Alfred George Fripp (13 June 1914 – 3 January 2013), known as "Alfie" or "Bill",[1] was a British Royal Air Force squadron leader who was a flight sergeant during the Second World War.

[2] He was shot down by the Luftwaffe in 1939 and held in twelve different prisoner of war camps, including Stalag Luft III, later the site of the "Great Escape".

[6] On 13 October 1939, while on a reconnaissance mission as an observer, the Bristol Blenheim aircraft he was in was shot at, pursued, and forced into an emergency landing in Germany.

Fripp and the pilot, Flight Lieutenant Mike Casey,[1] were captured, along with Aircraftsman 1st class J Nelson, all of whom emerged with bruises and scrapes.

[7] He and six other airmen were allowed to record thirty-second Christmas messages to their families, which were broadcast on shortwave radio from Berlin; Fripp sent greetings to his mother and told his wife, "Although I shall not be at home with you in person, I shall be with you in spirit."

[8] Fripp was imprisoned at Stalag Luft III, the site of an escape attempt by an international group of prisoners of war in March 1944.

[1] It is little short of a miracle that I have survived for so long, through a forced landing in the Bay of Biscay in a Scapa flying boat in 1936 whilst ferrying it to Alexandria, to a pre-war crash in a Blenheim Mk I in 1938, through my World War II experiences to the present day.

"[1] After retiring from the RAF, Fripp moved to Bournemouth, Dorset and joined Brockenhurst's sixth form college,[6] where he supervised the scientific laboratory.