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((cleanup |reason= subject referred to as both Frank and Francis without explanation |date=February 2024))
((Use dmy dates|date=January 2017))
((Use British English|date=January 2017))
((Infobox military person
|image= Royal Airforce Badge.png
|name=Francis Peter McKenna
|birth_date=((Birth date|1906|2|28|df=yes))
|death_date=((Death date and age|1994|6|14|1906|2|28|df=yes))
|placeofburial= 
|birth_place=[[Accrington]], [[Lancashire]]
|death_place=[[Blackpool]], [[Lancashire]]
|nickname=Frank
|birth_name=Francis Peter McKenna
|allegiance=((flag|United Kingdom))
|branch=((air force|United Kingdom))
|serviceyears=1943–1965
|rank=[[Squadron Leader]]
|servicenumber=189121
|unit=[[Special Investigation Branch#Royal Air Force Police SIB|Special Investigation Branch]]
|commands=
|battles=[[World War II]]
*[[Western Front (World War II)|Channel Front]] 
|battles_label=
|awards=[[Order of the British Empire]]
|relations=Eunice Naomi - wife
))
'''Francis Peter McKenna''' [[OBE]] (28 February 1906 – 14 February 1994) was a British [[Royal Air Force]] service police detective, deputy to [[Wilfred Bowes]] who ran the [[Special Investigation Branch#Royal Air Force Police SIB|Special Investigation Branch]] investigation into the murders of recaptured officers who had escaped in the 'Great Escape' from [[Stalag Luft III]] in March 1944. McKenna personally arrested over 20 of the "Gestapo" agents involved in the murders.

==Pre-war life==
McKenna was born in [[Accrington]], [[Lancashire]] on 28 February 1906, one of six children of Margaret and [[police constable]] Francis McKenna. The family moved to [[Blackpool]] shortly after his birth when his father was transferred to the Borough of [[Blackpool]] Police Force, they resided at 2 Huntley Avenue, Layton.<ref>England & Wales Census, 1911. Blackpool</ref>  Educated at Sacred Heart School, [[Blackpool]] he and his younger brother John later joined the police force where they both became detective sergeants. Frank McKenna married on 30 December 1934 in [[Blackpool]] to Eunice Naomi.<ref>England & Wales, Marriage Registrations. Lancashire, December Quarter 1934</ref>

With the outbreak of the second world war, McKenna, who had considerable civilian flying experience, was deemed to be in a reserved occupation due to his police service and was refused permission to join the RAF.<ref name="ReferenceA">The Gazette, Blackpool. Weds, 28 February 2007</ref>

==World War II==
When high losses in [[RAF Bomber Command]] saw the rules eased in 1943 he joined the [[RAF]] with service number 2212815 as an aircrew candidate and became a [[sergeant]] flight engineer, eventually flying over 30 Lancaster bomber missions throughout Europe.  He completed a tour of operations as a [[flight sergeant]] with [[No. 15 Squadron RAF]],<ref>[http://www.wartimememoriesproject.com/ww2/allied/royalairforce/sqdview.php?pid=214   15 Squadron Memories website]</ref> and [[No. 622 Squadron RAF]] and was commissioned [[pilot officer]] on 24 November 1944.<ref>((London Gazette|issue=36913|supp=y|page=630|date=26 January 1945))</ref>  During his time in aircrew at [[RAF Squires Gate]]  McKenna met and became friendly with [[Flight Lieutenant]] [[Edgar Humphreys]] and [[Flying Officer]] Robert Stewart who were amongst the officers murdered following the [[Stalag Luft III escape|Great Escape]].<ref>Vance (2000), various</ref>

Shortly before Christmas 1944 he transferred to Princes Gate Court, London to the [[Special Investigation Branch#Royal Air Force Police SIB|Special Investigation Branch]] and seventeen months after the murders in [[Stalag Luft III]], McKenna flew to Germany to investigate what is still the worst war crime against British nationals. He spoke little German and was teamed up with an interpreter [[Warrant Officer]] Williams. His task was complicated by the chaos and corruption of the nationally controlled zones of post-war Germany.<ref name="ReferenceA"/>

==The "Great Escape" murders==
As was normal for a number of [[Royal Air Force]] personnel held prisoner of war in Germany during [[World War II]] attempting to escape was considered both a duty and a pastime. The German authorities had to expend considerable resource in keeping the men captive and recovering escapees. Seventy-six men escaped from the prison camp "[[Stalag Luft III|the Great Escape]]" on the night of 24–25 March 1944 in the escape which is now famous. All but three were tracked down and recaptured. A decision was made by German High Command to execute 50 of the recaptured officers as an example. SS-Gruppenfuhrer [[Arthur Nebe]] in Berlin picked which of the men were to be shot and the [[Gestapo]] carried out the executions.<ref>((cite web|url=http://www.pegasusarchive.org/pow/cSL_3_Fifty.htm|work=Pegasus Archive|title=Stalag Luft III: The Fifty|access-date=28 August 2015))</ref><ref>Andrews (1976), p.206</ref><ref>[http://www.rcaf-arc.forces.gc.ca/en/article-template-standard.page?doc=commemorating-the-great-escape/hvhsqy96  RCAF Website listing the officers murdered]</ref>  [[File:The50Memorial.jpg|thumb|Memorial to "The Fifty" down the road toward Żagań.]]
:''See [[Stalag Luft III murders]]''

The British government learned of the deaths from a routine visit in May 1944 to [[Stalag Luft III]] in the province of Lower Silesia near the town of [[Sagan, Germany|Sagan]] (now [[Żagań]] in [[Poland]]), by the neutral Swiss authorities as the [[protecting power]]; the Foreign Secretary [[Anthony Eden]] announced the news to the [[British House of Commons|House of Commons]] on 19 May 1944.<ref name="Parliament announcement">((cite hansard |url=https://api.parliament.uk/historic-hansard/commons/1944/may/19/officer-prisoners-of-war-germany-shooting|title=Officer Prisoners of War, Germany (Shooting) |house=House of Commons |date=19 May 1944 |column_start=437 | column_end=439 )); 47 BRITISH AND ALLIED AIRMEN SHOT BY GERMANS, ''The Manchester Guardian'', 20 May 1944, Page 6.</ref> Shortly after the announcement the Senior British Officer of the camp, Group Captain [[Herbert Massey]], was repatriated to England due to ill health. Upon his return, he informed the Government about the circumstances of the escape and the reality of the murder of the recaptured escapees. Eden updated Parliament on 23 June, promising that, at the end of the war, those responsible would be brought to exemplary justice.<ref name="Exemplary justice">((cite hansard |url=https://api.parliament.uk/historic-hansard/commons/1944/jun/23/officer-prisoners-of-war-germany-shooting|title=Officer Prisoners of War, Germany (Shooting) |house=House of Commons |date=23 June 1944 |column_start=477 |column_end=482 ))</ref>

==The investigation==
Assigned to lead the investigation on the ground in Germany by [[Wing Commander (rank)|Wing Commander]] [[Wilfred Bowes]], McKenna brought together a small, independent and dedicated team. Never larger than five officers and 14 NCOs it evolved into a copybook civilian detective operation. He was promoted [[flying officer]] on 24 May 1945.<ref>((London Gazette|issue=37141|supp=y|page=3266|date=19 June 1945))</ref>

On 3 July 1945 McKenna was appointed Deputy Assistant [[Provost Marshal]]<ref>((London Gazette|issue=37157|supp=y|page=3451|date=29 June 1945))</ref> He moved to Rinteln in Germany in late 1945 with [[Wilfred Bowes]] and the [[Special Investigation Branch#Royal Air Force Police SIB|Special Investigation Branch]] and commenced investigations on the ground, travelling to Soviet occupied Poland and Czechoslovakia, travelling into Berlin and even flying to [[Moscow]] to interrogate a man he wanted who would not be released by the Soviet [[NKVD]] secret police due to warrants for mass murder in Russia.<ref>Andrews (1976), p.153-155</ref>

As the investigation started seventeen months after the alleged crimes had been committed it was a [[cold case (criminology)|cold case]]. Worse, according to an account of the investigation, the perpetrators "belonged to a body, the Secret State Police or Gestapo, which held and exercised every facility to provide its members with false identities and forged identification papers immediately they were ordered to go on the run at the moment of national surrender."<ref>Andrews, ''Exemplary Justice'', p.7</ref>  McKenna is recorded as a man of impressive stature, an extremely effective interrogator, he was promoted [[squadron leader]] during the investigation.
<ref>Andrews (1976), p.101-106</ref> and an officer leading armed raids on the hiding places of desperate war criminals.<ref>Read (2012), p.109-113</ref>

The team from the RAF relentlessly tracked down, arrested, and interrogated the alleged war criminals responsible for the murders.  Work by [[Wilfred Bowes]], Frank McKenna and the team saw a number of those guilty of the murders arrested and tried for their crimes. Others were dead or in Soviet custody facing capital charges for other crimes .<ref>((cite book|author=Alan Burgess|title=The Longest Tunnel: The True Story of World War II's Great Escape|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=sy3t5zLmXrYC|year=1990|publisher=Naval Institute Press|isbn=978-1-59114-097-9))</ref><ref>Read (2012), p.295</ref><ref>Vance (2000), p.310</ref><ref>Andrews (1976), p.188 and 199</ref><ref>[http://avalon.law.yale.edu/imt/03-04-46.asp  Yale Avalon Project-War Crimes Trial Part 8]</ref>

McKenna himself arrested more than 20 former Gestapo officers, the largest single total out of 69 men brought to justice. A few committed suicide, but most were convicted of murder and imprisoned or executed.<ref name="ReferenceA"/>

==Later career==
[[File:OBE - George 6th.jpg|thumb|right|OBE - An Officer level of the Order of the British Empire (gold colour).]]
When the [[Royal Air Force]] was reduced in size post-war McKenna accepted a "Regular Service" commission as a [[flying officer]] with the "Provost Branch" effective from 24 November 1945,<ref>((London Gazette |issue=38181|supp=y |date=16 January 1948 |pages=496–497))</ref> and on 1 January 1948 was appointed Assistant to [[Provost Marshal]].<ref>((London Gazette |issue=38338|supp=y |date=25 June 1948 |pages=3783–3784 ))</ref>   On 10 June 1948 he was awarded an [[OBE]] (Military Division) as Officer of the Most Excellent [[Order of the British Empire]] in the rank of [[Squadron Leader]] for his work on the [[Stalag Luft III murders]] investigation.<ref>((London Gazette |issue=38311 |date=4 June 1948 |pages=3373–3374 ))</ref><ref>Read (2012), p.297</ref>

On 17 November 1948 [[Wilfred Bowes]] learned of the official British government position that no further trials of war criminals would be taking place and formally placed on record his disagreement with the policy writing to the Provost Marshal of the [[Royal Air Force]].

The formalities of transferring from wartime service with the [[Royal Air Force Volunteer Reserve]] as a [[squadron leader]] to "Regular Service Commission" with the [[Royal Air Force]] "Provost Branch" as a [[flying officer]] were completed for McKenna on 17 June 1949,<ref>((London Gazette |issue=38695|supp=y |date=23 August 1949 |pages=4058–4059 ))</ref><ref>((London Gazette |issue=38695|supp=y |date=23 August 1949 |pages=4056–4057 ))</ref> and on 9 June 1952 he continued his service with a "Short Service Commission".<ref>((London Gazette |issue=39591|supp=y |date=4 July 1952 |pages=3698–3699 ))</ref>

On 25 August 1954 McKenna was posted to [[Cyprus]] and appointed Assistant [[Provost Marshal]].<ref>((London Gazette |issue=40271|supp=y |date=3 September 1954 |pages=5138–5139 ))</ref>  Serving in there during the [[EOKA]] emergency McKenna's service was extended in 1956,<ref>((London Gazette |issue=40923|supp=y |date=9 November 1956 |pages=6412–6413 ))</ref> again in 1958,<ref>((London Gazette |issue=41464 |supp=y|date=1 August 1958 |pages=4885–4886 ))</ref> and further in 1959.<ref>((London Gazette |issue=41704|supp=y |date=8 May 1959 |pages=3077–3078 ))</ref>

McKenna's extremely effective service in Cyprus was recognized by a [[Mention in Despatches]] in October 1958.<ref>((London Gazette |issue=41520 |supp=y|date=10 October 1958 |pages=6249–6250 ))</ref>

He took retirement from the "Provost Branch" as a [[flight lieutenant]] on 28 February 1965.<ref>((London Gazette |issue=43589|supp=y |date=26 February 1965 |pages=2145–2146 ))</ref>

McKenna joined the [[Ministry of Defence (United Kingdom)|Ministry of Defence]] where he carried out background checks on potential service personnel and in 1971 aged 65 he finally retired, working occasionally as a commercial security consultant and in later years living at Ansdell, [[Lytham St Annes]].

==Awards==
* [[Order of the British Empire]] (Officer)  Military Division on 10 June 1948.<ref>((London Gazette |issue=38311  |date=4 June 1948 |pages=3373–3374 ))</ref>

== References ==
;Notes
((Reflist|2))

;Bibliography
* ((cite book|author=Ted Barris|title=The Great Escape|publisher=Dundurn Publishing |year=2014|isbn=978-1459728448))
* ((cite book|author=Christopher Brooks|title=The Royal Air Force Long Service & Good Conduct Medal 1919-1941|publisher=Orders and Medals Research Society |year=2009|isbn=978-0-9539207-7-8))
* ((cite book|author=Tim Carroll|title=The Great Escape from Stalag Luft III|publisher=Pocket Publishing|year=2005|isbn=1416505318|url-access=registration|url=https://archive.org/details/greatescapefroms00timc))
* ((cite book|author=Simon Read |year=2012 |title=Human Game|publisher=Constable|isbn=978-1-4721-1262-0))
* ((cite book|author=Sean Feast|title=The Last of the 39-ers|publisher=Grub Street|year=2015|isbn=978-1909166158))
* ((cite book|author=John Eddleston|title=Encyclopaedia of Executions|publisher=John Blake|year=2002|isbn=1-903402-23-9))
* ((cite book|author=Jonathan F Vance|title=A Gallant Company|publisher=Pacifica Military|year=2000|isbn=978-0-935-55347-5))
* ((cite book|author1=William Ash|author-link=William Ash (pilot)|author2=Brendan Foley|title=Under the Wire: The Wartime Memoir of a Spitfire Pilot, Legendary Escape Artist and 'cooler King'|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=quefAAAAMAAJ|year=2005|publisher=Bantam|isbn=978-0-593-05408-6))
* ((cite book|author=Paul Brickhill|author-link=Paul Brickhill|title=The Great Escape|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=KEWdJvOdZ2wC|year=2004|publisher=W.W. Norton & Company|isbn=978-0-393-32579-9))
* ((cite book|author=Alan Burgess|author-link=Alan Burgess|title=The Longest Tunnel: The True Story of World War II's Great Escape|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=sy3t5zLmXrYC|year=1990|publisher=Naval Institute Press|isbn=978-1-59114-097-9))
* ((cite book|author=Albert P. Clark|author-link=Albert P. Clark|title=33 Months as a POW in Stalag Luft III: A World War II Airman Tells His Story|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=5f2fAAAAMAAJ|year=2005|publisher=Fulcrum Pub.|isbn=978-1-55591-536-0))
* ((cite book|author=Arthur A. Durand|title=Stalag Luft III: The Secret Story|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=aQdSPgAACAAJ|date=1 January 1989|publisher=Patrick Stephens Limited|isbn=978-1-85260-248-2))
* ((cite book|author=William R Chorley|title=RAF Bomber Command Losses, Volume 2|year=1992|publisher=Midland Counties|isbn=0-904597-87-3))
* ((cite book|author=Allen Andrews|title=Exemplary Justice|publisher=Harrap|isbn=0-245-52775-3))
*((cite book | last = Vance| first = Jonathan F| title = A Gallant Company: The Men of the Great Escape | publisher = Pacifica Military History; (Mar 2001) | year = 2000| pages = 41 | isbn = 978-0-935-55347-5))

==External links==
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20130303171346/http://www.mmpubs.com/catalog/lessons-from-history-c-4.html ''Project Lessons from the Great Escape (Stalag Luft III),''] by Mark Kozak-Holland. The prisoners formally structured their work as a project. This [https://web.archive.org/web/20150925130225/http://lessons-from-history.com/node/33 ''book''] analyses their efforts using modern project management methods.

((DEFAULTSORT:McKenna, Francis Peter))
[[Category:Royal Air Force squadron leaders]]
[[Category:Royal Air Force Volunteer Reserve personnel of World War II]]
[[Category:1906 births]]
[[Category:1994 deaths]]
[[Category:Officers of the Order of the British Empire]]
[[Category:Police detectives]]
[[Category:People from Blackpool]]
[[Category:People from Accrington]]
[[Category:Military personnel from Lancashire]]

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