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The Great Escape
TypeMass Escape Attempt
Location
Stalag Luft III, Sagan, Lower Silesia, Nazi Germany
(now Żagań, Poland)
Planned byRoyal Air Force Squadron Leader Roger Bushell
TargetTo Reach A Neutral Power
Date24th March 1944 – 25th March 1944[a]
Outcome3 Escapees reach Neutral Powers. 50 Escapees were captured and murdered. 23 Escapees were captured and sent to other prison camps.
Casualties50

Background edit

In March 1943, Royal Air Force Squadron Leader Roger Bushell conceived a plan for a mass escape from the North Compound, which took place on the night of 24/25 March 1944.[1] He was being held with the other British and Commonwealth airmen and he was in command of the Escape Committee that managed all escape opportunities from the north compound. Falling back on his legal background to represent his scheme, Bushell called a meeting of the Escape Committee to advocate his plan.

Everyone here in this room is living on borrowed time. By rights we should all be dead! The only reason that God allowed us this extra ration of life is so we can make life hell for the Hun [...] In North Compound we are concentrating our efforts on completing and escaping through one master tunnel. No private-enterprise tunnels allowed. Three bloody deep, bloody long tunnels will be dug – Tom, Dick and Harry. One will succeed![2]

Group Captain Herbert Massey, as senior British officer, authorised the escape attempt which would have good chance of success; in fact, the simultaneous digging of three tunnels would become an advantage if any one of them was discovered, because the guards would scarcely imagine that another two were well under way.[3] The most radical aspect of the plan was not the scale of the construction, but the number of men intended to pass through the tunnels. While previous attempts had involved up to 20 men, in this case Bushell was proposing to get over 200 out, all wearing civilian clothes and some with forged papers and escape equipment. As this escape attempt was unprecedented in size, it would require unparalleled organisation; as the mastermind of the Great Escape, Roger Bushell inherited the codename of "Big X".[2] More than 600 prisoners were involved in the construction of the tunnels.[1]

Tunnels edit

Three tunnels, Tom, Dick, and Harry were dug for the escape. The operation was so secretive that everyone was to refer to each tunnel by its name. Bushell took this so seriously that he threatened to court-martial anyone who even uttered the word "tunnel".[4]

Tom began in a darkened corner next to a stove chimney in hut 123 and extended west into the forest. It was found by the Germans and dynamited.

Dick's entrance was hidden in a drain sump in the washroom of hut 122 and had the most secure trap door. It was to go in the same direction as Tom and the prisoners decided that the hut would not be a suspected tunnel site as it was further from the wire than the others. Dick was abandoned for escape purposes because the area where it would have surfaced was cleared for camp expansion. Dick was used to store soil and supplies and as a workshop.

Harry, which began in hut 104, went under the Vorlager (which contained the German administration area), sick hut and the isolation cells to emerge at the woods on the northern edge of the camp.[5] The entrance to "Harry" was hidden under a stove. Ultimately used for the escape, it was discovered as the escape was in progress with only 76 of the planned 220 prisoners free. The Germans filled it with sewage and sand and sealed it with cement.

 

After the escape, the prisoners started digging another tunnel called George, but this was abandoned when the camp was evacuated.

Tunnel construction edit

The tunnels were very deep – about 9 m (30 ft) below the surface. They were very small, only 0.6 m (2 ft) square, though larger chambers were dug to house an air pump, a workshop and staging posts along each tunnel. The sandy walls were shored up with pieces of wood scavenged from all over the camp, much from the prisoners' beds (of the twenty or so boards originally supporting each mattress, only about eight were left on each bed). Other wooden furniture was also scavenged.[6]

 
End of "Harry"
 
End of "Harry" tunnel showing how close the exit was to the camp fence
 
"Harry"
 
Entrance of "Harry" showing outline of building

Other materials were also used, such as Klim tin cans that had held powdered milk supplied by the Red Cross for the prisoners. The metal in the cans could be fashioned into various tools and items such as scoops and lamps, fuelled by fat skimmed off soup served at the camp and collected in tiny tin vessels, with wicks made from worn clothing.[6] The main use of the Klim tins was for the extensive ventilation ducting in all three tunnels.[7]

As the tunnels grew longer, a number of technical innovations made the job easier and safer. A pump was built to push fresh air along the ducting, invented by Squadron Leader Bob Nelson of 37 Squadron. The pumps were built of odd items including pieces from the beds, hockey sticks and knapsacks, as well as the Klim tins.[6]

The usual method of disposing of sand from all the digging was to scatter it discreetly on the surface. Small pouches made of towels or long underpants were attached inside the prisoners' trousers; as they walked around, the sand could be scattered. Sometimes, they would dump sand into the small gardens they were allowed to tend. As one prisoner turned the soil, another would release sand while they both appeared to be in conversation.[6] The prisoners wore greatcoats to conceal the bulges from the sand, and were referred to as "penguins" because of their supposed resemblance. In sunny months, sand could be carried outside and scattered in blankets used for sun bathing; more than 200 were used to make an estimated 25,000 trips.[1]

The Germans were aware that something was going on but failed to discover any of the tunnels until much later.[8] To break up an escape attempt, nineteen of the top suspects were transferred without warning to Stalag VIIIC. Of those, only six had been involved with tunnel construction. One of these, a Canadian called Wally Floody, was actually originally in charge of digging and camouflage before his transfer.

Eventually the prisoners felt they could no longer dump sand above ground because the Germans became too efficient at catching them doing it. After "Dick"'s planned exit point was covered by a new camp expansion, the decision was made to start filling it up. As the tunnel's entrance was very well hidden, "Dick" was also used as a storage room for items such as maps, postage stamps, forged travel permits, compasses, and clothing.[9] Some guards cooperated by supplying railway timetables, maps and many official papers so that they could be forged. Some genuine civilian clothes were obtained by bribing German staff with cigarettes, coffee or chocolate. These were used by escaping prisoners to travel from the camp more easily, especially by train.[6]

The prisoners ran out of places to hide sand, and snow cover made it impractical to scatter it undetected.[1] Under the seats in the theatre there was a large empty space, but when it was built the prisoners had given their word not to misuse the materials; the parole system was regarded as inviolate. Internal "legal advice" was taken and the SBOs (Senior British Officers) decided that the completed building did not fall under the parole system. A seat in the back row was hinged and the sand-dispersal problem was solved.[10]

German prison camps began to receive larger numbers of American prisoners.[11] The Germans decided that new camps would be built specifically for US airmen. To allow as many people to escape as possible, including the Americans, efforts on the remaining two tunnels increased. This drew attention from guards and in September 1943 the entrance to "Tom" became the 98th tunnel to be discovered in the camp;[12] guards in the woods had seen sand being removed from the hut where it was located. Work on "Harry" ceased and did not resume until January 1944.[1][6]

Tunnel "Harry" completed edit

"Harry" was finally ready in March 1944. By then the Americans, some of whom had worked on "Tom", had been moved away; despite the portrayal of three in the Hollywood film, only one American, Major Johnnie Dodge, participated in the "Great Escape", and he had become a British citizen. Previously, the attempt had been planned for the summer for its good weather, but in early 1944 the Gestapo visited the camp and ordered increased effort to detect escapes. Rather than risk waiting and having their tunnel discovered, Bushell ordered the attempt be made as soon as it was ready. Many Germans willingly helped in the escape itself. The film suggests that the forgers were able to make near-exact replicas of just about any pass that was used in Nazi Germany. In reality, the forgers received a great deal of assistance from Germans who lived many hundreds of miles away on the other side of the country. Several German guards, who were openly anti-Nazi, also willingly gave the prisoners items and assistance of any kind to aid their escape.[13]

In their plan, of the 600 who had worked on the tunnels only 200 would be able to escape. The prisoners were separated into two groups. The first group of 100, called "serial offenders," were guaranteed a place and included 30 who spoke German well or had a history of escapes, and an additional 70 considered to have put in the most work on the tunnels. The second group, considered to have much less chance of success, was chosen by drawing lots; called "hard-arsers", they would have to travel by night as they spoke little or no German and were only equipped with the most basic fake papers and equipment.[1]

The Escape edit

The prisoners waited about a week for a moonless night, and on Friday 24 March, the escape attempt began. As night fell, those allocated a place moved to Hut 104. Unfortunately for the prisoners, the exit trap door of Harry was frozen solid and freeing it delayed the escape for an hour and a half. Then it was discovered that the tunnel had come up short of the nearby forest; at 10.30 p.m. the first man out emerged just short of the tree line close to a guard tower. (According to Alan Burgess, in his book The Longest Tunnel, the tunnel reached the forest, as planned, but the first few trees were too sparse to provide adequate cover). As the temperature was below freezing and there was snow on the ground, a dark trail would be created by crawling to cover. To avoid being seen by the sentries, the escapes were reduced to about ten per hour, rather than the one every minute that had been planned. Word was eventually sent back that no one issued with a number above 100 would be able to get away before daylight. As they would be shot if caught trying to return to their own barracks, these men changed back into their own uniforms and got some sleep. An air raid then caused the camp's (and the tunnel's) electric lighting to be shut down, slowing the escape even more. At around 1 a.m., the tunnel collapsed and had to be repaired. Despite these problems, 76 men crawled through to freedom.

Discovery of the Escape edit

At 4:55 a.m. on 25 March, the 77th man was spotted emerging by one of the guards. Those already in the trees began running, while New Zealand Squadron Leader Leonard Henry Trent VC who had just reached the tree line stood up and surrendered. The guards had no idea where the tunnel entrance was, so they began searching the huts, giving men time to burn their fake papers. Hut 104 was one of the last to be searched, and despite using dogs the guards were unable to find the entrance. Finally, German guard Charlie Pilz crawled back through the tunnel but found himself trapped at the camp end; he began calling for help and the prisoners opened the entrance to let him out, finally revealing its location.

An early problem for the escapees was that most were unable to find the way into the railway station, until daylight revealed it was in a recess of the side wall to an underground pedestrian tunnel. Consequently, many of them missed their night time trains, and decided either to walk across country or wait on the platform in daylight. Another unanticipated problem was that this was the coldest March for thirty years, with snow up to five feet (1.5 m) deep, so the escapees had no option but to leave the cover of woods and fields and stay on the roads.[1]

Murders of Escapees edit

Of 76 escapees, 73 were captured. Adolf Hitler initially wanted every recaptured officer to be shot. Hermann Göring, Field Marshal Keitel, Major-General Westhoff and Major-General Hans von Graevenitz (inspector in charge of war prisoners)[14] pointed out to Hitler that a massacre might bring about reprisals to German pilots in Allied hands. Hitler agreed, but insisted "more than half" were to be shot, eventually ordering SS head Himmler to execute more than half of the escapees. Himmler passed the selection on to General Arthur Nebe, and fifty were executed singly or in pairs.[1][15] Roger Bushell, the leader of the escape, was shot by Gestapo official Emil Schulz just outside Saarbrücken, Germany.[citation needed] Bob Nelson is said to have been spared by the Gestapo because they may have believed he was related to his namesake Admiral Nelson. His friend Dick Churchill was probably spared because of his surname, shared with the British Prime Minister.[16]

 
The graves of 48 of the 50 officers of the Great Escape at Poznan Old Garrison Cemetery
Name Rank Nation Unit Date of death/
Last seen alive		 Cremated
Birkland, Henry J.[17] Flying Officer   CAN No.72 Sqn RAF 30 March 1944[b] Liegnitz (Legnica)
Brettell, E. Gordon[18][19][20] Flight Lieutenant   GBR No.133 Sqn RAF 29 March 1944 Danzig (Gdańsk)
Bull, Leslie G. "Johnny"[21] Squadron Leader   GBR No.109 Sqn RAF 29 March 1944 Brüx (Most)
Bushell, Roger J.[22][23] Squadron Leader   GBR[c] No.92 Sqn RAF 29 March 1944 Saarbrücken
Casey, Michael J.[24][25] Flight Lieutenant   GBR No.57 Sqn RAF 31 March 1944 Görlitz
Catanach, James[26][27] Squadron Leader   AUS No.455 Sqn RAAF 29 March 1944 Kiel
Christensen, Arnold G.[28] Pilot Officer   NZL No.26 Sqn RAF 29 March 1944 Kiel
Cochran, Dennis H.[29] Flying Officer   GBR No.10 OTU RAF 31 March 1944 Natzweiler (Natzwiller)
Cross, Ian E. K. P.[30] Squadron Leader   GBR No.103 Sqn RAF 31 March 1944 Görlitz
Espelid, Halldor Lieutenant   NOR No.331 Sqn (Norwegian) RAF 29 March 1944 Kiel
Evans, Brian H.[31] Flight Lieutenant   GBR No.49 Sqn RAF 31 March 1944[b] Liegnitz
Fuglesang, Nils Jørgen[32] Lieutenant   NOR No.332 Sqn (Norwegian) RAF 29 March 1944 Kiel
Gouws, Johannes S. Lieutenant   ZAF No.40 Sqn SAAF 29 March 1944 Munich
Grisman, William J.[33] Flight Lieutenant   GBR No.109 Sqn RAF 6 April 1944 Breslau (Wrocław)
Gunn, Alastair D. M.[34][35] Flight Lieutenant   GBR No.1 PRU RAF 6 April 1944 Breslau
Hake, Albert H.[36] Flight Lieutenant   AUS No.72 Sqn RAF 31 March 1944 Görlitz
Hall, Charles P.[37] Flight Lieutenant   GBR No.1 PRU RAF 31 March 1944[b] Liegnitz
Hayter, Anthony R. H.[38][39] Flight Lieutenant   GBR No.148 Sqn RAF 6 April 1944 Natzweiler
Humphreys, Edgar S.[40][41] Flight Lieutenant   GBR No.107 Sqn RAF 31 March 1944[b] Liegnitz
Kidder, Gordon A.[42] Flying Officer   CAN No.156 Sqn RAF 29 March 1944 Mährisch Ostrau (Moravská Ostrava)
Kierath, Reginald V.[43][44] Flight Lieutenant   AUS No.450 Sqn RAAF 29 March 1944 Brüx
Kiewnarski, Antoni[45] Flight Lieutenant   POL No.305 Sqn (Polish) RAF 31 March 1944 unknown
Kirby-Green, Thomas G.[46][47] Squadron Leader   GBR No.40 Sqn RAF 29 March 1944 Mährisch Ostrau
Kolanowski, Włodzimierz A. Flying Officer   POL No.301 Sqn (Polish) RAF 31 March 1944[b] Liegnitz
Król, Stanisław Z. Flying Officer   POL No.64 Sqn RAF 12 April 1944 Breslau
Langford, Patrick W.[48][49][50] Flight Lieutenant   CAN No.16 OTU RAF 31 March 1944[b] Liegnitz
Leigh, Tom[51][52] Flight Lieutenant   AUS No.76 Sqn RAF 31 March 1944 Görlitz
Long, James L. R.[53][54] Flight Lieutenant   GBR No.9 Sqn RAF 12 April 1944 Breslau
Marcinkus, Romas[55] Flight Lieutenant   LTU No.1 Sqn RAF 29 March 1944 Danzig
McGarr, Clement A. N.[56] Lieutenant   ZAF No.2 Sqn SAAF 6 April 1944 Breslau
McGill, George E.[57] Flight Lieutenant   CAN No.103 Sqn RAF 31 March 1944[b] Liegnitz
Milford, Harold J.[58][59] Flight Lieutenant   GBR No.226 Sqn RAF 6 April 1944 Breslau
Mondschein, Jerzy T.[60] Flying Officer   POL No.304 Sqn (Polish) RAF 29 March 1944 Brüx
Pawluk, Kazimierz[61] Flying Officer   POL No.305 Sqn (Polish) RAF 31 March 1944 unknown
Picard, Henri A.[62][63] Flight Lieutenant   BEL No.350 Sqn (Belgian) RAF 29 March 1944 Danzig
Pohe, John[64][65] Flying Officer   NZL No.51 Sqn RAF 31 March 1944 Görlitz
Scheidhauer, Bernard W. M.[66] Lieutenant   FRA No.131 Sqn RAF 29 March 1944 Saarbrücken
Skanzikas, Sotiris[67] Pilot Officer   GRC No.336 Sqn (Greek) RAF 30 March 1944 unknown
Stevens, Rupert J. Lieutenant   ZAF No.12 Sqn SAAF 29 March 1944 Munich
Stewart, Robert C.[68][69] Flying Officer   GBR No.77 Sqn RAF 31 March 1944[b] Liegnitz
Stower, John Gifford[70][71] Flying Officer   ARG No.142 Sqn RAF 31 March 1944 Liegnitz
Street, Denys O.[72][73] Flying Officer   GBR No.207 Sqn RAF 6 April 1944 Breslau
Swain, Cyril D.[74] Flight Lieutenant   GBR No.105 Sqn RAF 31 March 1944[b] Liegnitz
Tobolski, Paweł Flying Officer   POL No.301 Sqn (Polish) RAF 2 April 1944 Breslau
Valenta, Arnošt[75] Flight Lieutenant   CZE No.311 Sqn (Czechoslovak) RAF 31 March 1944[b] Liegnitz
Walenn, Gilbert W.[76] Flight Lieutenant   GBR No.25 OTU RAF 29 March 1944 Danzig
Wernham, James C.[77][78] Flight Lieutenant   CAN No.405 Sqn RCAF 30 March 1944 unknown
Wiley, George W.[79][80][81] Flight Lieutenant   CAN No.112 Sqn RAF 31 March 1944 Görlitz
Williams, John E. A.[82][83] Squadron Leader   AUS No.450 Sqn RAAF 29 March 1944 Brüx
Williams, John F.[84][85] Flight Lieutenant   GBR No.107 Sqn RAF 6 April 1944 Breslau

Survivors edit

  • Squadron Leader BA "Jimmy" James MC, RAF was shot down over the Netherlands on 5 June 1940, and subsequently was involved in 13 escape efforts from various camps and prisons, including the 'Great Escape'. He wrote an account of these escapes in his 1983 book Moonless Night. He died on 18 January 2008 aged 92.[86]
  • Flight Lieutenant Bernard "Pop" Green, RAF was one of the escapees who was captured by the Germans and sent back to Stalag Luft III. He survived the war and returned home to Buckinghamshire. He died November 2, 1971.[87] Green was the oldest person to be involved in the escape, 56 years old and born in 1887. His grandson Lawrence Green wrote a book about him in 2012 entitled Great War to Great Escape: The Two Wars of Flight Lieutenant Bernard 'Pop' Green MC.[88]
  • Flight Lieutenant Tony Bethell was an RAF officer who was shot down and captured in the Netherlands on 7 December 1942.  He was taken to Stalag Luft III and, aged 21, was the youngest man to escape through 'Harry' tunnel on 24 March 1944. He was captured on 28 March and interrogated by the Gestapo before being returned to Stalag Luft III, where he spent his 22nd birthday (9 April 1944) in the cooler. He died at his home in Canada in 2004. In honour of her husband, Lorna Bethell donated $2,000,000 and organized a fundraising that resulted in the opening of Bethell Hospice in 2010.[89]
  • Jack Harrison, who was one of the 200 men of the Great Escape, died on 4 June 2010, at the age of 97.[90][91]
  • Les Broderick, who kept watch over the entry of the "Dick" tunnel, died on 8 April 2013 aged 91. He was in a group of three who had escaped out of the "Harry" tunnel but were recaptured when a cottage they had hoped to rest in turned out to be full of soldiers.[92]
  • Ken Rees, a digger, was in the tunnel when the escape was discovered. He later lived in North Wales and died at age 93 on 30 August 2014. His book is called Lie in the Dark and Listen.[93][94]
  • Flying Officer Gordon King of Edmonton, Alberta, Canada,[95] had been number 141 to escape and operated the pump to send air into the tunnel. Speaking candidly of his high number and resulting inability to get out of the tunnel that night, he said he considered himself fortunate. King had been shot down over Germany in 1943 and spent the rest of the war as a prisoner. He participated in the Battle Scars television series in his home town of Edmonton.[95]
  • Jack Lyon, number 79 on the roster, celebrated his 100th birthday in 2017.[96] He died on 12 March 2019, aged 101.
  • Paul Royle, a Bristol Blenheim pilot, was interviewed in March 2014 as part of the 70th anniversary of the escape, living in Perth, Australia at the age of 100. He downplayed the significance of the escape and did not claim that he did anything extraordinary, saying: "While we all hoped for the future we were lucky to get the future. We eventually defeated the Germans and that was that." Royle died, aged 101, in August 2015.[97]
  • Dick Churchill was the last surviving of the 76 escapees before his death on 15 February 2019;[98][99] then an RAF Squadron Leader, he was among the 23 not executed by the Nazis.[16][97] Churchill, a Handley Page Hampden bomber pilot, was discovered after the escape hiding in a hay loft. In a 2014 interview at the age of 94, he said he was fairly certain that he had been spared execution because his captors thought he might be related to British Prime Minister Winston Churchill.[16]
  • Charles Clarke was an RAF officer who served as a bomb aimer. After his Lancaster bomber crashed, he was captured and sent to Stalag Luft III; arriving weeks before the Great Escape. He did not take part in the escape itself, but had helped to forge papers and acted as a "watcher". He later took part in the forced march, before being liberated. He remained in the RAF after the war, reaching the rank of Air Commodore. He returned to the camp in later life and helped build a replica of Hut 104 (where the Great Escape tunnel started). He also retraced the forced march on each anniversary. He died on 7 May 2019.[100][101][102]
  • Ben Guild was a radio operator on the aeroplane May Be, a B-25J Bombardier, which crashed on 6 February 1945 at Monte Brugnolo.[103] He was captured and held at Stalag Luft III before he was transferred to Stalag XIII-D.

In boldface, the three escapees who managed to reach freedom.

Name Rank Nation Unit
Armstrong, Albert Flight Lieutenant   GBR RAFVR (General Duties Branch)
Bergsland, Per Sergeant   NOR No. 332 Squadron RAF
Bethell, Richard A. Flight Lieutenant   GBR No. 268 Squadron RAF
Broderick, Leslie C.J. Flight Lieutenant   GBR No. 106 Squadron RAF
Cameron, William J. Flight Lieutenant   CAN No. 72 Squadron RAF
Churchill, Richard S.A. Flight Lieutenant   GBR No. 144 Squadron RAF
Day, Harry M.A. Wing Commander   GBR No. 57 Squadron RAF
Dodge, John B. Major   GBR The Middlesex Regiment (Duke of Cambridge's Own)
Dowse, Sydney H, Flight Lieutenant   GBR No. 1 Photographic Reconnaissance Unit RAF
Dvořák, Bedřich Flight Lieutenant   CZE No. 312 (Czechoslovak) Squadron RAF
Green, Bernard Flight Lieutenant   GBR No. 44 Squadron RAF
James, Bertram A. Pilot Officer   GBR No. 9 Squadron RAF
Langlois, Roy B. Flight Lieutenant   GBR No. 12 Squadron RAF
Marshall, Henry C. Flight Lieutenant   GBR No. 3 Photographic Reconnaissance Unit RAF
McDonald, Alistair T. Flight Lieutenant   GBR No. 1 Photographic Reconnaissance Unit RAF
Müller Jens E. Second Lieutenant   NOR No. 331 Squadron RAF
Neely, Alexander D. Lieutenant   GBR No. 825 Squadron Fleet Air Arm
Nelson, Thomas R. Flight Lieutenant   GBR No. 37 Squadron RAF
Oglivie, Alfred K. Flight Lieutenant   CAN No. 609 Squadron RAF
Plunkett, Desmond L. Flight Lieutenant   RSR No. 218 Squadron RAF
Poynter, Douglas A. Lieutenant   GBR No. 825 Squadron Fleet Air Arm
Royle, Paul G. Pilot Officer   GBR No. 53 Squadron RAF
Shand, Michael M. Flight Lieutenant   NZL No. 485 Squadron RNZAF
Thompson, Alfred B. Flight Lieutenant   CAN No. 102 Squadron RAF
Tonder, Ivo Flight Lieutenant   CZE No. 312 (Czechoslovak) Squadron RAF
Trent, Leonard H. Squadron Leader   NZL No. 487 Squadron RNZAF
van der Stok, Bram Flight Lieutenant   NED No. 41 Squadron RAF
van Wymeersch, Raymond Flight Lieutenant   FRA No. 174 Squadron RAF

The 3 Successful Escapees edit

There were three successful escapees:

Bergsland and Müller escaped together, and made it to neutral Sweden by train and boat with the help of friendly Swedish sailors.[104] Van der Stok, granted one of the first slots by the Escape Committee owing to his language and escape skills, travelled through much of occupied Europe with the help of the French Resistance before finding safety at a British consulate in Spain.[15]

Blank edit

Seventeen captured escapees were returned to Stalag Luft III.

Two captured escapees were sent to Oflag IV-C at Colditz Castle, and four were sent to Sachsenhausen concentration camp, where one quipped "the only way out of here is up the chimney."[105] They managed to tunnel out and escape three months later, although they were recaptured and returned;[1][15]

Aftermath edit

 
Memorial to "The Fifty" down the road toward Żagań.

Following the escape, the Germans made an inventory of the camp and uncovered how extensive the operation had been. Four thousand bed boards had gone missing, as well as 90 complete double bunk beds, 635 mattresses, 192 bed covers, 161 pillow cases, 52 twenty-man tables, 10 single tables, 34 chairs, 76 benches, 1,212 bed bolsters, 1,370 beading battens, 1,219 knives, 478 spoons, 582 forks, 69 lamps, 246 water cans, 30 shovels, 300 m (1,000 ft) of electric wire, 180 m (600 ft) of rope, and 3,424 towels. 1,700 blankets had been used, along with more than 1,400 Klim cans.[6] Electric cable had been stolen after being left unattended by German workers; because they had not reported the theft, they were executed by the Gestapo.[106] Thereafter each bed was supplied with only nine bed boards, which were counted regularly by the guards.[citation needed]

The Gestapo investigated the escape and, whilst this uncovered no significant new information, the camp commandant, von Lindeiner-Wildau, was removed and threatened with court martial. Having feigned mental illness to avoid imprisonment, he was later wounded by Soviet troops advancing toward Berlin, while acting as second in command of an infantry unit. He surrendered to British forces as the war ended, and was a prisoner of war for two years at the prisoner of war camp known as the "London Cage". He testified during the British SIB investigation concerning the Stalag Luft III murders. Originally one of Göring's personal staff, after being refused retirement, von Lindeiner had been posted as Sagan commandant. He had followed the Geneva Accords concerning the treatment of POWs and had won the respect of the senior prisoners.[107] He was repatriated in 1947 and died in 1963 aged 82.

On April 6, 1944, the new camp commandant Oberstleutnant Erich Cordes informed Massey that he had received official communication from the German High Command that 41 of the escapees had been shot while resisting arrest. Massey was himself repatriated on health grounds a few days later.

Over subsequent days, prisoners collated the names of 47 prisoners they considered to be unaccounted for. On 15 April (17 April in some sources) (The Red Cross paid a visit to the camp on 22 May 1944. The previous visit had taken place on 26 July 1943) the new senior British officer, Group Captain Douglas Wilson (RAAF), surreptitiously passed a list of these names to an official visitor from the Swiss Red Cross.[108]

Cordes was replaced soon afterwards by Oberst Werner Braune. Braune was appalled that so many escapees had been killed, and allowed the prisoners who remained there to build a memorial, to which he also contributed. (The memorial still stands at its original site.)

The British government learned of the deaths from a routine visit to the camp by Swiss authorities as the protecting power in May; the Foreign Secretary Anthony Eden announced the news to the House of Commons on 19 May 1944.[109][110] Shortly afterwards the repatriated Massey arrived in Britain and briefed the Government regarding the fate of the escapees. Eden updated Parliament on 23 June, promising that, at the end of the war, those responsible would be brought to exemplary justice.[111]

Postwar investigation and prosecutions edit

General Arthur Nebe, who is believed to have selected the airmen to be shot, was involved in the 20 July plot to kill Hitler and was executed by Nazi authorities in 1945.

After the war ended, Wg Cdr. Wilfred Bowes of the RAF Police Special Investigation Branch (SIB) began to research the Great Escape and launched a manhunt for German personnel considered responsible for killing escapees.[112] As a result, several former Gestapo and military personnel were convicted of war crimes.

Colonel Telford Taylor was the US prosecutor in the German High Command case at the Nuremberg Trials. The indictment called for the General Staff of the Army and the High Command of the German Armed Forces to be considered criminal organisations; the witnesses were several of the surviving German field marshals and their staff officers.[113] One of the crimes charged was of the murder of the fifty.[114] Colonel of the Luftwaffe Bernd von Brauchitsch, who served on the staff of Reich Marshal Hermann Göring, was interrogated by Captain Horace Hahn about the murders.[115] Several Gestapo officers responsible for the murders were executed or imprisoned.

In 1964, the West German government agreed to provide a million pounds as compensation to British victims of Nazism, which included survivors of the escape from Stalag Luft III. However, many former British POWs, including many of those who had been imprisoned at Stalag Luft III, had their claims rejected, leading to the political controversy known as the "Sachsenhausen affair" in 1967.[116]


Notes edit

  1. ^ This excludes the time Escapees were on the run. This is mainly because of very few reliable sources.
  2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Flying Officers Włodzimierz Kolanowski, Robert Stewart and Henry Birkland and Flight Lieutenants Ernst Valenta, Edgar Humphreys, George McGill, Cyril Swain, Charles Hall, Patrick Langford and Brian Evans. The men had been taken to Breslau for interrogation, and at about 7 p.m. one evening, they were placed in a lorry and taken on the road to Sagan, with a car driven by Schröder[who?] in the lead. The night was freezing, and about halfway to Sagan, the vehicles stopped. Walters[citation needed]
  3. ^ Born in South Africa

References edit

  1. ^ a b c d e f g h i "Pilot Officer Bertram A. "Jimmy" James". Retrieved 21 October 2009.
  2. ^ a b "Squadron Leader Roger Bushell". Retrieved 26 August 2014.
  3. ^ "Wartime Great Escape hero Herbert Martin Massey honoured at Hilton birthplace". Derby Telegraph. 5 December 2016.[permanent dead link]
  4. ^ Brickhill 1950, p. 38.
  5. ^ Dando-Collins 2016, p. 97.
  6. ^ a b c d e f g "Great Escape". Nova. Season 31. Episode 582. 16 November 2004.
  7. ^ "Inside Tunnel "Harry"" (Interactive diagram with 16 annotated points of interest). Documentary film interactive guide. PBS/NOVA. October 2004. Retrieved 27 September 2009.
  8. ^ Pringle, J.K.; Doyle, P.; Babits, L.E. (2007). "Multidisciplinary investigations at Stalag Luft III allied prisoner-of-war camp: The site of the 1944 "great escape," Zagan, Western Poland". Geoarchaeology. 22 (7): 729–746. doi:10.1002/gea.20184. ISSN 0883-6353. S2CID 53546701.
  9. ^ Compasses were made from melted fragments of broken Bakelite gramophone records, incorporating a tiny needle made from slivers of magnetised razor blades. On the underside of each the prisoners stamped "Made in Stalag Luft III – Patent Pending".[citation needed]
  10. ^ Brickhill 1950, p. [page needed], "13".
  11. ^ Cite error: The named reference WarDept was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
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