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Ralph planned and led the largest and most successful escape of World War II. For helping all 105 POWs escape from the Nazi work camp, he was awarded the British Empire Medal. By November 1944, Churches was back in Australia and reunited with wife Ronte, after four years apart.
Ralph Churches, an Australian, was responsible for a very successful escape from a German P.O.W. camp in Austria. With the help of his camp buddy, and making contact with the...
Mar 15, 2018 · It was the greatest escape of World War II, led by an Australian - and you’ve most likely never heard of it or of its planner, Ralph Churches, known as The Crow.
Mar 4, 2015 · Ralph Churches helped more than 100 people escape from a Nazi camp. They called him the Crow because he dreamt of flight. Ralph Churches was a 27-year-old bank teller when he found himself leading one of the biggest and most successful escapes from a Nazi German prison camp in World War II.
Ralph Churches BEM (22 November 1917 – 18 October 2014) was an Australian army private who planned and carried out the biggest and most successful POW escape of World War II. One of eight children, Ralph was a 22-year-old bank teller when he enlisted in the Second Australian Imperial Force's 2/48th Battalion on 14 June 1940.
Ralph Churches, who has died aged 96, organised a mass escape from wartime imprisonment in 1944; he then led more than 100 men on an epic trek through mountainous terrain. The young private from a Murray Mallee farming family was awarded the British Empire Medal and promoted to sergeant.
Aug 28, 2001 · Description. Interview with SX5286 Sergeant Ralph Frederick Churches (AKA 'The Crow'), 2/48 Battalion, conducted by Alison Viney Houghton for her "The Age of Innocence 1937–1947" oral history project.
