The Great Escape

[Jarhead]

This is something I got from my retired school teacher kid sister from ECTC. This engineering project (http://www.kerman94.com/tunnelharry.html) was an amazing accomplishment.

[Indoor66]

This is something I got from my retired school teacher kid sister from ECTC. This engineering project (http://www.kerman94.com/tunnelharry.html) was an amazing accomplishment.

It also provided the basis for one of my favorite movies - timeless!

[TillyGalore]

Reminded me of Hogan's Heroes. Any chance this was the inspiration for HH?

[colchar]

This is something I got from my retired school teacher kid sister from ECTC. This engineering project (http://www.kerman94.com/tunnelharry.html) was an amazing accomplishment.


Their accomplishments were pretty amazing but, if you read much about POWs in WW II, you'll learn that these accomplishments were replicated in many other camps (some earlier than in Stalag Luft III).

I've long been a fan of POW stories (I originally read about the RAF in the Battle of Britain, then about Bomber Command, and then about POWs) and wish there was a dissertation in there somewhere. If there was, I'd abandon my current topic tomorrow.

[2535Miles]

Thanks jarhead! This is really cool.

[colchar]

If anyone wants to learn more about this story I highly recommend the following books:

The Great Escape by Paul Brickhill (the movie, which largely bastardized the story and which cannot be recommended for historical accuracy, was adapted from this book).

A Gallant Company: The Men of the Great Escape by Jonathan Vance.

Moonless Night by B.A. 'Jimmy' James.

The Longest Tunnel by Alan Burgess.


Also, last time I was here in London the Imperial War Museum had a special exhibit on dedicated to escapes, particularly those that took place at Stalag Luft III. The day I was there the only other people in that section of the museum were the family of Oliver Philpot who had escaped from another compound at Stalag Luft III (the East Compound...the Great Escape took place from the North Compound) along with Eric Williams and Michael Codner in the famous 'Wooden Horse' escape which was the first 100% successful escape of the war (in other words, all three of them made it back to Britain). They were being given a tour because they had donated some of their father's escape equipment, which he had stored in their attic for many years, to the museum.

Interestingly, the exhibit also featured items that had recently been excavated from an unused tunnel in the North Compound at Stalag Luft III. The prisoners had built three tunnels simultaneously (nicknamed Tom, Dick, and Harry with the latter being the one through which they ultimately escaped) but had shut one down after a cave-in (it might have been discovered by the Germans and caved in by them, I can't remember the exact story of that tunnel off the top of my head) and had shut the other down (IIRC, Dick which was accessed through a drain in the floor of the washroom located in Hut #123) to concentrate all of their efforts on the remaining tunnel (Harry). Items not needed, or that were difficult to hide elsewhere, were stored down Dick in case they were needed later. Since they never were, they remained buried until they were recently excavated.

ETA: The other point that should be made is that no Americans escaped that night (unless of course they, like George Harsh, were serving in the RAF or RCAF) as they had been moved to another compound a few weeks before the escape. They had, however, played a role in the digging of the tunnels.

And, for those who don't know, of the 76 men who made it out that night only three made it to freedom and fifty were murdered by the Gestapo for escaping.