Anthony Zillwood Tremayne Pengelly

The Canadian Forger Behind the Great Escape

He had earned a numbered place in Tunnel Harry and a chance to escape from Nazi Germany. Then Anthony Pengelly gave it up.

Flight Lieutenant Anthony Zillwood Tremayne Pengelly was one of the most important Canadian participants in the Great Escape from Stalag Luft III. He was not one of the celebrated tunnel engineers or one of the 76 men who crawled beyond the wire. His contribution was equally vital. As a section head within the camp’s secret forgery organization, Pengelly helped create the identity papers, travel permits and supporting documents upon which the escapees’ survival depended.

Born in Truro, Nova Scotia, in 1920 and raised in Weston, Ontario, Pengelly moved to England as a teenager before entering the Royal Air Force. The London Gazette records his appointment to an RAF short-service commission with effect from 1 December 1938. He therefore joined the service before the outbreak of the Second World War and was already beginning his flying career when Britain declared war on Germany.

Pengelly became a bomber pilot with No. 102 Squadron RAF, which operated Armstrong Whitworth Whitley bombers during the opening phase of the air war. Squadron records show that he was attached briefly to No. 78 Squadron for rest in May 1940, evidence that he had already accumulated significant operational experience. On 14 November 1940, his aircraft failed to return from an operation, and Pengelly and the other crew members were subsequently reported as prisoners of war. He was only 20 years old.

His captivity would last approximately four and a half years. Pengelly was initially held at Stalag Luft I near Barth before being transferred to Stalag Luft III at Sagan, now Żagań in Poland. The Luftwaffe-run camp held captured Allied aircrew and brought together many experienced escape organizers, engineers, linguists, mapmakers, intelligence officers and forgers. Pengelly had already learned through earlier escape attempts that no prisoner could succeed alone. Escape required planning, discipline and cooperation across a highly organized underground network.

At Stalag Luft III, Pengelly became a section head in the clandestine forgery branch known as Dean and Dawson, a humorous reference to a prominent British travel agency. His section helped produce German identity cards, work papers, railway documents, travel permits, official stamps and other credentials needed by men attempting to move through occupied Europe. A Toronto aviation-history account identifies Pengelly as the real-life forger behind one of the central roles later fictionalized in the film The Great Escape.

Producing convincing documents required genuine examples. Pengelly and other members of the escape organization developed relationships with selected guards who could be persuaded or compromised into supplying papers, maps and railway information. Pengelly described the gradual process as “the psychology of binding a man with a thread.” Food and other scarce goods from Red Cross parcels served as valuable currency inside wartime Germany.

One of the camp’s most remarkable historical records was also concealed in Pengelly’s barracks. Artist Ley Kenyon prepared detailed sketches documenting the tunnels and escape preparations. The drawings were rolled into a narrow cylinder and hidden inside the pendulum of a cuckoo clock, preserving a secret visual account of the operation.

By March 1944, Pengelly had earned number 93 on the escape list. He had a place among the prisoners chosen to attempt freedom through Tunnel Harry. Yet he recognized that somebody familiar with the forgery operation had to remain behind and ensure that each escaping officer received the correct documents.

Pengelly surrendered his place.

He later called it the greatest decision of his life. Instead of entering the tunnel, he remained inside the camp to help make certain that the papers produced by Dean and Dawson reached the right escapees. His decision gave up his own chance at freedom in order to improve the chances of the men going ahead of him.

During the night of 24 and 25 March 1944, 76 Allied airmen escaped through Tunnel Harry. Only three ultimately reached safety. Fifty of the recaptured officers were murdered by the Gestapo following orders from the highest levels of the Nazi regime. Pengelly survived because he had remained behind, but he was forced to endure the knowledge that many of the men whose papers his organization had prepared would never return.

Liberated in 1945, Pengelly returned to Canada in 1946 with his wife, Pauline. He established a successful civilian career in advertising and marketing, working with Lever Brothers, General Foods, McKim Advertising and Warner-Lambert. Contemporary Canadian advertising records confirm his work with Lever Brothers, General Foods and McKim, while his obituary records his later career and leadership within the Association of Canadian Advertisers.

Pengelly and Pauline eventually settled in Niagara-on-the-Lake. His obituary also records extensive community involvement with organizations including the Boy Scouts, United Way, the West Scarborough Boys Club and the Shaw Festival. He died in Niagara Falls on 5 April 2002.

His reconstructed wartime entitlement includes the 1939–1945 Star with Bomber Command Clasp, the Air Crew Europe Star and the War Medal 1939–1945. The Bomber Command Clasp was created after Pengelly’s death and therefore represents a retrospective entitlement rather than a device he personally wore during his lifetime. Official British criteria confirm that the clasp applies to qualifying aircrew of United Kingdom-based Bomber Command units and is worn on the 1939–1945 Star.

Anthony Pengelly’s legacy does not rest on a gallantry decoration or on escaping through the tunnel himself. It rests on a decision made when freedom was almost within reach. By giving up his place and remaining behind, he placed responsibility to his fellow prisoners above his own liberty. His work gave the Great Escapers the documents they needed beyond the wire, and his sacrifice remains one of the most compelling Canadian stories connected with Stalag Luft III.