POW 3267

Stalag Luft III

POW 3267 is a book about an Irish farmer’s boy from Leitrim, near Dromara, County Down. William Alexander McIlroy, who enlisted at the age of 17 with the RAF.  It describes Mac’s training, operations and being shot down over France on his 28th mission whilst flying as a Pilot Officer in the position of rear gunner in 408 Squadron in a Halifax II Bomber, followed by his time as a POW in hospital in Reims for nine months, then in  the famous Stalag Luft 3 prison camp and lastly at Luckenwald, south of Berlin.

Aircraft JB-909 EQ-G was attacked by two night fighter planes ME110's and shot down by a German Luftwaffe Ace Pilot Hans Karl Kamp.

The story finishes with his escape from Luckenwald,   repatriation to Oxford and then flying as aircrew with the VIP Squadron based in Vienna –VIPs including Viscount Montgomery and Margot Fonteyn – during the aftermath of the war.

POW 3267 pays special tribute to the bravery of Australian pilot, Pilot Officer Ian Cumming MacKenzie who sacrificed his life just three months before his 21st Birthday by staying in the plane to avoid it crashing into the town of La Neuvillette, France.

ISBN 978-0-9559716-0-0