Clarke Wallace Floody
O.B.E and the Great Escape
Clarke Wallace Floody was born on April, 28th, 1918 in Chatham, Ontario. The Floody family had been members of the Orange Association in Ontario since the 1830’s so it came as no surprise that the family choose to christen their son on July 12. Not only did they chose the date of the Battle of the Boyne for their son’s christening but water taken from the Boyne River was used in the service. He was given the name Clarke Wallace because of the great respect that his father had for Nathaniel Clarke Wallace, a former Grand Master of the Grand Orange Lodge of Canada.
His great grandfather was nicknamed “Two Tune” Floody and lived in Enniskillen, Ontario. He led the Darlington Township loyalists into Toronto in 1837 to defend the city from William Lyon Mackenzie’s rebel supporters. When asked by Mayor George Gurnett why he was called “Two Tune”, he replied that “the only two tunes worth playing were the Protestant Boys and Croppies Lie Down”.
His grandfather was also a Durham West Orangeman and was chief organizer for the Conservative Party in Peel County and he said in 1930 that “Peel is a great place, as full of Orangemen as an egg is full of meat. Wherever I went, it was Orange grips, Orange passwords, and then the freedom of the County”. He signed the petition to secure Orange Incorporation in 1890 and served as the Grand Directory of Ceremonies of the Grand Orange Lodge of Canada and held membership in Imperial L.O.L.2767.
In 1936 Wally Floody moved to Northern Ontario where he worked at the Preston East Dome Mines in Timmins as a mucker, shoveling rock and mud into carts to be hauled up to the surface. He was working in Alberta when World War Two broke out and decided to return to Toronto to enlist in the R.C.A.F. With no money he financed his trip to Toronto by shoveling coal into the locomotive boiler for the whole way back from Alberta.
In 1941 he called the enlistment office to find out why he hadn’t been called up and found out that because he was married his application had been put on the back burner. He convinced the recruiting office that his wife was supportive of his goal to become a pilot and that same night he was on his way to Brandon, Manitoba for flight training. He was soon sent to England where he was a spitfire pilot with No.401 Squadron R.C.A.F. On October 27th, 1941 his Spitfire was shot down by a squad of Messerschmitts over St.Omer, France. He bailed out and on landing he was taken into custody by the German military police. He was sent to Stalag Luft I where he was involved in two tunneling escape attempts and as punishment was sent to Stalag Luft III, near Zagen, Poland.
After Floody’s arrival at the camp the great escape plan of World War Two was hatched. Floody, because of his mining experience became the”Tunnel King” and he drew up plans for three tunnels Tom, Dick and Harry. “Tom” was discovered by the Germans in November of 1943 and “Dick” was abandoned because its exit had been cleared of trees by the Germans to make space for camp expansion, however the empty tunnel became a useful place to hide the sand and dirt taken from “Harry”.
The Germans, ever suspicious of Floody because of his mining experience transferred him and nineteen fellow prisoners of war shortly before the escape attempt to a camp at Belaria, in all probability saving their lives. It was a bitter pill for Floody to swallow and he never got over the feeling that he should have joined his fellow conspirators in the escape attempt. The escape was set for the evening of March 24th, 1944 and it was planned that 200 prisoners would escape. However when they broke through to the surface they realized that they had miscalculated and that they were 28 metres short of the woods.
The men escaped one at a time and seventy-six of them made the woods before German guards spotted them. Hitler was furious and personally gave the order to shoot 50 of the escapees. Between March 20th and April 14th, 1944 the Gestapo toke 50 of the men in small groups and murdered them. Following the war Wally Floody gave testimony at the Nuremberg War Tribunals on the conditions in German P.O.W. camps and on September the 26th, 1946 Wally Floody learned he had been awarded the Order of the British Empire by King George VI;
“Flight Lieutenant (F/L) Floody made a thorough study of tunneling work and devised many different methods and techniques. He became one of the leading organizers and indefatigable workers in the tunnels themselves. Besides being arduous, his work was frequently dangerous….F/L Floody was buried under heavy falls of sand ….but, despite all dangers and difficulties, F/L Floody persisted, showing a marked degree of courage and devotion to duty”.
Wally Floody was a member of Imperial L.O.L.2767 a Toronto Orange lodge in which many of the Floody family belonged to including his father who was a past master of the lodge. In 1963 Floody spent almost twelve months in Europe as Technical Advisor for the filming of the movie “The Great Escape”, which was based on the events at Stalag Luft III. Wally Floody passed away on September 25th, 1989.
Article Submitted Sept 1st, 2009 by Rt. Wor. Bro. Alex Rough Past County Master and Past Grand Master of Ontario West
Recommended Reading: The Tunnel King by Barbara Hehner, Harper Collins, 2004
Interview with Wally Floody at CBC Archives:http://archives.cbc.ca/war_conflict/second_world_war/clips/16646/
His great grandfather was nicknamed “Two Tune” Floody and lived in Enniskillen, Ontario. He led the Darlington Township loyalists into Toronto in 1837 to defend the city from William Lyon Mackenzie’s rebel supporters. When asked by Mayor George Gurnett why he was called “Two Tune”, he replied that “the only two tunes worth playing were the Protestant Boys and Croppies Lie Down”.
His grandfather was also a Durham West Orangeman and was chief organizer for the Conservative Party in Peel County and he said in 1930 that “Peel is a great place, as full of Orangemen as an egg is full of meat. Wherever I went, it was Orange grips, Orange passwords, and then the freedom of the County”. He signed the petition to secure Orange Incorporation in 1890 and served as the Grand Directory of Ceremonies of the Grand Orange Lodge of Canada and held membership in Imperial L.O.L.2767.
In 1936 Wally Floody moved to Northern Ontario where he worked at the Preston East Dome Mines in Timmins as a mucker, shoveling rock and mud into carts to be hauled up to the surface. He was working in Alberta when World War Two broke out and decided to return to Toronto to enlist in the R.C.A.F. With no money he financed his trip to Toronto by shoveling coal into the locomotive boiler for the whole way back from Alberta.
In 1941 he called the enlistment office to find out why he hadn’t been called up and found out that because he was married his application had been put on the back burner. He convinced the recruiting office that his wife was supportive of his goal to become a pilot and that same night he was on his way to Brandon, Manitoba for flight training. He was soon sent to England where he was a spitfire pilot with No.401 Squadron R.C.A.F. On October 27th, 1941 his Spitfire was shot down by a squad of Messerschmitts over St.Omer, France. He bailed out and on landing he was taken into custody by the German military police. He was sent to Stalag Luft I where he was involved in two tunneling escape attempts and as punishment was sent to Stalag Luft III, near Zagen, Poland.
After Floody’s arrival at the camp the great escape plan of World War Two was hatched. Floody, because of his mining experience became the”Tunnel King” and he drew up plans for three tunnels Tom, Dick and Harry. “Tom” was discovered by the Germans in November of 1943 and “Dick” was abandoned because its exit had been cleared of trees by the Germans to make space for camp expansion, however the empty tunnel became a useful place to hide the sand and dirt taken from “Harry”.
The Germans, ever suspicious of Floody because of his mining experience transferred him and nineteen fellow prisoners of war shortly before the escape attempt to a camp at Belaria, in all probability saving their lives. It was a bitter pill for Floody to swallow and he never got over the feeling that he should have joined his fellow conspirators in the escape attempt. The escape was set for the evening of March 24th, 1944 and it was planned that 200 prisoners would escape. However when they broke through to the surface they realized that they had miscalculated and that they were 28 metres short of the woods.
The men escaped one at a time and seventy-six of them made the woods before German guards spotted them. Hitler was furious and personally gave the order to shoot 50 of the escapees. Between March 20th and April 14th, 1944 the Gestapo toke 50 of the men in small groups and murdered them. Following the war Wally Floody gave testimony at the Nuremberg War Tribunals on the conditions in German P.O.W. camps and on September the 26th, 1946 Wally Floody learned he had been awarded the Order of the British Empire by King George VI;
“Flight Lieutenant (F/L) Floody made a thorough study of tunneling work and devised many different methods and techniques. He became one of the leading organizers and indefatigable workers in the tunnels themselves. Besides being arduous, his work was frequently dangerous….F/L Floody was buried under heavy falls of sand ….but, despite all dangers and difficulties, F/L Floody persisted, showing a marked degree of courage and devotion to duty”.
Wally Floody was a member of Imperial L.O.L.2767 a Toronto Orange lodge in which many of the Floody family belonged to including his father who was a past master of the lodge. In 1963 Floody spent almost twelve months in Europe as Technical Advisor for the filming of the movie “The Great Escape”, which was based on the events at Stalag Luft III. Wally Floody passed away on September 25th, 1989.
Article Submitted Sept 1st, 2009 by Rt. Wor. Bro. Alex Rough Past County Master and Past Grand Master of Ontario West
Recommended Reading: The Tunnel King by Barbara Hehner, Harper Collins, 2004
Interview with Wally Floody at CBC Archives:http://archives.cbc.ca/war_conflict/second_world_war/clips/16646/