One of the few war heroes to have survived the real-life Great Escape, made famous in a Steve McQueen movie, has died aged 86.

Desmond Plunkett, one of the defiant prisoners of war immortalised in the Hollywood film, died on February 14, the Royal Air Forces Association said last night.

Mr Plunkett, who lived in Storrington, was among 76 men who escaped through a 360ft tunnel from the Stalag Luft III camp on March 23, 1944.

He was one of 73 to be recaptured and was held in solitary confinement for seven months. He avoided the fate of 50 of the escapees, who were executed by the Gestapo.

Donald Pleasence based his master-forger character in the 1963 film on several of the escapees, including Mr Plunkett, who was the escape committee's map-maker.

But Mr Plunkett was one of the film's most vociferous critics.

Last year he told The Argus: "The Great Escape was full of lies. Perhaps ten per cent was true, the rest was rubbish. It hurt me because I saw 50 people die but the world was shown lies.

"I wanted to kill myself but I just couldn't do it. It was the hardest trial of my life. My three children and God helped me."

Mr Plunkett was born in India in 1915. After the family returned to England, he went to King's College, Wimbledon, south-west London.

He joined the Hawker aircraft company in Kingston, Surrey, learned to fly in Redhill and qualified as a flying instructor with the RAF Volunteer Reserve.

He was posted to 218 Squadron at RAF Marham in Norfolk after becoming a bomber pilot in 1941, just days before his wedding.

Eight days into his operational flying in 1942, he was shot down over the occupied Netherlands. He bailed out but was arrested and taken to Stalag Luft III, where fellow prisoners included legendary pilot Sir Douglas Bader.

Mr Plunkett got involved with the escape committee and led the 14-strong team of map-makers, gathering 2,500 maps and helping in the production of forged passes, permits and other documents.

He was the 13th man to enter the tunnel and crawled to freedom before the Germans discovered it. Mr Plunkett and a Czech airman boarded a train to Czechoslovakia but were arrested on the Austrian border.

He was held in the Gestapo headquarters in Prague where he was kept in solitary confinement, regularly beaten and fed boiled blood. He was eventually moved to Stalag Luft I in 1945.

VE-Day meant he was repatriated. He stayed in the RAF for two years, when he was stationed in India. After leaving the RAF he became an aircraft sales manager in India before moving to Africa.

He returned to England in the late Nineties and went to live at the Royal Air Forces Association home at Storrington where he co-wrote a book about his experiences, The Man Who Would Not Die.

He is survived by his wife Patricia and their son and two daughters.