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Aug 29, 2015 · But even among this exalted company William Ash - the model for the character played by Steve McQueen in The Great Escape - stands out, writes the author of a new biography, Patrick Bishop.
American-born Bill Ash flew with the Royal Canadian Air Force and earned the nickname “Cooler King” for his many attempts to escape prison camps. Before long, the frustrated young man joined thousands of others hitchhiking on the roads and riding railroad boxcars from town to town in search of work.
The character Hilts, nicknamed "The Cooler King" because of the time he spends in the prison camp's punishment block (which the prisoners call "the cooler") for his persistent escape attempts, steals a motorbike and tries to escape to Switzerland but is caught while using it to jump barbed-wire barricades. The BBC report noted that "Ash ...
May 5, 2016 · The Cooler King tells the astonishing story of William Ash, an American flier brought up in Depression-hit Texas, who after being shot down in his Spitfire over France in early 1942 spent the rest of the war defying the Nazis by striving to escape from every prisoner of war camp in which he was incarcerated.
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- Patrick Bishop
Mar 15, 2016 · The Cooler King: The True Story of William Ash, the Greatest Escaper of World War II. Hardcover – March 15, 2016. When American fighter pilot William Ash’s plane was shot down over France in 1942, he was captured by German forces and placed in a Nazi prison camp.
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- Patrick Bishop
The fascination with prisoners of war and escape stories is almost matched by curiosity over the identity of the “Cooler King”, the US airman played by Steve McQueen in The Great Escape. The movie’s climax, the motorcycle chase in which Captain Virgil Hilts tries to outrun German troops, is entertaining but many former prisoners loathed it.
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William Ash, real life Great Escaper and Cooler King. London Tonight clip shows Bill at the launch of Under the Wire, his book written with Brendan Foley, at...
