Stalag Luft III (Stammlager Luft, or Permanent Camp for Airmen #3) was a German prisoner of war camp during World War II that housed captured air force personnel and was operated by the German Luftwaffe. It was located near Sagan, in modern-day Poland, 100 miles (160 km) southeast of Berlin. The site is best known because of a two famous prisoner escapes that took place there. The first was recorded in the book and film The Wooden Horse. The second was in March 1944 and was later immortalized by the movie The Great Escape.
The prison camp had a number of design features that made escape extremely difficult. Tunneling, in particular, was discouraged by several facts. First, the barracks housing the prisoners were raised several inches off the ground to make it easier for guards to detect any tunneling activity. Second, the camp itself had been constructed on land that had a very sandy subsoil . The sand was brightly colored, so it could easily be detected if anyone dumped it on the surface or even just had some of it on their clothing. In addition, the sand meant that the structural integrity of a tunnel would be very poor. A third defense against tunneling was the placement of microphones around the perimeter of the camp, able to detect any sounds of digging just below the surface.
A plot for a major escape from the camp began brewing in January of 1943. The idea consisted of three tunnels, code-named "Tom," "Dick," and "Harry." Each of the tunnel entrances was carefully selected to ensure they were undetectable by the camp guards. The tunnel "Tom" began in a darkened corner of a hall in one of the buildings. "Dick's" entrance was carefully hidden in a drain sump for one of the washrooms. The entrance to "Harry" was hidden under a stove.
In order to keep the tunnels from being detected by the perimeter microphones, they became very deep—tiny corridors about 30 feet (9 meters) below the surface. The tunnels were very small, only a few feet wide. The sandy walls in the tunnels were braced with pieces of wood scavenged from all over the camp. One main source of wood was from the beds the prisoners slept on. At the beginning, each had about 20 boards supporting the mattress. Only about eight were left on each bed by the time of the escape. A number of other pieces of wooden furniture were also scavenged.
A variety of other materials were also scavenged. Perhaps the most-used item was the Klim can, a tin can that originally held powdered milk ("Klim" is "milk" spelled backwards), supplied by the Red Cross for the prisoners. The metal in the cans could be fashioned into a variety of different tools and other useful items such as scoops and candle holders. Candles were fashioned by skimming the fat off the top of soup served at the camp and putting it in tiny tin vessels. Wicks were readily available from old and worn clothing.
As the tunnels grew longer, a number of technical innovations made the job easier and safer. One important issue was ensuring that the person digging had enough oxygen to breathe and keep his lamps lit. A pump was built to bring fresh air into the tunnels. It was built of a number of odd items including major bed pieces, hockey sticks, and knapsacks—not to mention the ubiquitous Klim tins.
Later, electric lighting was installed, hooked into the camp's electrical grid. The tunnels also gained small rail car systems for moving sand more quickly, much like the systems used in old mining operations. The rails apparently helped to move 130 tons of material during just five months of 1943.
Unfortunately, with three tunnels, the prisoners were running out of places to dump sand. The usual method of disposing of sand was to discreetly scatter it on the surface. Small pouches made of old socks were attached inside the prisoners' trousers. As they walked around, the sand would scatter. Sometimes, the prisoners would dump sand into small gardens that they were allowed to tend. As one prisoner turned soil, the other would release sand while the two appeared to carry on normal conversation.
Eventually, however, the prisoners felt they could no longer dump sand on the surface. The decision was made to start filling up "Dick" but also use it as a storage room for a variety of forged items such as stamps, clothing, and official-looking documents since the extremely well-hidden entrance made it nearly impossible for the Germans to find. These materials would eventually be used by freed prisoners to more easily travel away from the prison camp—by train, if possible.
As the war heated up, the German prison camps began to be flooded with American prisoners. The Germans decided that new camps would be built specifically for the U.S. airmen. In an effort to allow as many people to escape as possible including the Americans, efforts on the remaining two tunnels increased. However, the higher level of activity drew the attention of guards, and the entrance to "Tom" was soon discovered.
"Harry" was finally ready in March of 1944. Still, the prisoners had to wait about a week for a moonless night so that they could leave under the cover of complete darkness. Finally, on Friday, March 24, the escape attempt began. Unfortunately for the prisoners, the tunnel had come up short. It had been planned that the tunnel would reach into a nearby forest, but the first man out emerged just short of the tree line. Despite this, dozens of men crawled through the tunnel to freedom, even through an air raid during which the camp's (and the tunnel's) electric lights were shut off. Finally, at 5 AM on March 25, a 77th man was seen emerging from the tunnel by the guards.
Following the escape, the Germans took an inventory of the camp and found out just how extensive the operation had been. Four thousand bed boards went missing, not to mention the complete disappearance of 90 beds, 52 tables, and 34 chairs. 1700 blankets were used, along with more than 1400 Klim tins.
The escape greatly embarrassed the Germans, even drawing the ire of Adolf Hitler. Hitler originally wanted all of the captured escapees to be shot, but his advisors convinced him to execute just 50 of them. As the escapees were captured, they were turned over to the Gestapo and shot "while trying to escape." Out of 76 men, only three were able to evade capture. The three were Per Bergsland and Jens Muller, both Norwegian and Bram van der Stok, Dutch. Muller and Bergsland made it to neutral Sweden while van der Stok got to Gibraltar through Holland, Belgium, France and Spain.
The commandant of Stalag Luft III was appalled by the fact that so many escapees had been killed (which was flatly prohibited under the Geneva Convention), and he allowed the prisoners who remained at the camp to build a memorial, which still stands today. The other 23 men who had been captured were spread out to several different camps in Germany, and most remained imprisoned through the end of the war.
Several, but not all, of the Gestapo officers responsible for the executions of the escapees were themselves tried and executed, or imprisoned, after the war.
See also
References
- Paul Brickhill, The Great Escape. New York, Norton, 1950.
- (November 16, 2004). Great Escape. Nova. Accessed November 17 2004.
- Tim Carroll, "The Great Escapers: The Full Story of the Second World War's Most Remarkable Mass Escape"
- "Horned Pigeon: The Great Escape Story of World War II" (Cassell Military Paperbacks Series) George Millar
- "Lie in the Dark and Listen: The Remarkable Exploits of a WWII Bomber Pilot and Great Escaper", Ken Rees, Karen Arrandale
- Jimmy James: "Moonless Night: Wartime Diary of a Great Escaper"
- "Under the Wire" 2005, William Ash, Brendan Foley ISBN 0593054083
