A WAR hero dubbed “The Great Escaper” has published his memoirs to raise money for charity.

Proceeds from Jim Mulhall’s Military Memories will go to the British Red Cross.

Mr Mulhall, originally of Langley Moor, near Durham, joined up in October 1939, aged 19.

Part of the Coldstream Guards, he chased Mussolini’s armies through North Africa and joined the Allied invasion of Italy during which, while suffering from malaria, he was captured at Monte Cassino and sent to Moosburg prisoner-of-war camp in Germany.

While there he tried to escape six times, being recaptured five times before finally securing his freedom in February 1945 – escaping through a window and hiding out near an SS base in Austria before reaching advancing US forces.

Now 95, Mr Mulhall launched his memoirs today (Thursday, November 6) at the Durham Light Infantry Museum, Durham City.

“I enjoyed writing. I had a lot of material to go at. There’s lots to tell about prisoner of war life,” he said.

Jim Mulhall’s Military Memories is part of the Elderly Widowers Look Back series and is available from the DLI Museum and British Red Cross shops, priced £4.