Charles Piers Egerton Hall

Charles Piers Egerton Hall, nicknamed Chaz Hall (25 July 1918 – 30 March 1944) was a British pilot who was taken prisoner during the Second World War. He was part of the 'Great Escape' from Stalag Luft III in March 1944, but was captured and subsequently shot by the Gestapo.

War service
Hall was born in Kings Norton; before the war he had been a photographer in Halton. During World War II he served as a Flight Lieutenant in the Royal Air Force Volunteer Reserve, including serving for a time on HMS Ark Royal. He later became a pilot for the 1st Photographic Reconnaissance Unit (PRU) flying out of RAF Benson South Oxfordshire,  England.

Prisoner of war
Hall was flying a 1 PRU Spitfire PR Mk.IV (AA804) on On 28 Dec 41 when the aircraft came down over Bergen op Zoom, the Netherlands. He had been on high level reconnaissance mission to Düsseldorf when he was either shot down or suffered engine failure (Accounts Vary). It was the aircraft's first operational flight and Hall's third operational flight. He became a prisoner of war and was sent to Stalag Luft III in Germany in the Province of Lower Silesia near the town of Sagan (now Żagań in Poland).

'Great Escape'
He was one of the 76 men who escaped the prison camp on the night of 24–25 March 1944, in the escape now famous as "The Great Escape". He was recaptured near Sagan. He became one of the 50 executed and murdered by the Gestapo  on the personal orders of Adolf Hitler on 30 March 1944 and then cremated at Liegnitz now part of the Poznan Old Garrison Cemetery. Before his execution he had written on his cell wall "We who are about to die salute you".