Military Wiki
Advertisement
Thomas Daniel Calnan
Born 16 December 1915(1915-12-16) (age 108)
Allegiance Flag of the United Kingdom United Kingdom
Service/branch Ensign of the Royal Air Force Royal Air Force
Years of service 1936 – 1959
Rank Wing Commander
Battles/wars World War II

Thomas Daniel Calnan (born 16 December 1915) is an English pilot and prisoner-of-war of World War II, who wrote a memoir of his time in German captivity entitled Free As A Running Fox.

Calnan was commissioned in the RAF on 19 December 1936.[1]

Calnan was shot down while flying a Spitfire on a photo-reconnaissance mission over France in December 1941. He gives some brief background about himself and his flying career with the RAF's No. 1 Photographic Reconnaissance Unit, but devotes most of the book to his escape attempts while a prisoner of the Germans. He was incarcerated at Stalag Luft III during the period of the "Great Escape."[2]

He was promoted to the rank of Wing Commander on 1 January 1949, and retired on 14 February 1959.[1]

References[]

  1. 1.0 1.1 The Royal Air Force Retired List (1976)
  2. Calnan, T.D. (January 1970). Free As a Running Fox. Doubleday. ISBN 978-0803727496. 
All or a portion of this article consists of text from Wikipedia, and is therefore Creative Commons Licensed under GFDL.
The original article can be found at Thomas D. Calnan and the edit history here.
Advertisement