The Great Escape

The Great Escape had to of been one of the most audacious stunts to this day, 200 crew men attempting to escape Stalag Lult III ( a German prison camp) back in March 1944. The escape had involved many months of careful planning, this included digging the 330 foot in length tunnel for the escape. Wing commander Rees was one of the sole tunnellers who prepared the tunnel for the great escape. After the escape of 76 men, he proceeded to escape himself. But to his horror the tunnel was found.

For the tunnel to be successful and be undetected it had to be constructed roughly 9 metres under ground. The tunnel itself was very small, about 2 feet wide.
Larger areas were dug to house the air pumps for ventilation, workshop and staging post. The ventilation was designed using klim tins, hockey sticks and knapsacks. Each wall had been kept up with wood salvaged from the yard.

The biggest source for wood was from their beds, believe it or not. Tin milk cans supplied by the Red Cross were transformed into candle holders and shovels for scoping away the soil in the tunnel, the candles were made by skimming the fat from soup served in the prison camp, wicks made from old clothing. Very useful that would have been.

Electric lights were installed and fitted using the camps electric grid, small rails were installed so they could transport sand and materials more quickly. Most of these operations were used in old mining operations. There method for dumping sand was an old sock in their trousers, this meant the prisoner could walk about disposing of the sand.

Later on it got too dangerous to dump sand, so they started to dispose of it in their store room where they stored passports, compasses and maps for the escape. Not to forget the German and civilian uniforms.

With the tunnel complete they waited for a moonless night in March 1944, a night so they could escape under the cover of darkness. The escape began only to reveal a flaw, the tunnel was too short, It didn’t reach the forest as first planned. Although they weren’t discovered till the 77th man, when he was seen by a guard.

Following the escape the German guards found out how daring and extensive the escape was.

4000 bed board were missing
Disappearance of 90 beds
52 tables
34 chairs
1700 blankets
1400 Kilm cans