He was born in Melbourne, Victoria and educated at North Sydney Boys High School. Brickhill worked as a journalist before World War II, and during the war was a fighter pilot in the Royal Australian Air Force. He was shot down over Tunisia in 1943, and taken prisoner of war by the Germans. Brickhill witnessed the preparation of, and the consequences of, the mass escape from Stalag Luft III (Known as the Great Escape). Brickhill was barred from participating in the actual escape due to claustrophobia although he was active in implementing the plan. He subsequently documented the escape in The Great Escape (New York: Norton, 1950).

Three books by Brickhill were made into movies:

• Reach for the Sky, based on Reach for the Sky: The Story of Douglas Bader, Legless Ace of the Battle of Britain.
• The Dam Busters, based on The Dam Busters, and Operation Chastise, the destruction of dams in the Ruhr valley by RAF No. 617 Sqn.
• The Great Escape, recounting the events of the 1944 escape from the German prisoner of war camp Stalag Luft III.

See Related

• "Brickhill, Paul Chester Jerome 1916–1991." Contemporary Authors, New Revision Series, 69: 68–69.

External links

• Brickhill on IMDB
• NY Times obituary