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World War Two prisoners of war were often half starved having to live on as little as 1,100 calories a day and were lucky to get some horse meat to eat with their bread. In the periods where the rations given to the prisoners were exceptionally low, they would all share their food with each other regardless of how hungry they were. You might then be forgiven for thinking that after the war such prisoners would welcome a return to the land of capitalism where men can eat as much as they want and not have to share with anyone. However, that is not what happened with William Ash an American World War Two Spitfire Pilot and the man who became the inspiration for the Steve McQueen character in The Great Escape nicknamed the Cooler King.
William Ash grew up in Texas during the Depression, the son of a travelling salesman who, through no fault of his own, never seemed to hang on to a job. Money was always tight, sometimes non-existent. He was forced to work almost as soon as he could walk. He paid his own way through university only to find it impossible to get a foot on the rung of a proper career. In the end, Hitler chose his future for him. Unlike most of his fellow Texans he had followed events in Europe closely, and was determined to join the fight against Fascism as soon as he could. Long before the United States entered the war he headed north to join the Royal Canadian Air Force, renouncing his American citizenship in the process. He was posted to Britain and was flying Spitfires with 411 Squadron when his career came to an abrupt end, shot down by a swarm of Focke-Wulf 190 fighters when returning from a raid on the town of Comines, which lay on the Franco-Belgian border.
