Major General W.B. 'Sandy' Thomas CB, DSO, MC and bar, ED, Silver Star (USA) fought during the Battle of Crete with the New Zealand Army, and led a heroic counter attack at Galatas, where he was seriously wounded in the thigh by an explosive tipped bullet. He was captured by the Germans, flown to Corinth and narrowly avoiding losing his leg at the hands of the German surgeons when he was transferred to a captured Australian Hospital in Athens.

While recovering in hospital he made four escape attempts – the first got him beyond the wire of the hospital compound but no further, the second saw him feign death in the hope of being carried out of the camp in a coffin, the third got him as far as the hospital gates before he was spotted under the ration wagon and the fourth saw him stride purposively past the guards at the Gestapo HQ armed only with a brush and bucket. Sandy's escape attempts marked him out to such an extent that he was closely watched day and night, and escape was virtually impossible. In the hope that a normal prison camp would offer better escape opportunities, he convinced the doctors to pass him fit, and he was soon dispatched to the infamous transit camp in Thessaloniki.

The POW transit camp was based in an old Greek Army barracks and surrounded by a forest of barbed-wire. Sandy found the conditions filthy and wretched, and soon located a weak spot in the wire - a barrack by the fence corner with a strongly barred and wired door on the roadside. Three nights running he carefully undid the fastenings, and on the fourth he made a clean break. After a night with a family in a small hamlet close to the city, he began his journey east across the difficult landscape of Halkidiki to Mount Athos, a rocky peninsula populated solely by monks. Here he evaded capture for many months, moving from monastery to monastery before finally stealing a boat and navigating his way through the dangerous winter seas to freedom in Turkey. "Dare to be Free" was written by him soon after the war, and remains in publication. It is one of the great escape narratives of the Second World War.

Sandy's exploits during the Battle of Crete and his escape from the Germans earned him his first MC. He went on to be the youngest commander of a New Zealand infantry battalion, and fought in North Africa and throughout the Italian campaign, earning his DSO. He was demobbed from the New Zealand Army at the end of the war, and transferred to the British Regular Army. Rising through the ranks, he had a series of challenging tours (including Kenya, Malaya and Yemen), commanded a brigade in BAOR and a British Division before closing his military career as the final Commander of Far East Land Forces in Singapore.

In October 2009 a joint British/Australian group (see attached team sheet) will arrive in Thessaloniki to trace the route of the Sandy's wartime escape. They will start their journey from the site of the POW camp in Thessaloniki town, and will then go on foot across the Halkidiki mountains to Mount Athos, where they will stay in each of the monasteries that helped Sandy during his escape. The group includes Sandy's grandson, Tyson, who is roughly the same age as Sandy was during his escape. This provides a wonderful family link to the expedition, and gives Tyson the opportunity to re-live his grandfather's experiences.

Sandy Thomas has greatly assisted the expedition team trace much of the route, based on his book and recollections of his escape. Although nearly seven decades have passed since he cut through the wire and set off on his great journey, he still remembers the families who helped him evade capture. The expedition will follow in Sandy's footsteps as closely as possible, seeking out relatives of those who helped during his escape and seek to establish a definitive record of the route of his escape. The expedition team will do this to celebrate the courage and daring of Sandy's escape and the Greek villagers and monks who supported him along the route.

Chris Paul, Expedition Leader