a Handley Page Hampden, he flew 22 combat operations before his plane was hit by flak over Berlin, and he force-landed (out of fuel) near Amsterdam on 8 Sept '41. As a POW, he made nine escape attempts, and was one of only 69 members of the RAF to be awarded the Military Cross in World War 2. Stevens was Head of Contacts (scrounging) for the "X" Organisation in East Compound of Stalag Luft 3 from 22 Apr 1943 until it was evacuated in late Jan 1945. Nicholas Alkemade, an English tail gunner in the Royal Air Force who survived a freefall of 18,000 feet (5,490 m) without a parachute. Some held at Stalag Luft III went on to notable careers in the entertainment and sports industry: British actor Peter Butterworth and English writer Talbot Rothwell were both inmates; they became friends and later worked together on the Carry On films. Butterworth was one of the vaulters covering for the escapees during the escape portrayed by the book and film The Wooden Horse. After the war and as an established actor, Butterworth auditioned but "didn't look convincingly heroic or athletic enough" according to the makers of the film. British actor Rupert Davies had many roles in productions at the theatre in the camp; his most famous roles on film and TV may have been Inspector Maigret in the BBC series Maigret that aired over 52 episodes from 1960 to 1963 and George Smiley in the movie The Spy Who Came in from the Cold. English writer and broadcaster Hugh Falkus was an inmate at Stalag Luft III from around 1943, after his Spitfire was shot down over France. Falkus reportedly worked on 13 escape tunnels during his time as a POW, although never officially listed as an escapee. American novelist and screenwriter Len Giovannitti was held in Stalag Luft III's Center Compound. A navigator with the 742nd Bomb Squadron, 455th Bomb Group of the Fifteenth Air Force, he was on his 50th mission when his Consolidated B-24 Liberator was shot down over Austria on 26 June 1944. A POW for nearly a year, he incorporated his experiences, including the winter march to Germany and liberation in Bavaria, in a novel he wrote between April 1953 and May 1957, The Prisoners of Combine D, published by Henry Holt and Company (ASIN: B0007E6KMG). Caribbean/British barrister and entertainer Cy Grant, born in British