Inside heroic story of 90 year-old WW2 vet Bernie Jordan’s daring trip to France that inspired Michael Caine’s new movie
SINGER Elkie Jeffery could not believe her eyes when she opened the message on her group’s website.
“Would the Candy Girls like to take part in a film with Sir Michael Caine about a pensioner who ran away from his care home to join D-Day veterans in France?”
The offer came as a huge shock, but the plot of The Great Escaper — based on the incredible antics of veteran Bernie Jordan, 89 — was no surprise to the group.
Elkie says: “They didn’t realise we knew all about it, because we were there when Bernie made headlines around the world in 2014.”
The story of how the war hero slipped unnoticed from his care home in Hove, Sussex, to mark the 70th anniversary of D-Day in France really is the stuff of movies.
Sir Michael, 90, plays the ex-Navy man who took matters into his own hands when staff at his home couldn’t find him a place on an official trip.
‘He looked a bit lost’
In her final acting role, the late Dame Glenda Jackson stars as the war hero’s devoted wife, Rene.
Bernie had been to the 50th and 60th commemorations with the Royal British Legion, but applied too late to travel with them for the 70th anniversary on June 6, 2014.
So, with his Second World War medals hidden under his coat and his passport tucked into a carrier bag, Bernie sneaked out of the Pines Care Home, sparking a massive police search.
He took the train to Portsmouth and joined other veterans on the six-hour ferry crossing to France.
The Candy Girls — vintage-style trio Elkie and bandmates Freyja Sculpher and Debbie Watt — had been booked by Brittany Ferries to entertain the veterans travelling to Caen in Normandy.
Freyja says: “It was absolutely raucous on that ship.
“They were in the mood to party — there were beers, singing, dancing, flirting and war stories.
“It was fabulous.”
The girls remember seeing an old chap heartily singing along to You Are My Sunshine at full volume.
Freyja, from Reading, says: “There was one man on a bench by himself with a beer, singing his heart out, with a big toothless grin.
“He was very merry.
“It was Bernie.
“Clearly he was loving life.
“It makes sense now because not only was he part of everything, he’d successfully escaped.”
Bernie told the singers how, as a 19-year-old Marine Engineer Artificer — or electrician — he had operated ramps on a landing craft under heavy fire so tank crews could get on to the D-Day beaches.
He revealed: “My job was to make sure the doors of the ship opened properly to let the tanks out.
“We released the tanks from the ship and, out of 20, two or three got badly damaged straight away.
“But the remaining 17 ploughed up the beach.”
As many as 4,000 Allied servicemen died on those Normandy beaches on June 6, 1944.
Bernie said: “I was scared, but I used to keep up morale as best I could.
“I’m no comedian, but we tried to keep each other laughing.”
He also revealed to the Candy Girls how, earlier in the war, he had been involved in capturing a German Enigma cipher machine, which the Nazis used to send coded messages.
Boffins at Bletchley Park used the seized devices to break the German codes.
In May 1941, Bernie was on board the destroyer HMS Intrepid hunting German U-boats off Iceland.
He told the singers: “I was once on a mission to recover one of the Enigma machines from a U-boat which we’d forced to surface by dropping depth-charges, crippling it.
“We boarded the submarine and recovered the machine.”
At the end of each crossing between the UK and France, the Candy Girls said farewell to the veterans as they joined their tour groups to take part in the Normandy commemorations, which would be attended by the Queen and then US President Barack Obama.
Freyja says: “We’d be waving them off, giving them kisses and having pictures taken as they left.
“Everyone had departed except one man, who stood there holding a plastic bag.
“He looked a bit lost and we realised it was Bernie.
“He told us he’d come on his own.”
Elkie, of Islington, North London, says: “We said to him, ‘Where’s your luggage?’.
“He replied, ‘I’ve got my little bag and in it I’ve got a pair of pants, a toothbrush and my passport. That’s all I need, girls’.
“The manager of the ferry came over and helped get Bernie on to a bus, and that was it really.
“But before he disembarked we had a picture taken with him, said goodbye and sent him on his way.
“We didn’t think much more of it.”
Across the Channel, frantic staff at The Pines care home had reported Bernie missing and police began checking coaches, railways and taxis for him.
A retired teacher found Bernie a hotel room in Ouistreham, near Sword Beach, and phoned the home to tell them he was safe.
‘I’m nothing special’
Brighton Police Commander Nev Kemp tweeted: “Love this, 89-year-old veteran reported missing to us by care home who said he can’t go to Normandy for D-Day remembrance.
“We’ve found him there!”
The tweet sparked a media frenzy as news teams scoured Normandy to trace the Great Escaper.
By now Bernie was sitting just 100 yards from where the Queen and world leaders would be gathering to remember the 22,400 British servicemen killed in action in the Normandy campaign, which ran through the summer of 1944.
But bored of waiting for the VIPs to arrive, Bernie headed back home — and on the way met up with a group of German veterans.
Unaware of the media frenzy, the Candy Girls posted their snap with Bernie from the boat on Facebook.
Elkie says: “We didn’t have any reception at sea but, as the white cliffs of Dover appeared, our phones just started lighting up.
“Family and friends from all over the world were saying to us, ‘You’re in all the papers, you’re on the news, it’s everywhere’.
“It was amazing, really.”
Back home at The Pines, retired electrician Bernie was reunited with Rene.
The couple, who married in 1946 but had no children, moved in to the care home together when Rene’s health failed.
Some 11 days after Bernie’s adventure, he celebrated his 90th birthday and well-wishers sent 2,500 cards.
The Candy Girls were invited to sing at his party, where modest Bernie said: “I’m just one man and nothing special.
“Anyone would think I’d defeated Hitler on my own.”
Debbie, of Epping, Essex, recalls: “There were piles of cards about three feet tall on the floors.
“People latched on to his incredible story.
“He was a rule breaker, a rebel — and the British love that.
“He was defiant — even the Germans loved him.
“It was a global story and it made people smile.”
Bernie passed away in December 2014.
A week later Rene died aged 88.
They had a joint funeral.
Eight years later Elkie was on the band’s website when, out of the blue, the message about starring in The Great Escaper popped up.
She says: “They hadn’t worked out that it was us on the boat with Bernie.
“It turned out we were the only people on set who’d actually met the real Bernie Jordan.”
Debbie adds: “Filming was exactly the same as real life, back and forth across the sea.
“I think we sang the same song about 70 times.
“On the second journey we picked up Michael Caine and did the scene with him where he walks on the ferry and looks around.
“There was a scene where he looked at us and they zoomed in on him.
“His facial expressions were incredible, just like Bernie’s.
“It was an honour to be caught up in such a heart-warming story.”
The Royal British Legion will be hosting a series of commemorative events in Normandy in June next year to mark the 80th anniversary of the D-Day landings.
For more information, visit www.rbl.org.uk/dday80
- The Great Escaper is in cinemas from today.
‘I’ll go back to beaches’
D-DAY veteran Joe Mines appears in the Great Escaper.
He spent time with Sir Michael on the film set in East Sussex which doubled as Normandy.
Joe, 98, says: “Me and Michael, we’re more or less the same. We’ve a lot in common.
“He’s a Cockney, same as me, born in the East End. He came from a poor family, same as me, and served in the Army. He’s a nice fella.
“I went on location to Camber Sands and was in the scene where Michael is in the street in Normandy.
“It didn’t take much. I had to sit in a wheelchair and be pushed along and wave my hands to the hero.
“That’s all I had to do. I’m not an actor and I’m not in Michael’s money league!”
On June 6, 1944, Joe – then 19 and a private with the Royal Pioneer Corps – landed on Gold Beach at Ver-Sur-Mer, near Arromanches.
He fought on foot all the way to Germany in the months that followed.
But his friend, who he met on April 1, 1943 – his first day in the Army – was not so lucky.
Joe, of Hornchurch, Essex, says: “On D-Day he got killed within an hour, cut in two by a machine gun.
“There were five people in front of me who all got gunned down, shot across the stomach, and he was one of them.
“Another couple of steps and I would’ve copped it.
“A bomb dropped two feet from me. I saw it coming – I saw the ground move.
“A bloke got a bit of shrapnel in his chest but I got away with it. Not a scratch. Nothing fazed me. I think it is because I grew up in The Blitz.”
Father-of-three Joe adds: “I never went back to the beaches. What was there to see? Just bad memories.
“When you see men cut in two by a machine gun, it goes right across and everything comes out. If you tread on a mine, it blows your leg off.
“All the flesh from your lower leg is gone and all you can see is broken bone.”
After taking part in the film, Joe is now determined, like Bernie, to return one more time to France with the Royal British Legion.
He has put his name down to travel with the charity to join commemorations for next year’s 80th anniversary.