The Great escape - Tunnel "Harry"

[Story]

London, May 4 (ANI): The medals of a late heroic soldier who was known for his nude prison escapade are expected to fetch 12,000 pounds at an auction.

The incredible "home run" of Lieutenant Colonel Ronnie Littledale from the notorious Colditz Castle during the Second World War could have come straight from a work of fiction.

http://in.news.yahoo.com/medals-sol...1pbgRwc3RhaWQDBHB0A3NlY3Rpb25zBHRlc3QD;_ylv=3

 

[Effingham]

I know this is essentially a necroposted thread, but I have to put my oar in.

I *loved* "The Great Escape." When I was in the sixth grade, our English teacher read the book to us after lunch every day, a few pages at a time. (He also read "The Hobbit" to us the same way.) I've loved that book ever since.

 

[Story]

Latter-Day Dig of ‘Great Escape’ Tunnels Humbles Modern Engineers

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/01/12/w...avated-by-modern-engineers.html?_r=1&emc=eta1

In an effort to establish more clearly how the escape was accomplished — and, in a sense, to reclaim the narrative of the breakout — British-based engineers, battlefield archaeologists and historians traveled into the pine forest outside Zagan last summer to unearth the secrets buried there for a television documentary by Wildfire Television in London that was broadcast in late 2011 in Britain. They were accompanied by modern-day Royal Air Force pilots, as well as veterans of wartime bombing raids, now in their 80s, who helped build the tunnels at the encampment known as Stalag Luft III.

The team’s task was to employ “reverse engineering” by uncovering the tunnels and what remained of the tunnelers’ jury-rigged equipment to replicate the wartime fliers’ ingenuity. Ultimately, the team members were stunned that, even without the menace of the ever-watchful Nazi camp guards, they were unable to match their wartime counterparts fully, particularly in the most crucial skill, digging a tunnel 30 feet below the camp surface without repeated collapses of the sandy soil above.

 

[Two Types]

Interesting, there was a second incident that PoWs referred to as 'The Great Escape'. A group of 50 prisoners escaped from Stalag IXC (Bad Sulza) circa 1942. However, I have never been able to establish any details about the escape. I am just hoping that one day someone will come out with the whole story.
Personally I always find all the daring escape stories rather distracting since they take one away from the most important element of the WW2 PoW story: the utter degredation and misery of long term captivity. As one ex-Kriegie once told me, he was in a camp in the middle of nowhere, and had no idea where the camp was. He had no idea of how to read a map. Couldn't speak any foreign languages. Had no way of forging documents and making escape clothes. And anyway, after a ten hour shift in a sugar beet factory, who has got the energy to think about escaping?
He told me that one of his mates decided to get away, planning to reach a port on the baltic and escape by ship. He got away, reached the port, only to find it was full of prisoners of war working in the docks. he gave up and walked back to his PoW camp and handed himself in.

 

[Story]

Alex Cassie, who has died aged 95, played a key role in producing forged documents and papers for the mass break out from Stalag Luft III in 1944, which was immortalised in the film The Great Escape.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/obituaries/9203209/Alex-Cassie.html

 

[eagleaxe814]

Hi Stan. I've been doing research on that same exact plane and the same crew and stumbled on this post from google because my grandfather was on the same plane as your uncle. His name was George Gaydos and was the bombardier and he was also in Stalag Luft III after the the last engine failed. He passed away before I was born so I never got to know him or hear any stories or I'd share more...from what I understand, they did manage to hit the target despite my grandfather being injured not long before they were over the ball-bearing factory and it looks like your uncle did a great job keeping that thing up as long as he could before they had to jump. Hats off.