The great escape

He helped take sand from the tunnels - "Tom", "Dick" and "Harry" - through which 200 captured RAF crew attempted to break out from the camp. The last-named took 76 of the men to initial freedom through 100 metres of tunnel, 30 feet below the ground, on March 24, 1944.

Of those 76 who escaped before German guards saw one of the escapees emerging from the tunnel, three reached the UK, 23 were returned to PoW camps and 50 were shot on Hitler's orders.

The incredible story was immortalised in the epic film The Great Escape, which starred Steve McQueen and Richard Attenborough, who played a character closely based on the leader and planner of the escape, Squadron Leader Roger Bushell, codenamed "Big X".

Lees will remember their bravery, not to mention their downright cunning.

The 96-year-old will join other veterans at the hospital to pay tribute to those who gave their lives in both world wars and in conflicts from the Falklands to Korea, Afghanistan and Iraq. Among them will be the hospital's youngest veteran, John Stonham, 22, who was injured in Iraq.

Lees told the Sunday Herald: "When I went to the camp, I was given a job looking after a garden outside my hut. The Germans knew tunnels had been excavated at other camps, so we had to be very careful in disposing of the sand.

"There was very little soil, as the subsoil in the tunnels was mainly sand. It was a very different colour to the soil in the garden, which meant we had to disguise it.

"Being in charge of the garden, I was able to dig a trench and disguise the sand by scattering it in the bottom so the guards couldn't see it and become suspicious.

"The sand was a lighter colour than the surface, but it wasn't noticeable as I grew radish, cress and tomatoes outside the window of my hut. Later, the men got the sand away by putting it in their long johns under their trousers."

Lees took the sand to his garden plot in empty Red Cross boxes. "It was a great risk," he said. "You had to be careful not to take too many boxes in a certain direction in case the guards became suspicious."

He carried them from a wooden hut, number 104, underneath which teams of officers led by Bushell worked on the tunnel. Lees had arrived too late from another German camp to be on the list of potential escapees.

Bushell, who had been a barrister before the war, launched the plot after being caught when two previous attempts failed, the latter ending in the shooting of a family with whom he had taken refuge. He was shot dead after the great escape.

His escape committee earmarked three possible sites, with three tunnels being built so the escapees had an alternative route if one or more was discovered. Fellow airmen forged documents to help with their jouney back to Britain.

Lees said: "There was a lot of planning, and some mining engineers were among the men. It was amazing the talents some of them had for forging, photographing and all sorts of other things."

Most of the work took place during the day and before the Germans held their nightly roll call at 10pm. "They could easily have found out if people were not there, but to my knowledge they didn't," he added.

Wooden boards were removed from the PoWs' bunks and used as pit-props in the tunnels. Lees said: "We managed to disguise that fact by keeping the mattress on top and they never checked. Unfortunately, it made the bed a bit uncomfortable as the mattress would fall on to the bed, and the person, below."

Some of the most dangerous moments of the escape plot happened during the two-hour searches of their huts by guards. Lees revealed that prisoners used signals to warn those working in the tunnel of the guards' visits.

"We had stooges following every guard who came into the camp. Someone would be reading a book, and they would suddenly put it down as a sign that someone was coming. It gave those working in the tunnel time to put back the hatch in the ground.

"The searches happened quite often. You could be sent out for two hours while they looked, which was quite scary. It didn't matter how much warning we tried to give those working in the tunnels, you never know what they would find. It was a great risk."

The would-be escapees suffered an early blow when the tunnel "Tom" was discovered. However, the guards were unaware of the existence of the others.

Lees recalled a potentially embarrassing moment as "Dick" was being excavated under a sump in the shower rooms of one hut. He added: "I remember walking into have a shower and suddenly this man appeared from beneath the floor. I certainly got a shock. However, Dick' only proceeded so far as it was used for storing some of the sand from another tunnel."

On March 24, 1944, lots were drawn, and nervousness was heightened when it was realised the exit to the tunnel was 10 metres short of the pine forest surrounding the camp. The men's jitters were not helped when an air raid forced the Germans to turn out the camp lights.

Lees was used as a decoy and moved from 104, where he had been sleeping and where "Harry" started, to take the bed of a flight lieutenant called Thompson who was among those who were given the chance to escape.

He knew it was over when a shot echoed across the camp, signalling that the guards had uncovered the escape attempt. A guard burst into the room shouting "Name" in German, and Lees's false identity as Flight Lieutenant Thompson was exposed when his photograph didn't match those on his fellow prisoner's documents.

He was marched out into the snow with the other men, at the point of machine guns, to face an anxious wait.

Lees said: "I was in hut 122, in twin beds, with Squadron Leader Murray. We heard this rifle shot. We said to one another: Heavens, the break has been discovered.' "We were fearful for our lives. We were bundled out into the snow and had to wait several hours in the cold before we were allowed to go back to our huts."

Lees said their lives were probably saved because the camp was run by the German air force under the Geneva Convention forbidding mistreatment of PoWs. He added: "Things might have been different had it been the feared Gestapo."

Most of his colleagues were waiting to go into the tunnel when it was discovered, but many of the 73 escapees (out of 76) who were recaptured were not so lucky. Hitler originally insisted that all of them be shot, and 50 of them did suffer execution.

Lees added: "Hitler was outraged. I knew quite a few of the men who were shot. They knew the risks, but the RAF officers saw it as their duty to escape and thought they would not be too severely punished by the camp. Bushell had escaped before and taken shelter with a family who were shot when he was found. He was really determined to have a big escape and hoped to take at least 100 men."

Lees was delighted with the film of the escape, which briefly features a character tending to his "Englishman's garden" like him. He added: "I don't think The Great Escape would have been well known about without the film, Steve McQueen and the wonderful theme tune. It made what happened legendary."

Lees, who has been at Erskine for two years, is modest about his role in one of the second world war's most famous stories.

He keeps a copy of the camp's layout, showing the tunnels, in his room, and thinks about what happened every day. He said: "I only played a small part. I did my bit - that's the main thing. Every prisoner knew about what was going on and we all assisted where necessary. I am proud to have played my part, and I must admit I think about it all the time."

Manchester-born Lees, who lived after the conflict in Elderslie, Renfrewshire, said young people needed to understand the sacrifices made by servicemen during the war. To that end he has published a book about the heroic exploits of the men, Before It's Too Late, so titled because he wants people to read about their exploits before he should pass away.

He also tours local schools to highlight the hospital's work in caring for ex-servicemen of all ages. He added: "I have a much better life here than I would have if I was at home on my own, as my wife died in 1999. Coming here really is a blessing.

"I love going out to meet the children. They are always amazed at my story and I am always amazed at the questions they ask me."

"It's important that people, particularly the young, honour the service people who have lost their lives in conflicts on Remembrance Sunday."

Copies of Before It's Too Late can be obtained from Erskine Hospital.

Telephone 0141 812 1100