Soldiers Relive WWII Great Escape 60 Years On

Yahoo! News ^ | 3/18/04 | Meg Clothier - Reuters

[NormsRevenge]

LONDON (Reuters) -

Penguins and stooges, tunnelers and forgers -- they were all there in London this week to remember Tom, Dick and Harry.

These were the men who broke out of Nazi Germany's supposedly escape-proof camp Stalag Luft III on a moonless night in March 1944, creating one of World War II's most enduring legends and inspiring a classic war film.

The Great Escape itself was 60 years ago but Squadron Leader Jimmy James, one of the 76 who escaped through the tunnel code-named Harry, clearly remembers the moments as he waited underground to scramble to freedom.

"I felt a combination of surprise that we'd managed to accomplish this and also there was a tremendous tension, mixed with fear. But mainly I think I was very excited," he told reporters at London's Imperial War Museum.

That night was the culmination of months of preparation, involving hundreds of men across the compound. Stooges warned of approaching guards and "penguins" disposed of the buckets of sand dug up by tunnellers.

"We put sand in long sausage-shaped sacks inside our trousers. The German guards had no orders to watch for people with sand coming out of their trousers," penguin Dr Maurice Driver said.

Three tunnels -- Tom, Dick and Harry -- were started but guards discovered Tom and blew it up. Dick became a store for sand and tools, leaving Harry as the escape tunnel.

But on the night there was a major hitch. The tunnel cleared the barbed wire, but came up short of the woods around the camp that would have covered the escape.

"We had to put a rope from the top of the exit to a man in the woods. One pull meant 'go' and two pulls 'stop'," James said. Using the signals, 76 men made it out.

Ken Rees was meant to be number seventy-nine.

"I was just about to leave. I was about 20 feet from the tunnel exit when I heard a shot fired," he said. A guard had spotted them.

"I crawled backwards up the tunnel. I tried to kick at the shorings to cause a fall. I thought a guard might try to fire up the tunnel behind me."

Rees was put in solitary confinement in the 'cooler', where the film's star Steve McQueen (news) spent long hours throwing a baseball against the wall.

HITLER ORDERS SHOOTINGS

A break-out on this unprecedented scale seriously embarrassed the Nazis and Hitler ordered the Gestapo to shoot 50 of the captured escapees.

"A great friend of mine was one of the 50. I almost felt guilty that he was shot and I wasn't. Normally I don't think about it but when you meet up with people who were in the camp with you..." Rees did not finish the sentence.

After he escaped, James was captured and taken to another camp. "People say, 'Was it worth it?' The Germans had never done anything like that previously but it was war so we had to expect the unexpected," he said.

"Only three men got home. It was a big effort for that," he said.

The Silesian forest in Poland has grown back over the compound but Dick, the store tunnel the Nazis never found, is still there. On Wednesday, Britain's Channel Five will screen a documentary called The Great Escape: Revealed.

"We found the concrete slab that blocked off the tunnel. Remember Charles Bronson (news) washing in the shower in the film? That's Dick. We even found the metal hooks that were used to lift the slab out," said Peter Doyle, whose father was a prisoner-of-war in another camp.

"We found evidence of the bed boards they used to prop up the tunnel, tins they used for air pipes and a forger's rubber stamp made out of the heel of a boot," he added.

"There is such a mythology around the escape. I think they find it hard to believe what they did."

[NormsRevenge]

Former WWII prisoners of war Squadron Leader Jimmy James, left, with Flight Lieutenant Sydney Dowse, talk at the Imperial war Museum in London as they commemorate the 60th anniversary of their escape from a German POW camp, Tuesday March 16, 2004. Both men took part in the 'Great Escape' from a German POW camp Stalag Luft III, on 24 March 1944, in which 76 allied POW's escaped. 50 of those who escaped and were caught were shot on Hitler's orders, with only 6 remaning alive today. They are holding some of the items they used to dig their way out of the camp via three tunnels. (AP Photo/Alastair Grant)

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British Squadron Leader Bertram 'Jimmy' James(L) and Flight Lieutenant Sydney Dowse(R) pose in London March 16, 2004 with a reproduction of a trolley used to transport sand out of tunnels during their WW II escape from a German prisoner of war camp. Penguins and stooges, tunnelers and forgers -- they were all there in London this week to remember Tom, Dick and Harry. These were the men who broke out of Nazi Germany's supposedly escape-proof Stalag Luft III on a moonless night in March 1944, creating one of World War II's most enduring legends and inspiring the classic war film 'The Great Escape.' Photo by Stephen Hird/Reuters

[NormsRevenge]

British Squadron Leader Bertram 'Jimmy' James (L) and Flight Lieutenant Sydney Dowse (R) hold up a reproduction of a notice given to prisoners of war at German camps during the Second World War, on the sixtieth anniversary of their escape from the German Stalag Luft III camp, at the Imperial War Museum in London, March 16, 2004. The escape by 76 Allied officers, who tunnelled their way out of Hermann Goring's supposedly escape-proof camp on March 24, 1944, was portrayed in the 1963 film The Great Escape. Three escapees managed to reach England. The other 73 were recaptured, 50 of whom were murdered by the Gestapo on Adolf Hitler's orders. Only six survivors are still alive. REUTERS/Stephen Hird

[tet68]

God bless them.

[Fiddlstix]

Ping

[apackof2]

Hero bump

[WhiskeyPapa]

Who dares, wins.

[LibFreeUSA]

"Great Escape, The" Steve McQueen 1963 UA Photo Date: 1963>

"Great Escape, The" Steve McQueen 1963 UA
Photo Date: 1963

[DeweyCA]

I have the book that the movie is based on, and the movie is surprisingly close to the actual events. I have watched the movie many times, and still enjoy it. It's a classic.

[IncPen]

... hero ping ...

[bmwcyle]

bttt

[job]

That's pretty much the deal; if you've watched once, you've watched it in whole or in part about 15-20 times.

[AngrySpud]

" It's a classic."

Yup. And I'm gonna have to rent it this weekend.

[StarCMC]

Thanks for posting NR!!

HERO Ping

[Calpernia]

WOW!

Penguins and stooges, tunnelers and forgers -- they were all there in London this week to remember Tom, Dick and Harry.

These were the men who broke out of Nazi Germany's supposedly escape-proof camp Stalag Luft III on a moonless night in March 1944, creating one of World War II's most enduring legends and inspiring a classic war film.

The Great Escape itself was 60 years ago but Squadron Leader Jimmy James, one of the 76 who escaped through the tunnel code-named Harry, clearly remembers the moments as he waited underground to scramble to freedom.

Thank you for the ping!

Private Mail to be added to or removed from the GNFI (or Pro-Coalition) ping list.

[SAMWolf]

Thanks for the ping. One of the better movies and even more fun knowing it was based on real evets.

[OneVike]

I own the movie on DVD and watched it just this past weekend. It is by far one of the best movies in my collection.

There ia a great documentary on the DVD with interviews from a couple of the survivors and some of the actors.

[Alamo-Girl]

Thanks for the ping!

[WhiskeyPapa]

I have the book that the movie is based on, and the movie is surprisingly close to the actual events.

"The Great Escape" by Paul Brickhill. Great stuff.

Walt