By Elliott West
“People had no idea this bumbling man had this incredible war story”.
Tyler Butterworth
Introduction
Peter Butterworth is best remembered for his appearances in 17 of the 31 Carry On films, a radio, television and film career that spanned from 1948-1979. Yet his multitude of parts as a highly entertaining, jittery and funny, loveable bafoon, shroud his heroic story during World War II. A prisoner of war in Stalag Luft III, Lieutenant Peter William Shorrocks Butterworth, was part of the mastermind plan to escape the camp on March 24, 1944. This story of bravery was recently revealed when researchers unearthed it in the National Archives, collecting information to commemorate the 80th anniversary of The Great Escape made famous by the 1963 film starring Richard Attenborough and Steve McQueen.
The Great Escape
Built with razor-sharp barbed wire, drafty wooden huts and run by a Nazi regime that ruled with an iron fist, concentration camps such as this one in Poland, were meant to be inescapable. Watched with piercing lights, barking German Shepherd dogs and ever-alert soldiers, few would have ever dared to breathe freedom. Yet there are always a brave few who are prepared to tackle adversity and Peter was one of this stellar band of soldiers.
Peter Butterworth served in the Royal Navy Fleet Air Arm but his plane was shot down in 1940. Captured by the Germans and sent to a Prisoner of War camp near Frankfurt, Peter and 17 other prisoners escaped by digging a tunnel using soup spoons. They managed to stay free for three days but were then recaptured and sent to Stalag Luft III in Poland. Here Butterworth became involved with the theatrical society as a set designer. Unknown to the Germans, Butterworth was using this privilege as a means to an end. Peter and another officer, Talbot ‘Tolly’ Rothwell persuaded the camp command to let them build a theatre on the grounds. Unknown to the Germans, a team including Butterworth were digging a tunnel and storing the dug earth under the stage.
The escape team came up with an ingenious plan, based on the Trojan Horse where they a gymnastic wooden vaulting horse with a team of vaulters. This horse acted as a decoy to conceal a tunnel entrance. A film version was later made in 1949 and ironically Butterworth was turned down for a part. Although he was highly involved in this brilliant escape, Peter didn’t leave the camp when the time came as the last man. All but three of the escapees were recaptured and 50 were executed on Hitler’s orders.
The Vital Link
Peter was not only a master forger, providing the vital documents needed to cross Nazi-occupied Europe but was also brilliant at code letter writing. Using the allowed form of letter writing to loved ones, Butterworth managed to fox the German scrutiny and conceal intelligence in some of them, using a secret sign that the contents were for M19. These codes provided vital locations of ammunition dumps etc. So complicated were these codes that they were unravelled for 70 years until a team from Plymouth University managed to figure them out.
An Unsung Hero
Peter Butterworth would go on to grace our screens for over thirty years. Married to the impressionist Janet Brown, Butterworth sadly died in 1979, aged 63 after completing the film, The First Great Train Robbery. Whilst appearing as Widow Twankey in the pantomime Alladin, he returned to his hotel after the evening performance but failed to show up for the matinee the next day. He was found deceased in his hotel room after suffering a heart attack.
