Topics About the Great Escape
- The People Involved in The Great Escape
- The Tunnels:
- The Escape on the Night of March 24th and Early Morning of March 25th, 1944
- The Aftermath
The People Involed in The Great Escape:
Squadron Leader (S/L) Roger J Bushell (The Big X)
Squadron Leader (S/L) Roger J Bushell was the leader of The Great Escape, he organized the tunnels the first night that he arived at the PoW(Prisoner of War) camp Stalag Luft III. It was his brains that allowed the PoW's to escape the night they did becausehe decided that instead of one tunnel there should be three. When the German Luftwaffe found the main tunnel "Tom" the PoW's did not have to start a new tunnel because the had been working on two other ones as well.
Flight Officer (F/O) Wally Floody (Tunnel King)
Flight Officer (F/O) Wally Floody was the main tunneller in the Great Escape. As he had mining experience he was a suspect by the German guards. Before the tunnels were complete Floody was transfered to another compound. It is intresting to know that my Grandpa knew Flight Offlice (F/O) Wally Floody because he went to school in Leaside.
Colin Blythe, (The Forger)
Colin Blythe was the lead forger for false papers and train tickets. Blythe's vision was very poor and could only see the work he was doing. His forgeries were perfect. Blythe was denied a spot on the PoW escape list because of his poor eyesight. Hendley, the Scrounger guided Blythe through the tunnel so he could escape. Although Blythe was orignally denied a place in the tunnel Hendley took full responsibility for Blythe's safe escape. Blythe was shot and killed by a German Sharpshooter.
Hendley, (The Scrounger)
Hendley was in charge of stealing all of the items needed for the escape. He befriended a guard in order to get official papers to provide Blythe with the materials needed to make the forgeries. One example of how he got the nickname of "the Scrounger" was when he showed a guard Von Luger's (the German Luftwaffe General who was in charge of the camp) marmalade that he took. When the guard headed to the door to report it, Hendley pick-pocketed the guard's wallet to get the papers for the forgeries.
F/O Ken "Shag" Rees (The Cooler King)
F/O Ken "Shag" Rees was not given a specific task in the tunelling job. Rees tried many escapes with Nobel and always got caught and was placed in the cooler (a solitary confinement jail cell.) Rees sucessfully escaped once and turned himself in. He did this in order to find out where the major streets and railway stations were located. This was very important as they needed maps of the area to escape. Rees escaped and was caught by the German Luftwaffe near the Switzerland border and was returned back to Stalag Luft III
The Tunnels Tom, Dick and Harry
Tom:
"Tom" was the main tunnel but when it was nearing completion it was discovered.One of the guards (code named by the PoW's as goons) accidentally poked the end of his metal rod into a concealed crack at the entrance to Tom. The guards cleared the hut and blew up Tom.
This is a Picture of the size of the entrance shafts (Looking from the tunnel to barrack) to the tunnels, they are 2ft X 2ft. 
Dick:
Dick was the least successful tunnel. The PoW's stop production of it after the area where it was to come up was cleared of trees and a compound was built above it. It was also hidden under a stove. When the sand disposal was falling behind the rate of the digging the PoW's in charge of disposing the sand (code named Penguins) started to shovel it down "Dick".
Harry:
Harry was the tunnel used for the escape. Loacted under a shower drain the tunnel entrance has to be sealed tight so the water would not seep through the bottom of the drain. Harry was sucessfully cleared out of tunnelers and sealed off completey camoflauged in 20 seconds when they got a signal of a guard coming to do a barrack check.
The materials that were used for the tunnel's were as followed: 4,000 bed boards; 1,370 beading battens; 1,699 blankets; 161 pillow cases; 635 palliasses; 34 chairs; 52 20-man tables; 90 double tier bunks; 1,219 knives; 478 spoons; 30 shovels; 1,000 feet of electric wire; 600 feet of rope; 192 bed covers; 3,424 towels; 1,212 bed bolsters; 10 single tables; 76 benches; 246 water cans; 582 forks; 69 lamps.
The tunnels were dug 30 feet underground. From a German point of view Harry would have been the least likley to be completed because it has to stretch over 360 feet to get to the forest.
The sand disposal was a work of art. PoW's code-named penguins were in charge of disposing the sand. It was a diffuicult task because the sand that was dug from the tunnels was a totally different colour than the sand that was from the compound. The penguins filled long thin bags which were sewn to a strap. They then slipped the bags inside their trousers and walking around the compound, disposing the sand from the bottom of the bags.
The Escape on the Night of March 24th, and Early Morning of March 25th, 1944:
On the night of March 24th the PoW's were ready. 220 PoW's were armed with forged papers rations called "fudge" and civillan clothes. The escape was delayed when they surfaced and discovered that they were 30ft. short of the forest. There was also an air raid in Germany by the Allied's which caused Stalag Luft III to shut off all power at the camp. This power included the lights in the tunnel. Out of the 220 PoW's attempting to escape only 76 actually made it out of the tunnel. This was the first successful multi-person escape attempt in Stlag Lugt III. 250 men in the camp were originally chosen to escape through the tunnels but was reduced to 220. This was because of claustrophobia which might alert the guards if they start to panic, or chose to remain and wait the war out.
The Aftermath:
Out of the 76 PoW's that made it out of the tunnel this is what fate became of them:
50 PoW's were killed by the Gestao by order of Aldof Hitler.
23 Pow's were recaptured and returned to Stalag Luft III
3 Pow's successfully escaped and made it out of Germany.
© Copyright Joel Fletcher 2004/05 Grade 8 Language World War II Project, Ms. Elliott's Class
Sir Samuel Steele.
In 1963 there was a movie about The Great Escape starring Steve McQueen, which was released by MGM®.
In 2000 Gothim Games ® release a Great Escape video game for the platforms: Sony Playstation 2 ®, Microsoft X-Box ® and PC Computer
The Great Escape Information (Resources Used)
For More Information about F/O Ken "Shag" Rees Click Here
For More Information about The Great Escape Click Here
For More Information about Flight Officer (F/O) Wally Floody Click Here
