William Ash
When Bill Ash became old enough, he gave up his United States citizenship and joined the Royal Canadian Air Force on June 20, 1940. The following year he was sent to England and joined the No. 411 Squadron RCAF. He 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 back to England but he was captured in Paris and sent to Oflag XXI-B Szubin, 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.
The second attempt was successful, but Ash was recaptured after just 4 days of freedom. After that brazen escape, he was transferred to Stalag Luft III in Germany, where he quickly went to work on yet another escape plan. After 21 months, he managed to switch identities with another prisoner in order to get transferred to Stalag Luft VI in Lithuania.
Here he worked with prisoners to dig a huge tunnel in preparation for an escape much like the one at Oflag XXI-B Szubin. Unfortunately, the tunnel was discovered after only ten men had made it through. Ash was one of the men that were able to get to freedom. He managed to get away and get onboard a goods train that was headed to Kovno, Lithuania. Sadly, the station guards discovered him and he was immediately returned to Stalag Luft VI.
Throughout his three years as a POW, Ash made thirteen separate escape attempts, and six 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.