News-Info-Alerts

To: ALL

From: Andi Wolos & Bob Necci

(POW-MIA InterNetwork)

Re: WW II Ex-POW Passes

Date: January 16, 2001

"WWII POW James Yule Dies at 84
Updated 11:59 AM ET January 15, 2001LONDON (AP) - James de Deane Yule, a World War II prisoner who operated a hidden radio and arranged music for other captives while the Nazis held them in a huge Saxon castle, has died at age 84.

Yule, who held the rank of lieutenant colonel, died Dec. 25, his family said.

Yule was taken captive when Germany's Luftwaffe attacked a train carrying a British signals detachment in Norway in May 1940. After an attempted escape, he was sent to Colditz prison - a castle near Leipzig - in July 1941.

Colditz was designated for the most escape-prone Allied prisoners. German officers thought it was impregnable, but 35 of the 400 prisoners escaped before the end of the war.

As a Royal Signals officer, Yule was chosen to operate a clandestine radio that the prisoners kept hidden in a small space in the castle roof.

He was also involved in organizing entertainment for the prisoners and arranging music for the prisoners' band. Their noisy performances sometimes drowned out the sounds of preparations for escape attempts, and one successful escape originated beneath the stage.

Yule retired from the army in 1961 and became a schoolmaster. He also served 18 years on a local governing body, the Braintree district council. "London, Paris, New York," a musical he developed from his compositions at Colditz, was performed at the Imperial War Museum in London in 1990.

Yule is survived by a son and two daughters. Funeral arrangements were not immediately known."