World War 2 prisoner who inspired The Great Escape film dies aged 101

One of the last survivors of a Famous World War Two prison break immortalised in a Hollywood blockbuster has died in a Perth hospital.

This undated photo provided by Gordon Royle shows a photograph of his father Paul Royle in uniform during World War ll. (AP) Source: Gordon Royle

Airman Paul Royle was one of seventy-six inmates who tunnelled their way out of a high-security German POW camp.

Their daring feat was celebrated on the big screen in the film "The Great Escape"

A rugged Steve McQueen riding to freedom might be one of the most iconic movie images in cinematic history, but it wasn't quite the memory Paul Royle had of the 1944 breakout from the Stalag Luft prison camp.

"The movie I disliked intensely because there were no motorbikes," he told the ABC in an interview last year to mark the 70^th anniversary of the Great Escape.

One of only two remaining survivors, he died after surgery in a Perth hospital earlier this week.

In last year's interview, Paul Royle spoke about the myths and facts surrounding the extraordinary tunnelling effort, including the surreptitious disposal of the soil extracted from the digging. 

"You tipped the soil in and it didn't go into the leg, it went into the trouser," he said. "You had to be very careful because the soil from the tunnel was a different colour to the soil on the surface."

His death at a hundred and one coincides with the release of a book by Sydney author Louise Williams on the Great Escape.

"For the 23 that were spared execution, nearly all of them lived to an extremely old age," she said. "There is something about these guys, they were seriously determined and amazing young men and it is shown in their longevity."

Her uncle, fighter pilot John Williams, wasn't one of the lucky ones making the escape from Stalag Luft, but he was killed by the Germans after his recapture.

"They would have loved to have had motorbikes because they were pretty much all walking and they were wet and cold and had frostbite and slept in holes."

The book tells the story of how John Williams used carpentry skills honed making surfboards on Manly Beach to help design the hundred metre tunnel.

So what would her uncle and survivors like Paul Royle have made of their exploits being celebrated in a Hollywood film twenty years later?

"I think they all would have had a big laugh at the characters, especially the one token Australian with a very bad accent."