders of Hitler.

The airman’s heroism was commemorated during a National Press Club lunch at Parliament and featured the pilot’s younger brother Kawana Pohe, now a prominent Nevada businessman in merchandising and energy. The lunch was also attended by top RNZAF brass. Official parliamentary host Ron Mark, himself a veteran, noted that Flying Officer John Pohe’s exploits should be recounted “until our jaws drop off.”

Renee Ounsley (pictured with her book The True Story of John Pohe) is the secretary of Pollington Airfield Memorial Garden in the United Kingdom that commemorates RAF 51 Squadron and 150 Squadron. She believes that the film The Great Escape starring Steve McQueen and Richard Attenborough dramatized the event at the expense of historical accuracy, especially in regard to the individual escapees. It was Mrs Ounsley who first contacted the National Press Club with a view to achieving a wider knowledge in his own country of the war hero’s achievements.

“There was this showbiz focus on baseball and of course the motor bike scene,” comments Mrs Ounsley, “but it obscured so many other components of the event, and the people responsible for them.” The escape was recently shown on New Zealand Sky’s series Narrow Escapes of World War 2. The fourth tunnel was discovered during the making of a pending BBC documentary.