A Scottish vicar who fought the Nazis has been revealed as the inspiration behind The Great Escape.

Rev Murdo Ewen Macdonald, who joined the Army as a chaplain and became a paratrooper, was wounded and captured in North Africa.

After making his own escape bid by climbing through a loo window en route to a POW camp, he was sent to Stalag Luft III in 1942.

Now an academic says his “fiery” sermons in the camp motivated the breakout – even though his role in The Great Escape may not appear in the 1963 movie with Steve McQueen. Dr Linda Parker said: “As chaplain he’d have been able to speak to the troops in confidence, to motivate them with the story of his escape attempt.

“It was his view troops had a Christian duty to try and escape if captured. His actions would have spread across the Army, inspiring others. It showed if a humble padre could escape, so could they.”

Steve McQueen starring in the Hollywood depiction of the 1944 breakout (
Image:
Getty)

Nicknamed “Padre Mac”, the former boxing champion served as a chaplain with the Queen’s Own Cameron Highlanders in Aruba, and with the 1st Parachute Brigade.

After being captured he spent two and a half years in prison, mostly in the infamous Stalag Luft III, in Zagan, Poland. Years later he said: “To be a good minister one has to be tougher than a commando and a paratrooper. I know because I’ve been both.”

He supervised and helped the men who dug tunnels out of the camp. Some 76 men escaped on March 25, 1944. All but three were caught and 50 were executed.

Rev Murdo Ewen Macdonald did not feature in the 1963 film
Author Dr Linda Parker has revealed the reverend's role in the escape (
Image:
SWNS)

He said: “More than 100 of us wanted to escape. Just before I was due to go the Americans asked me to become their chaplain. My place was taken by a Dane. He was one of the 50 executed. I knew all those men. My best friend was among them. It was the saddest day of my life.

“It was cleverly conceived and lethally executed but The Great Escape was a massive disaster. Those 50 men spent a year engineering their own demise.”

He was awarded the American Bronze Star. After going back to church work he became a theology professor at Glasgow University. He died in 2004, aged 89.

The last survivor of the real-life breakout died aged 99 last year.

Airman Richard Churchill was one of 76 men who escaped Nazi prisoner of war camp, Stalag Luft III, by digging and crawling through tiny tunnels in 1944

Richard, from Devon, was recaptured three days after his escape.

He had been hiding in a barn, where a farmer discovered him and a comrade and handed them over to German forces.