I disagree with the author that there was no duty for a prisoner to try to escape. It may not have been part of an actual sworn oath, but the duty to continue opposing the enemy was still there. I also disagree with the implication that the Great Escape was some kind of futile gesture. It caused the Germans to devote significant resources to recapturing the escapees.
Dude obviously never memorized the Code of Conduct, or went through SERE training. There is a duty to escape! Article III reads, “If I am captured I will continue to resist by all means available. I will make every effort to escape and aid others to escape. I will accept neither parole nor special favors from the enemy.”
Read James Nick Rowe’s book “Five Years to Freedom” about his POW life in the hands of the VC in the Mekong Delta of So. Vietnam. He was the only POW in his group that survived years of a cruel captivity.
Nick, a friend of mine, was assassinated by the communists in the Philippines while serving as an American military advisor.
The congressional testimony of pilot Dietrich Dengler who was captured in Laos is also hard reading about a brave man who finally escaped communist I’m imprisonment