The collection of a wartime flyer who was shot down and played a crucial role in the Great Escape before walking back home across Europe is up for sale.
Sergeant Horace Jack Casselden, known as Jack, was downed on his 27th operation - a raid on an oil refinery near Duisburg in July 1940.
He leapt from his Wellington, using a parachute for the first time at a height of 1,700 feet, before he was captured while hiding in a forest.
He was tended to by a German doctor who had trained in Perth, Scotland, and, remarkably, knew the same barmaid.
Jack was moved to various prisoner of war camps, spending time in Stalag Luft III where he helped hide the tunnel dirt during the legendary Great Escape.
His friend Thomas Kirby-Green was one of the escapees who was captured by the Gestapo and later executed.
Towards the end of the Second World War, he was marched for 10 days with other prisoners, but with the help of a German soldier, managed to flee.
Jack continued to move west before he finally came across British troops, enabling him to make the long walk back to Newmarket.
He was reunited with his wife of just several weeks, Ena, who greeted him with the words: "Did you have a good trip dear?"
He replied: "It did take a little longer than I expected."
After the war, Jack settled in Littleport just outside Ely where he ran a photography shop and had one daughter.
His archive includes a photo album containing images of German propaganda and RAF bomber crews, likely 99 squadron, that he took himself.
There are also photographs of the funeral of Sergeant John Shaw who was shot dead despite surrendering after he was caught trying to escape from a prisoner of war camp.
Other items include his leather flying helmet, silk flying gloves, epaulettes and wings, as well as a navigational log of his last-but-one sortie to “Gelsenkirchen” Ruhr.
His two ‘Douglas’ combined protractors and parallel rule in their original cardboard slips are also set to go under the hammer at Rowleys, in Ely, on October 11.
Auctioneer Roddy Lloyd said: “This remarkable man, like so many war heroes, was very humble and even refused to take his military pension.
"He was a modest hero, and the family has parted with some of his most personal items which will attract collectors.
"There are no WWII flyers left now and collections such as this tell astonishing stories about the men who helped save Britain from the Nazis."
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