Tony Bethell

Richard Anthony Bethell (9 April 1922 – 17 February 2004) was born in Dar-es-Salaam in the British territory of Tanganyika. He joined the Royal Air Force during the Second World War. After his Mustang was shot down he was taken prisoner and held in the German prisoner of war camp Stalag Luft III at Sagan where he participated in the Great Escape, being one of the 76 officers to break out and make some distance across enemy occupied territory before being recaptured. His name was not one of the 50 who were picked to be executed and he, with 25 others, went back into captivity. He retired from the RAF in 1955 and worked in financial services in Canada. He died in Canada in 2004. Early life Bethell's parents lived abroad serving with the British Colonial Services in East Africa and Gibraltar. Bethell was born on 9 April 1922 in Dar-es-Salaam, then part of the British territory of Tanganyika. He and his brother were boarders at Junior Kings School, Sturry, Kent and regularly sailed to Gibraltar to see their parents during school holidays. The Bethell family lived for some years in Gibraltar where his father was state treasurer, and only returned to England after his death. Bethell's education was completed at Sherborne School, where he attained the position of head boy. Service career Joining the Royal Air Force as an aircraftman 2nd class (service number 1314695) in February 1941, he completed pilot training in the United States in Georgia, Alabama and Florida. From there he was posted to a training unit at Hawarden before joining No. 268 (Fighter) Squadron as a sergeant-pilot. He was commissioned as a pilot officer on 7 February 1942 with the RAF officer's service number 120413 and was promoted to flying officer on 1 October 1942. Equipped with the North American P-51 Mustang, 268 Squadron flew "rhubarbs" (low level sweeps) to attack enemy shipping off the Dutch coast and ground targets such as troop transports and military railway freight. On 26 November 1942, during a mission over the Netherlands he shot down a Messerschmitt Bf 109 near Elburg and minutes later a Junkers Ju 52 transport aircraft near Oldebroek. These were stated in his obituary to be the squadron's first successes and the first of hundreds to fall to Mustangs during the war.