Alex Lees (July 7, 1911 - April 22, 2009)

2009-05-14T06:54:00.000-07:00

Mr. Lees was born in Manchester, England ... however, he lived most of his life in Scotland.

He joined the Royal Army Service Corps in 1940 as a driver ... was captured on Crete and sent to Stalag Luft III in April, 1943; there remaining until its closing in January, 1945 when he was transferred to another POW camp.

When the British and American airmen being held at Stalag Luft III were plotting a mass escape and tunneling under the prison wires, one problem was how to dispose of the tunnel dirt without detection ... its solution was to load the dirt in tube-shaped sacks that prisoners wore inside their trousers when they went outdoors, releasing the dirt onto the camp grounds as they walked. The men who performed this duty were known as penguins.

Mr. Lees was never supposed to be one of the 200 men to escape ... he was not an officer and he arrived after its planning had begun. His role was as a gardener, and as a penguin.

Alex Lees was a penguin, and one of the last remaining links to the March 24, 1944 "Great Escape" ...

According to him, there wasn't much soil in the tunnels ... only sand ... "It was a very different color 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 German guards would pass by and talk to me about my tomatoes, not realizing that they were looking at dirt from tunnels being dug right below them."

The poles in the foreground are along what was the the edge of the camp ... the stone marker in the background is where the officers emerged from the tunnel on the night of the on the night of the escape, a few feet short of the woods.

On that night, Alex slept in the bunk of an officer who was one of the escapees. Seventy-six escaped before the 77th was spotted by guards ... Lees thought he would be executed for his role in covering up for one of the escapees, three of whom made it to England ... 23 were returned to the camp ... and 50 were executed.

Jack Wayne Lohrke (February 25, 1924 – April 29, 2009)

Lucky Lohrke is a good sounding alleration for a MLB third baseman ... but his nickname was acquired before reaching the major leagues.

He fought in the D-Day invasion at Normandy and later in the Battle of the Bulge ... during one battle, four soldiers ... two on each side of him, were killed in combat. Later in 1945, Lohrke was bumped from a military transport flight coming home ... at the very last moment by a higher ranking officer ... the plane crashed, and all passengers were killed.

Then, on June 24, 1946, he was a passenger on the team bus carrying the Spokane Indians of the Class B Western International League as it traveled toward Bremerton, Washington, to begin a road trip. During a lunch stop, Lohrke got word that he'd been promoted to Triple-A San Diego ... took his gear, said goodbye to his teammates and hitchhiked home.

That night, the bus broke through a guard rail on a rain-slicked pass through the Cascades mountain range and plummeted into a valley, killing nine of the 16 player passengers ... the rest badly injured ... it remains the most deadly crash involving professional baseball teams.

Lucky reached the major leagues the following year, appearing in 354 games over seven seasons (1947-53), the first five for the New York Giants and the final two for the Philadelphia Phillies, primarily as a third baseman.

Lohrke wasn't really a slugger but on September 1, 1947 he hit the Giants' 182nd and 183rd homers of the season, breaking the team record of 182 set by the 1936 Yankees.

Gone - Not Forgotten

Alex Lees (July 7, 1911 - April 22, 2009)