Lieutenant Albert Michael Sinclair, DSO (26 February 1918 – 25 September 1944), known as the Red Fox,[1] was a British prisoner at Colditz Castle (POW camp Oflag IV-C) during World War II.

Commissioned into the 2nd Battalion, The King's Royal Rifle Corps in July 1939,[7][8] he was captured by German forces in northern France and sent to Stalag XXI-D (Poznań) POW camp in the north of Poland.

[9] On 28 May 1941, Sinclair escaped from Fort VIII, Stalag XXI-D, along with two comrades - fellow Wykehamist Gris Davies-Scourfield and the Etonian Ronnie Littledale - concealed in a modified handcart.

They received assistance from Polish citizens and travelled through Łódź Kaliska, Lubochnia-Gorki to Tomaszów Mazowiecki with the intention of reaching Russia.

Davies-Scourfield remained in Warsaw while Sinclair and Littledale travelled by train to Kraków and onward to Zakopane, alighting at the station before the main city.

[18][19] Rothenberger's duties included nightly inspections of the sentries on the eastern terrace of the castle, which overlooked a park area.

Already a fluent German speaker,[26] he spent the next month, along with Teddy Barton and Alan Cheetham, studying his habits, mannerisms, gestures and accent.

[28] To take care of physical appearance, the services of Barton, who had honed his make-up skills in the camp theatre,[29] were called upon and with Cheetham's assistance, manufactured no fewer than fourteen Rothenberger moustaches before they were happy with their work.

[30] Rex Harrison was given the task of producing three perfect German uniforms,[31] whilst Major W. F. Anderson set to work to produce two imitation German rifles, two bayonets with scabbards, a revolver complete with holster made out of cardboard and boot polish, buttons, badges, medals and belt clasps.

[33] Sinclair and his two "guards", John Hyde-Thomson and Lancelot Pope, both good German speakers[34] descended from the window and made it down to the path.

[37] Sinclair, faced with the choice of either persisting with the stubborn guard, or making a run for it with his two colleagues, decided to continue with the imposture.

[42] As the confusion began to subside, the prisoners were summoned to the courtyard for an Appell and the wounded Sinclair was left on the ground, unattended, for nearly 10 minutes.

What some chaps argued afterwards was that, knowing Mike, I should also have known that he just wasn't the type who would quit and I should, therefore, have given him an order.Sinclair attempted to copy Lebrun's escape; climbing over the barbed wire and jumping over the wall at the end, on 25 September 1944.