A fearless war hero, whose exploits formed the basis of one of the main characters in the film The Great Escape, has died aged 81.

Marcel Zillessen, from Robin Hood's Bay, was a fighter pilot who was captured after he was shot down in North Africa in 1943 and incarcerated in Stalag Luft 111 at Sagan, the scene of the real Great Escape in 1944.

Born in England, the son of a German businessman who owned a textile mill in Bradford, Mr Zillessen had visited German and spoke perfect German.

In the camp he became a "scrounger" who won the trust of one of the guards and was able to gather the vital stationery, ink and quills needed to forge passports and other documents.

In the film his role was played by James Garner, who was shown getting out of the camp, though he was recaptured. But, in fact, Mr Zillessen was near the end of the line of 200 airmen crammed into a hut waiting to go through the escape tunnel, and never got into it.

In the end 77 escaped, but only three avoided recapture and 50 were shot.

Later Mr Zillessen made his break with four other men when the prisoners were being force-marched from the camp to evade the approaching Russian forces. They returned to the camp, reasoning it would be empty, but got caught up in the cross-fire of a battle between British troops and Nazi SS. Fortunately the British won and Mr Zillessen was able to fly himself home, though his weight had dropped from over 15 stone to less than 10 and he recuperated for the rest of the war.

Afterwards he returned to the family business, and later set up a chain of take-away restaurants in the north-east.

His son, Tim, an Army press officer currently serving in Bosnia, said his father had enjoyed parts of the film, particularly the performance of Lord Attenborough as the escape leader, though he felt Garner was "too beefy" as in reality the prisoners were weak and emaciated.

The sequence with Steve McQueen was "over the top" and never happened, but that with Charles Bronson as a claustrophobic tunneller was absolutely true.

His father, who died last Friday, leaves a widow Lyn, four sons and three grandchildren. His funeral is on Friday at 9.30am at St Stephen's Parish Church, Robin Hood's Bay.

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