A weekly newspaper has published the previously unseen diary of a fighter pilot from the prisoner of war camp made famous by the Great Escape.

The Loughborough Echo published the war log which belonged to one of the town’s most famous sons, the late Flt Sgt Nicholas Alkemade, after the precious document was passed on to them by one of his family members.

Mr Alkemade made history after he survived an 18,000ft drop without a parachute from his burning Lancaster bomber – he was then captured and interrogated by the Germans, before being sent to the Stalag Luft III prisoner of war camp.

And although the details of his death-defying fall have been related throughout the world since World War Two, his camp diary had never been published – until now.

The log book was given to the Loughborough Echo by Mr Alkemade's grand-daughter

The historic document had been handed down through the family and although they were aware of its significance, the focus of Mr Alkemade’s war exploits had obviously mostly been on his cheating of death.

Consequently the log had never seen public light of day until a recent Loughbrough Echo article prompted the family to look at it again.

The document, which included a first-handed account of the pilot’s fall, drawings of the compound, and the map of the tunnel the famous escapees took out of the camp, was presented to the newspaper by Mr Alkemade’s grand-daughter Carly Taylor.

Echo editor Andy Rush said: “I couldn’t believe what I was holding. I’m of the generation that grew up with the Great Escape movie on TV and to see these drawings and writings from that very time was pretty overwhelming.”

It was only after reading the Echo’s ‘Looking Back’ Section which reported Mr Alkemade being guest of honour at Loughborough Odeon’s premier screening of The Great Escape, that Carly made the trip to the Echo offices.

The documents were handed out to Allied prisoners by the YMCA for them to write about their experiences.

The whole of the war log, plus other photos, have been published on loughboroughecho.net in conjunction with the newspaper’s three page special.