Charles Piers Egerton Hall

Hall was born in Kings Norton near Birmingham; He enlisted in the Royal Air Force pre-war as a regular service airman with the service number 550173 on 11 February 1935. He trained to be a photographer in Halton.[3] He was stationed as a photographer at Station Calshot on 18 February 1936, then served as a photographer on HMS Argus from 10 September 1938 and at NAS Eastleigh from 9 June 1939. Hall started his pilot training at 4 ITW at RAF Paignton at 19 August 1940, followed by flight training at No. 9 SFTS at RAF Hullavington from 4 December 1940. Hall was a leading aircraftman at the time he was commissioned as pilot officer on 17 April 1941[4] for the duration of hostilities. During World War II he served as a flight lieutenant in the Royal Air Force Volunteer Reserve. On 19 November 1941 he became a pilot for the 1st Photographic Reconnaissance Unit (PRU) flying out of RAF Benson South Oxfordshire,[5] England. He flew his first operational photographic reconnaissance mission on 16 December 1941 in Spitfire PR.IV AB120, photographing over IJmuiden, Amsterdam, Zwolle and Hilversum. Hall flew his second operational photographic reconnaissance mission one day later, on 17 December 1941, again in Spitfire PR.IV AB120. His mission was to photograph targets in the area of Kiel, Brunsbüttel and the Frisian islands. Due to a solid cloud layer at low altitude he was unable to take photographs and when he observed two enemy aircraft approaching from the southeast he started his return home.[6]

Hall was flying 1 PRU Spitfire PR.IV AA804[7] on 28 December 1941[3] when the aircraft came down over Bergen op Zoom, the Netherlands. He had been on a high-level reconnaissance mission to Düsseldorf and Essen to photograph bombed factories when he was either shot down or suffered engine failure (accounts vary).[5] It was the aircraft's first operational flight[5] and Hall's third operational flight.[3][5] He became a prisoner of war and was sent to Oflag IX-AH Spangenberg Castle, followed by Stalag Luft III[3] in Germany in the province of Lower Silesia near the town of Sagan (now Żagań in Poland). Hall was promoted flying officer on 17 April 1942.[8] and flight lieutenant on 17 April 1943.[9]

See Stalag Luft III murders

He was one of the 76 men who escaped the prison camp on the night of 24–25 March 1944, in the escape now famous as "the Great Escape".[3] He was recaptured near Sagan.[2] He was one of the 50 executed and murdered by the Gestapo[2] on the personal orders of Adolf Hitler on 31 March 1944 and then cremated at Liegnitz, now remembered at the Poznan Old Garrison Cemetery.[2] Before his execution he had written on his cell wall "We who are about to die salute you".[3]

Memorial to "The Fifty" down the road toward Żagań (Hall is top right)

His conspicuous bravery was recognized by a mention in Despatches as none of the other relevant decorations then available could be awarded posthumously.[10]

Notes

Bibliography

• William Ash; Brendan Foley (2005). Under the Wire: The Wartime Memoir of a Spitfire Pilot, Legendary Escape Artist and 'cooler King'. Bantam. ISBN 978-0-593-05408-6.
• Paul Brickhill (2004). The Great Escape. W.W. Norton & Company. ISBN 978-0-393-32579-9.
• Alan Burgess (1990). The Longest Tunnel: The True Story of World War II's Great Escape. Naval Institute Press. ISBN 978-1-59114-097-9.
• Albert P. Clark (2005). 33 Months as a POW in Stalag Luft III: A World War II Airman Tells His Story. Fulcrum Pub. ISBN 978-1-55591-536-0.
• Memories of an Australian prisoner of Stalag Luft III - Sergeant Alf Miners; the Wartime Memories Project
• Arthur A. Durand (1 January 1989). Stalag Luft III: The Secret Story. Patrick Stephens Limited. ISBN 978-1-85260-248-2.
• T.D. Calnan (1970). Free as a running Fox. Doubleday. ISBN 9780330235549.
• Jonathan F. Vance (2000). A Gallant Company, The true story of 'The Great Escape'. Pacifica Press. ISBN 9780935553475.
• John Grehan (2020). Stalag Luft III: An Official History of the 'Great Escape' PoW Camp. Frontline books. ISBN 9781473883079.

• Project Lessons from the Great Escape (Stalag Luft III), by Mark Kozak-Holland. The prisoners formally structured their work as a project. This book analyses their efforts using modern project management methods.