The Long March by Pamela Taylor, bronze and marble

This memorial to commemorate the Long March was commissioned by the RAF Ex-Prisoners of War Association and unveiled in May 2003. Sculptor Pamela Taylor (1929-2014) based the figure of the airman on a wartime sketch by Ley Kenyon, artist and prisoner of war in Stalag Luft III who survived the march ('Marching Prisoners of War in Greatcoats', FA01916, RAF Museum collection).

By late 1944, as Russian forces were advancing towards the eastern border of Germany, the German authorities decided to re-locate prisoner of war camps further to the west, to delay their liberation. Approximately 80,000 prisoners were forced to march cross country on foot, with inadequate food or shelter and in the middle of the worst winter in decades. It is estimated that 3,500 prisoners died. Donated in 2003 by the Royal Air Forces Ex-Prisoners of War Association. Copyright: the artist's estate / RAF Museum.