Obituary: Bruce Crowley

By ARNOLD PICKMERE

DCM, escaper, farmer. Died aged 87.

Bruce Crowley, believed to have been one of the first New Zealand prisoners of war to make a "home run" from German-occupied Europe back to Britain in World War II, has died in Mandurah, near Perth.

Sergeant Crowley was sent to Egypt as a young soldier involved in motorised transport for the 2nd New Zealand Expeditionary Force.

From there he was sent to Greece to take part in the disastrous Greek campaign, running motorised convoys which were eventually forced to withdraw to southern Greece.

Crowley was captured by the Germans at Tolos beach after the evacuation of troops by the Royal Navy had stopped.

While being moved north he escaped from a truck and was sheltered in Greek villages for some months. After the Germans started executing villagers harbouring prisoners he and other escapees surrendered and were moved north to Germany and prisoner of war camps.

He escaped again with another prisoner in 1943, but they were caught by Czech railways officials and handed over to the Germans.

His third escape was from a working party at Breslau in Poland with a British Army soldier, Terry Harrison.

They travelled north by train and after many close calls were hidden by Polish workers and finally secreted aboard a ship bound for Stockholm in neutral Sweden. They avoided discovery by being buried in the ship's coal.

Once in Sweden they were taken to the British Consul and eventually flown to Scotland in the bomb bay of a Mosquito aircraft.

Both Crowley and Harrison were awarded the Distinguished Conduct Medal for their escape efforts

Crowley was born in Auckland. He left school early to help his family during the Depression and was apprenticed as a butcher with R & W Hellaby.

On his return to New Zealand after the war, he went farming at Okaihau in Northland until the mid-1970s.

After a move to Australia he ran mining camps before retiring south of Perth. Late in life he became a convert to Buddhism.