Per Bergsland

332 Squadron RAF stationed at North Weald airfield, Bergsland's Supermarine Spitfire Mk.Vb, (serial no AB269, coded AH:D) was shot down by a German Focke-Wulf Fw 190 during the Dieppe Raid on 19 August 1942.

In what later became known as the "Great Escape", he was escapee #43 among the 76 prisoners of war who managed to escape from the camp via tunnel with another Norwegian pilot, escapee #44 Jens Müller, "Bergsland was wearing a civilian suit he had made for himself from a Royal Marine uniform, with an RAF overcoat slightly altered with brown leather sewn over the buttons.

Our papers stated that we were Norwegian electricians from the Arbeitslager [labor camp] in Frankfurt working in the vicinity of Sagan.

"[4]Bergsland and Müller made it to the nearby town of Sagan, where they caught a train to Stettin in Germany (now: Szczecin, Poland).

The third escapee was the Dutchman Bram van der Stok, who crossed most of occupied Europe and escaped to Spain with the help of the French resistance.