Written by Old Bluffer 19th Mar 2008

Kindly Written by Kooshmeister

Eric Ashley-Pitt is the member of the X Organization in charge of dispersal, and one of the 72 POWs who successfully escapes from Stalag Luft III. He ends up travelling on the same train as Roger Bartlett and Sandy MacDonald, although of course the three men do not acknowledge one another. Ashley-Pitt's fluent German and Aryan appearance prevent the Germans searching for the escapees from really paying much attention to him. Bartlett is another matter.

When the train arrives at its destination and the three men disembark, they discover that the train station is crawling with Gestapo agents. One of them, a man named Kuhn, notices Ashley-Pitt, who rather unwisely makes a big show of hiding his face from him. Luckily for Ashley-Pitt, however, Kuhn's attention is soon held by Bartlett. He recognizes him instantly, and begins walking towards him. Now, our boy Ashley-Pitt can easily escape now while Kuhn is focusing on Bartlett, but, instead, he charges at the Gestapo agent and tackles him to the ground, and uses Kuhn's own gun to shoot him and kill him.

This act draws the attention of pretty much everyone in the station. Although it successfully takes the heat off of Bartlett (for now anyway) and allows him and MacDonald to escape, Ashley-Pitt soon feels the full wrath of every German soldier in the station brought down upon him. Dropping Kuhn's gun, he flees on foot across the boarding platform, only to catch several machine-gun bullets in the back from the soldiers.

Wounded but not killed outright, Ashley-Pitt manages to run onto the tracks, but then he staggers, trips, and falls across the track. He dies where he lays.