Fourth Tunnel Discovered at Stalag Luft III POW Camp

[M2]

The Classic Steve McQueen Movie 'The Great Escape' Immortalized Three Tunnels at Stalag Luft III POW camp, Now Astonished Archaeologists have Discovered a Fourth Called 'George'

It has lain hidden for nearly 70 years and looks, to the untrained eye, like a building site. But this insignificant tunnel opening in the soft sand of western Poland represents one of the greatest examples of British wartime heroism. And the sensational story became the Hollywood classic, The Great Escape, starring Steve McQueen.

We are standing in the notorious POW camp Stalag Luft III, built at the height of the Third Reich, 100 miles east of Berlin. Ten thousand prisoners were kept under German guns here on a 60-acre site ringed with a double barbed-wire fence and watchtowers.

They slept in barrack huts raised off the ground so guards could spot potential tunnelers, but the Germans did not count on the audacity of British Spitfire pilot Squadron Leader Roger Bushell, played by Sir Richard Attenborough in the 1963 film. He was interned at the camp in March 1943. With him were about 2,000 other RAF officers, many of whom were seasoned escapers from other camps, with skills in tunneling, forgery and manufacturing...(full story at title link)

[ThreeHoler]

[brickhistory]

Great find, M2!

The book, "The Great Escape" by Paul Brickhill, is excellent. The movie by the same name gets some of it right, but is a really good flick anyway.

A book by one of the Americans there, then Lt Col, later Lt Gen, Al Clark is "33 Months as a POW in Stalag Luft III." Besides his take of the POW life, the eye-opener are the early combat sorties by the Americans. His account of the mission he got shot down on is nearly comical because it is so criminal - "Get in, Yank, follow me." But that's how the war often was in the first years.

There's some great other WWII POW books; some about Stalag Luft III, some about some of the others. "Colditz" is another really interesting read.

I've never physically been there, but have used some of the USAFA's collection of POW artifacts and documents for some writing.

Hope we in the US get to see this documentary sometime.

Edited December 13, 2011 by brickhistory