Birkland was commissioned as a pilot officer with effect from 27 April 1941 and sailed to Great Britain to fly operationally with RAF Fighter Command.

[6][7] Flying operationally with No.72 Squadron, Birkland was pilot of Spitfire Mark Vb serial W3367 on the afternoon of 7 November 1941 on a Rodeo mission over the coast of occupied Europe.

[11] For the Great Escape operation Birkland, an experienced former miner, became one of the leading and most energetic of the six hundred officers involved in tunnelling.

His group did not make a great distance before the alert was raised and the German authorities began a major man-hunt.

[13] George McGill (RCAF officer), Henry Birkland, Pat Langford, Mike Casey, George Wiley, Tom Leigh, John Pohe, Cyril Swain, Charles Hall, Brian Evans, Wlodzimierz Kolanowski and Bob Stewart were taken away in black cars by plain clothes Gestapo officials on 30 and 31 March 1944 and were never seen alive again.

[18] His remains, which were originally buried at Sagan, were moved in November 1948 to the Poznan Old Garrison Cemetery to lie beside those of his fellow escapers.

[19] Birkland's headstone has the inscription chosen by his parents "Beloved, by family and friends alike, he gave his life, knowing this right".