{{other people||Hall (surname)}} {{Use dmy dates|date=May 2017}} {{Use British English|date=May 2017}} {{Infobox military person | image = Charles Piers Egerton Hall.jpg | image_size = 200 | caption = Charles Piers Hall | birth_date = {{Birth date|1918|7|25|df=yes}} | death_date = {{Death date and age|1944|3|31|1918|7|25|df=yes}} | burial_label = | burial_place = Poznan, old garrison cemetery, Poland | birth_place = Kings Norton, England | death_place = Liegnitz | burial_coordinates = <!-- {{Coord|52°25'03.7"N16°55'58.8"E|display=inline,title}} --> | nickname = Chaz | birth_name = Charles Piers Hall | allegiance = {{flag|United Kingdom}} | branch = {{air force|United Kingdom}} | service_years = 1941–1944 | rank = Flight Lieutenant | service_number = 50896 | unit = 1st Photographic Reconnaissance Unit | commands = | battles = World War II *Channel Front (POW) | battles_label = | awards = Mentioned in Despatches | relations = }} '''Charles Piers Hall'''<ref name='body'>[http://www.trasksdad.com/PopsProgress/The50.htm The Porter Family History] The Fifty</ref> (25 July 1918<ref name='b24'>[http://www.b24.net/pow/greatescape.htm Details of the "Great Escape"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090524005415/http://www.b24.net/pow/greatescape.htm |date=24 May 2009 }} compiled by USAF 392nd Bomber Group Association</ref> &ndash; 31 March 1944) was a British pilot who was taken prisoner during the Second World War. He was part of the 'Great Escape' from Stalag Luft III in March 1944, but was captured and subsequently shot by the Gestapo.

==War service== Hall was born in Kings Norton near Birmingham; He enlisted in the Royal Air Force pre-war as a regular service airman with the service number 550173 on 11 February 1935. He trained to be a photographer in Halton.<ref name='AGCompany'>{{cite book | last = Vance| first = Jonathan F| title = A Gallant Company: The Men of the Great Escape | publisher = Pacifica Military History; illustrated edition (Mar 2001) | year = 2000| location = California | pages = 54 | isbn = 978-0-935-55347-5}}</ref> He was stationed as a photographer at Station Calshot on 18 February 1936, then served as a photographer on HMS Argus from 10 September 1938 and at NAS Eastleigh from 9 June 1939. Hall started his pilot training at 4 ITW at RAF Paignton at 19 August 1940, followed by flight training at No. 9 SFTS at RAF Hullavington from 4 December 1940. Hall was a leading aircraftman at the time he was commissioned as pilot officer on 17 April 1941<ref>{{London Gazette |issue=35158 |date=9 May 1941 |pages=2674–2675 }}</ref> for the duration of hostilities. During World War II he served as a flight lieutenant in the Royal Air Force Volunteer Reserve. On 19 November 1941 he became a pilot for the 1st Photographic Reconnaissance Unit (PRU) flying out of RAF Benson South Oxfordshire,<ref name='SpitfireAA804'>[http://www.rafcommands.com/forum/showthread.php?8029-Spitfire-AA804-why-FTR Spitfire AA804 - why FTR] RafCommands Forums</ref> England. He flew his first operational photographic reconnaissance mission on 16 December 1941 in Spitfire PR.IV AB120, photographing over IJmuiden, Amsterdam, Zwolle and Hilversum. Hall flew his second operational photographic reconnaissance mission one day later, on 17 December 1941, again in Spitfire PR.IV AB120. His mission was to photograph targets in the area of Kiel, Brunsbüttel and the Frisian Islands. Due to a solid cloud layer at low altitude he was unable to take photographs and when he observed two enemy aircraft approaching from the southeast he started his return home.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Spitfire PR.IV AA804 - Remembering P/O Charles P. Hall | website=Facebook |url=https://www.facebook.com/search/top?q=spitfire%20pr.iv%20aa804%20-%20remembering%20p%2Fo%20charles%20p.%20hall }}</ref>

==Prisoner of war== Hall was flying 1 PRU Spitfire PR.IV AA804<ref name='Spitfire2'>[http://aviation-safety.net/wikibase/wiki.php?id=53031 AA804] ASN Aviation Safety</ref> on 28 December 1941<ref name='AGCompany'/> when the aircraft came down over Bergen op Zoom, the Netherlands. He had been on a high-level reconnaissance mission to Düsseldorf and Essen to photograph bombed factories when he was either shot down or suffered engine failure (accounts vary).<ref name='SpitfireAA804'/> It was the aircraft's first operational flight<ref name='SpitfireAA804'/> and Hall's third operational flight.<ref name='AGCompany'/><ref name='SpitfireAA804'/> He became a prisoner of war and was sent to Oflag IX-AH Spangenberg Castle, followed by Stalag Luft III<ref name='AGCompany'/> in Germany in the province of Lower Silesia near the town of Sagan (now Żagań in Poland). Hall was promoted flying officer on 17 April 1942.<ref>{{London Gazette | issue = 35628 | date = 10 July 1942 | pages = 3047–3048 }}</ref> and flight lieutenant on 17 April 1943.<ref>{{London Gazette | issue = 36051 | date = 8 June 1943 | pages = 2680–2681 | supp = y }}</ref>

=='Great Escape'== :''See Stalag Luft III murders''

He was one of the 76 men who escaped the prison camp on the night of 24–25 March 1944, in the escape now famous as "the Great Escape".<ref name='AGCompany'/> He was recaptured near Sagan.<ref name='b24'/> He was one of the 50 executed and murdered by the ''Gestapo''<ref name='b24'/> on the personal orders of Adolf Hitler on 31 March 1944. Before his execution he had written on his cell wall ''"We who are about to die salute you"''.<ref name='AGCompany'/> He was cremated at Liegnitz, now remembered at the Poznan Old Garrison Cemetery.<ref name='b24'/> thumb|Memorial to "The Fifty" down the road toward Żagań (Hall is top right)

==Awards== His conspicuous bravery was recognized by a mention in Despatches as none of the other relevant decorations then available could be awarded posthumously.<ref>{{London Gazette |issue=36544 | supp=y |date=2 June 1944 |pages=2619–2620 }}</ref>

== References == ;Notes {{Reflist}}

;Bibliography * {{cite book|author1=William Ash|author-link=William Ash (pilot)|author2=Brendan Foley|title=Under the Wire: The Wartime Memoir of a Spitfire Pilot, Legendary Escape Artist and 'cooler King'|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=quefAAAAMAAJ|year=2005|publisher=Bantam|isbn=978-0-593-05408-6}} * {{cite book|author=Paul Brickhill|author-link=Paul Brickhill|title=The Great Escape|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=KEWdJvOdZ2wC|year=2004|publisher=W.W. Norton & Company|isbn=978-0-393-32579-9}} * {{cite book|author=Alan Burgess|author-link=Alan Burgess|title=The Longest Tunnel: The True Story of World War II's Great Escape|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=sy3t5zLmXrYC|year=1990|publisher=Naval Institute Press|isbn=978-1-59114-097-9}} * {{cite book|author=Albert P. Clark|author-link=Albert P. Clark|title=33 Months as a POW in Stalag Luft III: A World War II Airman Tells His Story|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=5f2fAAAAMAAJ|year=2005|publisher=Fulcrum Pub.|isbn=978-1-55591-536-0}} * [https://web.archive.org/web/20061013014114/http://www.wartimememories.co.uk/pow/stalagluft3.html Memories of an Australian prisoner of Stalag Luft III - Sergeant Alf Miners; the Wartime Memories Project] * {{cite book|author=Arthur A. Durand|title=Stalag Luft III: The Secret Story|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=aQdSPgAACAAJ|date=1 January 1989|publisher=Patrick Stephens Limited|isbn=978-1-85260-248-2}} * {{cite book | last=Calnan | first=Thomas Daniel | title=Free As a Running Fox | publisher=Pan | date=1970 | isbn=978-0-330-23554-9}} * {{cite book | last=Vance | first=Jonathan Franklin William | title=A Gallant Company, The true story of 'The Great Escape' | publisher=Pacifica Military History | date=2000 | isbn=978-0-935553-47-5}} * {{cite book | last=Grehan | first=Howard | title=Stalag Luft III: An Official History of the 'Great Escape' PoW Camp | publisher=Casemate Publishers | date=2017-01-30 | isbn=978-1-4738-8307-9}}

==External links== * [https://web.archive.org/web/20130303171346/http://www.mmpubs.com/catalog/lessons-from-history-c-4.html ''Project Lessons from the Great Escape (Stalag Luft III),''] by Mark Kozak-Holland. The prisoners formally structured their work as a project. This [https://web.archive.org/web/20150925130225/http://lessons-from-history.com/node/33 ''book''] analyses their efforts using modern project management methods.

{{DEFAULTSORT:Hall, Charles Piers Egerton}} Category:Royal Air Force officers Category:Royal Air Force Volunteer Reserve personnel of World War II Category:Royal Air Force pilots of World War II Category:World War II prisoners of war held by Germany Category:1918 births Category:1944 deaths Category:Royal Air Force personnel killed in World War II Category:Participants in the Great Escape from Stalag Luft III Category:British escapees Category:Extrajudicial killings in World War II Category:British World War II prisoners of war Category:British World War II fighter pilots Category:People from Kings Norton Category:Military personnel from Birmingham, West Midlands