This book tells the story of a person of resilient character and extraordinary fate. It took sixty years after his tragic death before Romualdas Marcinkus, an internationally known pilot and undoubtedly one of the most impressive, enigmatic personalities in the Lithuanian sport and military aviation of the inter-war period, came to fame in his Homeland.

Romualdas Marcinkus was born on 22 July 1907 according to the old Julian calendar (4 August according to the Gregorian calendar). At the time, Lithuania was a province of the tsarist Russian Empire. His native town of Jurbarkas was a small place on the German boarder. Since the mid 19th century, Jurbarkas was under the auspices of the dukes Vasilchikovi, the family close to the Emperor's circles, whose care provided for the economic and cultural development of the town.
The to-be pilot was the son of Pranas Marcinkus, from a farmer family, and Honorata Saturnina Kroaze who came from a highly reputable town-dwellers family of French ancestry. His Father served in the police providing a decent income, and the family lived in peace and happiness. Romualdas was the eldest of their five children, two of whom passed away of a young age.
As a child, he experienced all the atrocities of the First World War, as Jurbarkas found itself in the area of hostilities. Not only did it suffer from the troops, German and Russian alike, but was also plagued by the epidemics, the thieves and the robbers.
In 1918, soon after the war was over, Lithuania announced the re-establishment of the country's independence. Cultural life in Jurbarkas gained new impetus, and the town founded its first Lithuanian gymnasium. In 1920, Romualdas Marcinkus started attending the gymnasium.
He was extraordinary gift for sports since his young age. His peers found it impossible to emulate his stamina, dexterity, discipline and self-control. He played for Jurbarkas football team and was an excellent guard. He understood the tactics of the game; having the ability to observe the entire playing field, he reacted accordingly. A born leader would inspire his team members to train seriously and play a successful game.
At 17, he left for Kaunas, interim capital, to study. After graduating from the Higher German School, he decided to pursue a military career. In 1926, he enrolled into the Military School in Kaunas. Even before that, he was on several football teams, while in 1927, he became a member of one of the strongest clubs in Lithuania, LFSL, and started playing for the Lithuanian national football team.
It was the beginning of his military and sportsman's career. He was born under a lucky start: his talents in sports soon made him into celebrity. In Kaunas at that time, football was like a second religion. Instead of going to Sunday Mass, many of the locals went to watch the games. The local press went about lionizing the achieving football players. The handsome twenty-year old, extraordinarily gifted, a center-guard of the LFSL and the national team did not take long to win the hearts of the people.
The fate cast one, but a very deep shadow across his otherwise successful adolescent years. In 1927, his Father suffered a heart attack and died a sudden death. Since then he had to assume responsibility for his Mother and the youngest sister. However, he was not the type to be crushed by misfortune. No matter how much he had to endure in his life, he remained unvanquished.
Some of Marcinkus's achievements in sports have never been emulated by Lithuanian sportsmen. Over 40 times, he played for the national team, for many years, he was the team's captain and a playing trainer. He was three times Lithuanian football champion, in 1930 and 1935, with the Lithuanian national team he won the Cup of the Baltic Countries Championship. He headed the sports section of the Lithuanian Military Aviation and was a representative of its football team. He went abroad on scholarship as a trainer. Lithuanian press ran a series of his articles on the theme of Football and Gallantry.
In 1938, a trauma interrupted his fabulous career. In Riga, where the Lithuanians played against the Latvian team, Marcinkus had his knee injured. After a prolonged period of treatment and several operations, lie had to part with football. Despite of that, the football veterans and researchers into history of football consider Romualdas Marcinkus the best Lithuanian football player of the period.
After graduating from the War School, he received a commission as an infantry lieutenant. From 1930 until 1932, he took the Vytautas Didysis Officer Course run by the Aviation Department and graduated as a military pilot to enter a very prestigious profession. Besides being the military elite, these well-educated aviation officers of polished manners belonged to the cream of society.
The Lithuanian Military Aviation was developing rapidly, firstly, through the upgrading of staff training (the best cadets went to study abroad on scholarships). The aviation manufacturing shops were producing Lithuanian reconnaissance aircraft ANBO. Most of modern equipment was purchased abroad.
The career of Romualdas Marcinkus as a military pilot started in the 2nd (Reconnaissance) Squadron. As an air reconnaissance officer, he had different competencies: besides independent piloting of the aircraft, he was well versed in navigation, mapping, photography and weapon systems. He liked flying. Usually his commanders would put a note in his evaluation form, saying 'that he performs flying drills very well.' However, even in this demanding career, he could not stay within a traditional framework. His instructor, the pioneer of parachute jumping in Lithuania, Klemas Martinkus, inspired in him a passion for parachuting. Like in every new activity, Marcinkus aspired to excel. Not only did he become a parachuting instructor, but before long the word spread out about his bold free drop style, and his stunts became a part of different public events.
In the summer of 1934, the lieutenant Marcinkus was invited to join the Representative Squadron formed by the Commander of the Lithuanian Military Aviation and the famous aircraft constructor, Antanas Gustaitis. The then Lieutenant Colonel (later promoted to Brigade General) was about to lead three serial reconnaissance ANBQ-IVs, of his own design, on a tour of a number of major European towns. It was bold endeavour that proved a huge success.
Sixteen European capitals and major towns of Europe welcomed the crew of the Lithuanian squadron, which included three pilots, two air reconnaissance officers and an engineer. To recognize the achievement of Lithuanians, their foreign colleagues awarded the pilots medals and other signs of honour. Media coverage was abundant and positive. In London, the Royal Family welcomed the crew. In Rome, they were received by the dictator Benito Mussolini. Although the European tour was not sufficiently complex to enter the international records tables, it brought the Lithuanians into highlight and esteem. It came as a surprise to the Old Europe that a small agrarian state, which regained its statehood after 120 years of subjugation, should be capable of designing and manufacturing reliable aircraft and training such highly qualified pilots. On the other hand, it provided a strong stimulus for the development of aviation in Lithuania. For the pilots, it left unforgettable impressions, gave usefully experience, and brought a merited fame. Marcinkus, decorated with medals and honour signs of foreign countries, was also promoted to Captain.
Every aspect of his life seemed to contribute to his success story. He was in the service he liked. He found the branch of sport he adored. He had success, fame, and of course, a woman he loved. In 1933, he married Aleksandra, who was a sister of Antanas Lingys, a famous football player too. The woman of his dreams played in a basketball team of the LFLS club. Four times, she became a Lithuanian champion. However, their marital happiness did not last long.
The year 1939, with the Second World War looming in the air, coincided with his personal life's dramatic turning point that determined largely the subsequent events. Having withdrawn from football because of the trauma he underwent a nervous breakdown. He lost control of his passionate nature and ran into debt, which started ruining his family. His military career was interrupted by a sour scandal. Romualdas Marcinkus, decorated with the Steel Wings, the highest Military Aviation award in Lithuania, opted to retire to the Reserve. His life collapsed. He had to start from scratch.
Lithuania was going through no easier times, either. Although it declared neutrality, after signing a mutual assistance treaty with the Soviet Union, the Red Army garrisons were allowed into the country. As the Government's secret visits to Moscow grew more frequent, the military (including the Air Arm) found themselves increasingly restricted and incapacitated. These were the last months of independence. Lithuania was occupied on 15 June 1941. Immediately, arrests, deportations and executions of the public servants and the military officers followed.
By the time Romualdas Marcinkus was far from Lithuania - in France. He arrived in Paris in March of 1944. According to the witnesses, he started recruiting his fellow military pilots to go as volunteers to France immediately after the outbreak of the war. Alas, his original plan was thwarted, leaving his friends behind in Lithuania. He was the only one, whose determination was enough to reach the goal. In Paris, after a period of hardships, loneliness and even starvation, he was commissioned into the French Air Force. Yet the bureaucrats tallied the process, and he only reached the flying base (Chateauroux, later on, Tarbes) in June. He only had a few days to fly until the French capitulation, before he, with other foreigners, had to flee to North Africa.
Africa became an Incarceration for the pilot. He hated being passive and could not wait to resume fighting. The news of Lithuania's occupation had only fuelled his strife to get back to Europe. For the entire summer, with his friends, French, Polish and American officers, he was roaming Algeria and Morocco looking for a chance to escape. They were designing audacious plans, like hijacking a plane to fly to the English Channel, or capturing a ship to reach the British patrolling on the sea. Finally, Marcinkus with a group of French officers managed to obtain documents. They first got to Tangier and soon reached the English Channel. In October of 1940, they found themselves in Liverpool, and eventually they arrived in London. In December, Romualdas Marcinkus put on a flying suit of the Royal Air Force.
In 1941 he was the only Lithuanian in the RAF. His desire to fly was so huge that he falsified his personal data to depict himself more experienced in flying. He also made himself younger by three years to get to fly a fighter (he was 33 at the time). The Lithuanian pilot did not let down the British officers who showed trust in him. At the flying school, he soon mastered the Hurricane and started flying combat missions. In May, he was transferred into the No 1 Fighter Squadron. He flew both day and night sorties. In his letters to his family he mentions to have destroyed the first German bomber in spring. However, the squadron records date his first victory in the air battle by June (German bomber Me.l09F).
While in the RAF, Marcinkus was in touch with the representation of independent Lithuania in London. Above all, he longed to return to his own people and serve his country. It was very painful for him that he could not aid his occupied Homeland. During the occupation by Soviets (1940-1941) and the Germans (1941-1944) it was almost impossible to keep any contacts with Lithuania. During the war he received but one short wireless from his wife Aleksandra. On 12 January 1942, Marcinkus took up from the Tangmere Air Base for the last time. With other five pilots of the RAF No l Fighter Squadron, he left on a mission to attack the German navy. It was the famous Channel Dash of the three German battle-ships SCHARN-HORST, GNEISENAU and PRINZ EUGEN, which brought victory and fame to Hitler's military leaders, leaving the British Admiralty embarrassed and lost. The Germans, under cover of bad weather, took advantage of surprise element to move their cruisers from Brest to the German ports across the English Channel. Not only did they easily resist the delayed British attack, but incurred a considerable damage to them.
The Hurricane piloted by Marcinkus (serial number BD949) disappeared when the fighter team engaged the German torpedo-boat destroyers in a dive bombing attack. Shot down by the powerful antiaircraft fire, his Hurricane rammed into the Channel at the coasts of Belgium. The Lithuanian pilot sustained a spinal fracture, but managed to survive. Unfortunately, he was captured by the Germans and taken POW. He spent his last two years in the notorious Stalag Luft III near Zagan (present Poland) with other downed Allied airmen. The POWs were mostly British and American, but there were plenty of pilots from other countries too. Once again, among them, Romualdas Marcinkus was the only Lithuanian...
The incarceration did not break his power of will. He started a correspondence course at one of London's universities. In 1942 the RAF promoted him to Flight Lieutenant, the rank corresponding to Captain in the Lithuanian Military Aviation. The life behind the barbed wire did not warp his character; again, he found himself among the best. Yet this time it involved deadly danger.
He became a member of the secret POWs organization "X", which was preparing a mass escape. The "X" members were digging three tunnels at the depth of ten meters under the camp. They were also preparing everything that hundreds of the future escapers would need. They forged documents, drew maps, got hold of compasses, prepared food ratios, and they tailored civilian clothes. Captain Marcinkus could not do any physical work because of his injury neither he had any trade skills for manufacturing of tools or for sowing clothes. However, he spoke five languages (German, Polish, English, Russian and French) and excelled in gathering and analyzing information. Therefore, he became irreplaceable in the Departments of Forgery, Maps and Intelligence. The members of the escape operation saw a special value of the exact railway schedules he designed by analyzing the wealth of data he extracted from the German press and other airmen.
The escape of the airmen from the Stalag Luft III became the Second World War sensation known as the Great Escape (especially after Paul Brickhill wrote his bestselling book The Great Escape and a subsequent Hollywood screen version). The POWs dedicated more than a year of concentrated work to prepare the operation. They developed an amazing security system and created true masterpieces of engineering and other trades. Alas, the operation lacked a little bit of luck to go as it was planned.
At night on 25 May 1944, only 76 POWs managed to get away through one of the three tunnels, called Harry, some unforeseen obstacles halted the movement of other inmates along the tunnel. Before sunrise, the guards noticed the operation. Immediately, the national alarm was ordered, with troops. Home Guard, police, Gestapo, SS and other control structures alerted. Only three of the escapers succeeded in reaching safety, the rest were recaptured. Fifteen were brought back to the Stalag Luft III, eight were sent to the concentration camps, while the greater part, 50 men, were shot dead.
In gross violation of the Geneva Convention, Hitler took the decision to take reprisal on the unarmed POWs. He issued an order, called the Secret Zagan decree, to the Gestapo headquarters. Most of the escapers were to be shot, their bodies cremated to conceal the evidence of the war crime, and reports issued that the escapers were killed in a repeated escape attempt. The list of the fifty condemned was drawn by the bosses of the Gestapo and the Criminal Police. They issued a death judgment to Romualdas Marcinkus too.
Dressed in civilian suits, Marcinkus and three other officers were travelling by rail. On them, they had forged documents of Lithuanian workers. Yet on 26 of March the Germans apprehended them and brought to the Stalag XXB near Malbork. The escapers were said to have planned another escape, but they were turned over to the Danzig Gestapo and shot dead in the forest near Prusce town on the way to Stalag Luft III. Their bodies 'were cremated on 29 March 1944 at the Gestapo cremation facility.
Horrified by the atrocious war crime, Great Britain promised that the perpetrators of the 'cold blood murder' would be brought to justice and started a large investigation immediately after the war was over. The high-ranking suspects in the case of murder of the Great Escape participants faced charges at the Nuremberg Process. The Hamburg War Tribunal tried the lower ranking hands of the crime. The murderer of Romualdas Marcinkus and his fellows in escape was identified and convicted in 1948.
The inmates of the Stalag Luft III built a local memorial for the fifty murdered officers. It still is Zagan. After the war the urn containing ashes of Romualdas Marcinkus, also the urns of some other officers, were taken to the British Commonwealth Section of the Old Garrison Cemetery at Poznan.
The British Aviation Ministry tried to get in touch with the family of the diseased officer in Lithuania, especially his widow, Aleksandra Marcinkiene. Yet in 1948 the tracking efforts were put to end, as the Lithuanian representation in London warned that the ties with the West might be dangerous to the relatives of Marcinkus.
That is why the fate of the famous officer and sportsman of the independent Lithuania was not widely known in his country. It was not before 1967, when the soviet press ran the first stories on him. It was difficult to gather reliable evidence on him, both for the Lithuanian researchers into the history of aviation and sport, and the emigrants in the West. The facts were to be collected from a number of countries in Europe, divided by differing ideologies, e.g., France, Great Britain, Poland, and Soviet Lithuania. It became possible in the new area, after the collapse of the Soviet Union and the so-called Soviet block.
June 2001 is a factual Romualdas Marcinkus' homecoming date, when the British Embassy in Lithuania paid tribute to the pilot by a solemn memorial ceremony. His closest relative, nephew Alvydas Gabrenas, was presented the three medals awarded to Marcinkus during his RAF service. Following the ceremony, a flight of Harriers from his old 1st Fighter squadron flew a fly past, with one aircraft "saluting" in the hover.
Gradually, the memory of Romualdas Marcinkus was revived in Lithuania. His story was encapsulated in a documentary, The Hurricane Captain. A street in his native town of Jurbarkas was named after him; a commemorative inscription marks the house of the Marcinkus family. Another memorial plaque is displayed at the Airfield of Aleksotas in Kaunas, the site of the games of Romualdas Marcinkus Football Cup. The Air Force holds Romualdas Marcinkus Pistol Marksmanship Cup.
This book was published in 2004 in commemoration of the 70th anniversary of the European tour and the 60th anniversary of the Great Escape and the death of Captain Romualdas Marcinkus. It makes meaningful the work of everyone who contributed to the study of his biography in Lithuania and abroad. We also hope that it will help to keep the memory of the dear Hurricane captain alive for many generations to come.

Information from book G. Sviderskytė "Uragano kapitonas"