Having fled to Marseilles, Caskie aided the escape of 2,000 men - two-thirds of all those who escaped the Nazis - by supplying them with forged identity papers, maps and compasses.

Caskie spoke Gaelic to confuse German spies and inquisitors, but was betrayed by an English double agent. He evaded the firing squad and then restarted his activities in Grenoble. There he again repeatedly escaped the clutches of the Nazis until he was sentenced to death - when the intervention of a German pastor had his sentence commuted and he saw out the war in a PoW camp.

Tributes to Caskie’s bravery have been many, but it is only now that his exploits are to be broadcast on television. BBC Scotland has commissioned independent production firm Saltire Films to produce the definitive documentary of Caskie’s life story for broadcast on Armistice Day. Producer Peter Barber-Fleming hopes to produce a dramatised version as well. "It is a cracking story with a particularly strong Scottish attachment, and it just cries out to be dramatised," said Barber-Fleming, who has directed well-known dramas from Taggart to Poirot.

"It is something I had been considering for a while so we were delighted when the BBC and its Gaelic arm, CCG, commissioned us to produce a documentary. There have been books and radio programmes about him but never anything produced for television covering his life and times, and really it is about time that this was done." He added: " There are still many people alive who remember Caskie - relatives, friends, and those he helped escape from German-occupied France. We are in the process of tracking these people down and we will begin shooting this June in Islay, Edinburgh, Paris and Marseilles."

Caskie was born in Islay in 1902, studied Divinity at Edinburgh University and gained his first parish at Gretna, before leaving to become minister of the Scots Kirk in Paris. When the Germans invaded in 1940 the clergyman, who had denounced the evil of Hitler’s regime from his pulpit, knew he had to flee.

Mission To Seamen

Bidding farewell to his flock he left a bunch of white heather in the church’s vestibule and he fled to Bayonne, where he was offered a place on the last ship back to Britain. Instead he accepted a lift to Marseilles. At the Mediterranean seaport’s deserted British Seamen’s Mission he set up a secret refuge for stranded Britons. He and his volunteers created hiding places for servicemen then kitted them out with civilian clothing and forged identity papers - courtesy of the US Embassy. Local clergyman, Pastor Heuzy, helped him gain maps and compasses.

British Intelligence put him in touch with their secret agents, led by a Belgian using the name Pat O’Leary. Caskie began to use the ‘underground railway’, a network of guides and safe houses to help soldiers out of France.

Betrayal

It was a fellow-Briton who destroyed Caskie’s work. Paul Cole, a former London policeman, was a double agent who betrayed Caskie and his volunteers to the Nazis. Their swoop rounded up 100 agents and 500 escaped servicemen. Many were shot, including Pastor Heuzy. Nuns and housewives were sent to the gas chambers and soldiers were beheaded in prison.

Despite a long interrogation by the Gestapo there was no firm evidence and Caskie was given a two-year suspended prison sentence, and ordered to close the mission and leave Marseilles for good. He headed for Grenoble where he acted as chaplain to the captured British - and dispensed files, maps, compasses and ropes along with Communion, allowing many to escape.

Desperate Gamble

When the Gestapo ordered all British citizens to be taken to Germany, Caskie made a desperate gamble, going to the Italian commandant and taunting him about kowtowing to his German overlords. It worked - truckloads of civilians were returned to their homes. But Caskie’s luck ran out - the Gestapo arrested him and he was finally imprisoned. He passed through a series of jails, eventually ending up at Fresnes, a prison outside Paris.

He was put on trial. Two German women who cross-examined him later became guards at Belsen. He was found guilty, yet before facing the death squad he asked to see a pastor - a request which saved his life. German pastor Hans Helmut Peters appealed to Berlin in order to save Caskie and his death sentence was lifted. He spent the rest of the war in a PoW camp. Caskie finally came back to Scotland in 1961 to become minister at Wemyss Bay and Skelmorlie on the Firth of Clyde . He died in 1983 and was buried on Islay.

Producer Barber-Fleming said he hoped the documentary would lead to a full-scale dramatisation - "although who would play Caskie I don’t know."