The game was played under extreme circumstances and was against the Springboks. The ‘Celts’ were ultimately beaten by a try on a dust bowl of a pitch that was surrounded by barbed wire, the fixture taking place in the infamous Stalag Luft III German prisoner of war camp in 1942.
Yes, that’s right, the camp immortalised in the film, ‘Great Escape’, starring Steve McQueen, James Garner, Richard Attenborough and Charles Bronson. The bare details of the game, and others featuring teams from England, New Zealand, South Africa and Scotland, were unearthed in an amazing account of life in the Luftwaffe run camp for allied air men at Sagan, 100 miles south-east of Berlin.
The book, ‘Up and Under’ was written in 1989 by Gwyn Martin. Born in Penygraig, he joined the RAF in September, 1939, while still at school and became a navigator on Lancaster Bombers. The day after his 21st birthday he was shot down over Norway and crash landed in a lake.
Gwyn went on to play rugby for Cardiff and Aberavon post-war and was good enough to earn a Welsh trial. He then captained Aberystwyth after moving west to work in the town.
Having learned a little bit about him the idea was to try to find a link between him and Wing Commander Ken Rees, who was involved in the ‘Great Escape’ on the night of 24-25 March, 1944. That was when 76 men made it out of the tunnel, ‘Harry’, that ran for 348 feet from Hut 104 in the camp to the woods beyond. It was the single greatest flight for freedom attempted by Allied POWs during WWII.
North Walian Ken was another good rugby player. He played for Birkenhead Park, Cheshire, the RAF and Combined Services and in 1953 captained London Welsh. A lively hooker, he also had a Welsh trial.
The burning question was, did they know each other? Having checked the many obituaries for Ken there was no mention of any Welsh colleagues. Then a Google search came up trumps. Gwyn Martin had written a book in 1989 about his time in the RAF and as a POW. It proved to be the best £2.50 ever spent online!
Described as “an amusing, sensitive, raw and astonishing account of escapades of a young man with a zest for life, suddenly faced with the prospect of death just as he reaches his majority”, the book not only established a link between the two men, but revealed them to be true partners in crime and best of mates.
Gwyn Martin (2nd left back row) and the crew of 75 Squadron
Having hoped to link the two future Welsh rugby trialists, here in black and white was a blow by blow account of an incredible friendship. From no end of hell raising and partying at RAF bases in the UK, pilot Ken and navigator Gwyn teamed up together as part of a Wellington Bomber crew that rained heavy metal down on the Germans night after night. They were still kids, yet bold as brass and brave beyond belief.
Before teaming up in a crew with Ken, Gwyn had successfully completed 30 missions and been awarded the Distinguished Flying Medal after a raid on Brest. He was then packed off to act as an instructor, but instead got drawn back into playing a more active, and dangerous, part in the fight against Hitler.
The two Welsh rugby players first met at Chipping Warden. Ken had been on operations in the Middle East and arrived back in Blighty with jaundice. They eventually flew together out of Snaith, but not before raising more than a little hell together – they fell off a motorbike and ended up in hospital and then wound up in gaol after a street fight with locals – ahead of a trip to Ken’s home in Wrexham.
It was 1942 and the bombing raids on Germany were being stepped up. Gwyn notched his 44th operation on the day of his 21st birthday – and returned home to recount the tale and enjoy a very long night. Next day the lives of both men changed forever on what should have been a routine mission. They were tasked with dropping two 1,750lb mines in the narrows at Karsmund – a so-called ‘Gardening’ trip in a bid to strike the German battleship, Tirpitz.
With their minds occupied by thoughts of how to get back in time for the dance in the Mess on their base later that night, they were never able to drop their mines. Searchlights in Stavanger lit them up and the heavy flak that followed hit their plane with devastating effect.
“The first shell went through the starboard engine, the next hit amidships. We were on fire from nose to tail. The first burst killed Don Taylor. The ammunition storage ignited, sending exploding bullets flying around like a Chinese New Year celebration. Ken worked hard to keep us in the air, but he was running out of time, luck and airspace, everything except courage. Another crew member, Jim Whaley, shouted in his best Cockney accent: “Taff, we’ve ******* had it!”
Ken managed to keep control of the bomber, guiding it down over roof tops and into Lake Langavatnet. Two of the crew were killed, another was badly burned and a third member died later after being first ferried in a life raft and then carried by Ken and Gwyn to a nearby farmhouse. Now the bond between the two Welshmen became even stronger.
Having been taken in by the locals, the four surviving airmen were captured by Germans who accompanied a doctor sent to tend to their wounds. Under guard Ken and Gwyn were taken to Oslo, Copenhagen and then Berlin. Frankfurt was the next stop before transport to Dulag Luft and then finally Stalag Luft III.
And so we come back to the rugby . . . and helping to dig ‘Harry’ to facilitate the ‘Great Escape’.
“I organised the hut rugby team. We played in the very competitive inter-hut league under the Cardiff name, the dress for a match always Whites v Colours. In Whites, you played in your underwear, a vest and Jack Sharkeys. Colours meant playing in any coloured shirt or jersey in the cold months or topless in the summer. We had bar feet or gym shoes.
“The field surface was the black sand of the forest, which dried out in summer to a microfined dust. The pitch was watered before a game in order to minimise the dust problem, which became so bad when a scrum was formed it was impossible to have clear vision within 15 yards of it. The fly half had to learn to receive the ball from the centre of the dust cloud, or be pretty slick to tackle his opposite number as he emerged from the dust.
“On one occasion I collided head on with Arneson, A Rhodesian, both of us going flat out, unable to see each other in the opaque air. I was unconscious for 30 hours. Rugby was a great therapy fo the whole of my incarceration, organising games, getting together teams to play in them and teaching others to play.
“We played international tourneys. Wales v England, New Zealand, South Africa, Scotland and Ireland. Our difficulty as a Welsh side lay in the limited number of bona fide Welshmen available for selection. We had the nucleus of six or seven who were proficient, having played at school or in Services sides. Under Ken’s guidance in the pack and mine in the backs we were able to make a fair show, however, we were always at least five or six short for any international.
Ken Rees and (2nd from left) and Gwyn Martin (3rd from left) in the Prisoner of War camp
“We had to combine with the Irish to play as a Celtic side, thus gaining some good players, Mike Casey, later killed in the Great Escape, was a good hooker, Ellis Walsh was an Irish trials centre, and Bren Hooper became our scrum half. We became a strong side, only beaten by a try by the Springboks.
“All the games were great fun, played in good spirit, always watched by the Goons (guards) who thought we were all mad. Rugger, soccer and other sporting activities were only a partial palliative, as one’s mind focussed increasingly on ways of getting out.”
Gwyn was eventually moved on to another camp, Belaria, but not before he had worked underground with Ken helping to dig ‘Harry’. More than 250 tons of sand had to be dug out and distributed before the big breakout. There was the constant risk of collapse and being buried in the soft sand and there were numerous roof falls, which had to be shored up with bed boards.
Was among the 200 men gathered in Hut 104 with their escape kit, before the guards locked all the huts. He described the atmosphere as “stomach-churning — worse than waiting for a bombing operation to get under way”. When the tunnel diggers broke through to the surface they discovered they were short of the woods, causing significant delays in exiting.
Seventy-six men eventually clambered from the tunnel. When it came to Ken’s turn, he had almost reached the exit ladder when a shot rang out signalling the discovery of the tunnel. On all fours, he rushed back along the tunnel and was the last to clamber back into the hut before the trap door was closed.
Hitler ordered the execution of 50 of the escapees who were recaptured. They were rounded up by the Gestapo and shot from close range on the roadside as they thought they were being taken back to their POW camp. Among those murdered was the Irish rugby player Mike Casey.
Ken was the last of the ‘Great Escape’ digging team to die, aged 93 in 2014. Gwyn, who went on to become President of Aberystwyth RFC and was a founding member of the Aberystwyth RAFA, died in 2001 at the age of 80. Two lives very well lived, two Welsh rugby heroes of the most heroic kind.
