User:WLRoss/Sandbox

Draft Article. My intention is to split the escape from the Luft III article (create two articles from one). The prisoner list page was created after I had already started this project so this article will eliminate the need for that as well as the need for a similar list of Gestapo offenders which has not yet to be created.

Date Started: Friday March 27, 2009 (took a break from Saturday December 12, 2009 to Tuesday January 11, 2011)
Date completed: ongoing

Model of a Stalag Luft III compound at the nearby museum

The "Great Escape" was a World War II mass escape from the German prisoner-of-war camp Stalag Luft III. It was the basis of The Great Escape, a book by former Luft III inmate Paul Brickhill describing the escape and the similarly named The Great Escape, a film based on the book.

The "Great Escape"

In the Spring of 1943, Squadron Leader Roger Bushell RAF conceived a plan for a major escape from the camp, which occurred the night of March 24–25, 1944.

Bushell was held in the North Compound where British airmen were housed. He was in command of the Escape Committee and channeled the effort into probing for weaknesses and looking for opportunities. Falling back on his legal background to represent his scheme, Bushell called a meeting of the Escape Committee and not only shocked those present with its scope, but injected into every man a passionate determination to put their every energy into the escape. He declared,

"Everyone here in this room is living on borrowed time. By rights we should all be dead! The only reason that God allowed us this extra ration of life is so we can make life hell for the Hun... In North Compound we are concentrating our efforts on completing and escaping through one master tunnel. No private-enterprise tunnels allowed. Three bloody deep, bloody long tunnels will be dug - Tom, Dick, and Harry. One will succeed!"

The simultaneous digging of these tunnels would become an advantage if any one of them was discovered by the Germans, because the guards would scarcely imagine that another two could be well underway. The most radical aspect of the plan was not merely the scale of the construction, but the sheer number of men that Bushell intended to pass through these tunnels. Previous attempts had involved the escape of anything up to a dozen or twenty men, but Bushell was proposing to get in excess of 200 out, all of whom would be wearing civilian clothes and possessing a complete range of forged papers and escape equipment. It was an unprecedented undertaking and would require unparalleled organization. As the mastermind of the Great Escape, Roger Bushell inherited the codename of "Big X". 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 in one of the washrooms. The entrance to "Harry" was hidden under a stove. More than 600 prisoners were involved in their construction.

The Escape Committee

The first Senior British Officer (SBO) was Group Captain (G/C) Harry "Wings" Day. Replaced in June 1942 when a more senior officer, G/C Herbert M. Massey arrived in the camp. Due to the leg injury suffered when his aircraft was downed, Massey was repatriated to Britain by the Germans shortly after the escape.

Squadron Leader (S/L) Roger J. Bushell, a former Olympic skier, was appointed head of the Luft III executive Escape committee. Due to previous escape attempts, Bushell had been officially warned he would be shot if he escaped again. Bushell had an "unyielding hatred" for all Germans and made no distinction between Gestapo and the "good" Germans who treated the prisoners well. As Luftwaffe guards were the least Nazified of the services and generally respected by most prisoners, Bushell was made responsible for blackmail to get the more difficult items required for a successful escape.

Peter Hornblower Fanshawe RN Member of the executive committee.

Flying Officer (F/O) Wally Floody Member of the executive committee. Floody was one of 19 men suspected by the Germans of constructing a tunnel and transferred to Stalag VIIIC shortly before the escape.

Flight Lieutenant (F/L) George Harsh RCAF was a member of the Escape executive committee and one of Luft III’s "security officers". He was one of the 19 “suspects” transferred to Stalag VIIIC shortly before the escape. Born in 1910 to a wealthy and prominent Georgia family, Harsh, a medical student, was sentenced to life imprisonment in 1929 for the self confessed thrill killing of a grocer. In 1941 he saved the life of a fellow prisoner after performing an emergency Appendicectomy for which the Georgia governor granted him a pardon. He then joined the RCAF as a tail gunner and after being shot down in 1942 was sent to Stalag Luft III. In 1971 he published his autobiography which has since been translated into German and Russian. On Christmas Eve 1974 he survived a suicide attempt which left him partially paralysed. Fellow ex POW Wally Floody and his wife subsequently invited him to live with them in Toronto where they cared for him until he was admitted to the Sunnybrook Medical Centre where passed away in January 1980. [1]

Key Personnel

F/O Wally Floody: a mining engineer before the war and the camps Tunnel Rat, Floody oversaw the construction of all three tunnels.

Johnny Travis: a Rhodesian airman, oversaw the manufacture of items such as compasses for the escape kits.

F/L ”Tim” Walenn and F/L Des Plunkett: Walenn was the head forger for the documents needed for a successful escape while Plunkett was responsible for map making. The mapmaking and forgery “departments” were called respectively Dean and Dawson after a prominent travel agency in England. The documents included a Dienstausweise (a brown card printed on buckram, giving permission to be on Wehrmacht property), Urlaubscheine (a yellow form used as a permit for foreign workers), Ruckkehrscheine (a pink form for foreign workers returning home), Kennkarte (a light grey general identity card), Sichtvermark (visa) and the Ausweise and Vorlaufweise (pass and temporary pass). Documents were changed frequently by the Germans so great care had to be taken to make sure the forged documents were current. Additionally, some of these were as detailed as banknotes and it could take weeks of work to complete a single card.

Marcel “Axel” Zillessen RAF: was born in Yorkshire of German parentage. After schooling in Bradford he attended university in Berlin. Due to his flawless command of the Berlin dialect used by German high society, the camps German officers employed him to write love letters to their wives and girlfriends on their behalf. This gave him access to the high quality paper and inks needed by Walenn to forge documents. Zillessen was next in line for his turn to escape when the tunnel was discovered.

Tommy Guest: a tailor before the war, was in charge of tailoring workmen’s clothes and other “civilian” attire from prisoners uniforms.

P/O "Digger" Macintosh: a carpenter, made the hidden spaces around the camp where items could be concealed until ready for use.

S/L Dr Bob Nelson: designed the ventilation and trolley system used in the tunnels.

Peter Fanshawe RN: organised the Penguins. These were the prisoners who dispersed the sand while walking about the compound and got their name from the greatcoats they wore to help conceal the bulges from the socks filled with sand that were hidden in their trouser legs and the waddle required to spread the sand when dropped. The guards were aware it was happening and it is known that at least one was being followed regularly but German procedure was to allow the practice to continue in the hope that it would eventually lead to the source of the sand. Tunnel Tom was in fact discovered when a guard watching the Penguins from outside the camp noticed that several came from the hut where it’s entrance was concealed. However, they also noticed that the dispersal of sand later recommenced and after months of failing to find another tunnel, 19 prisoners suspected of being involved were transferred to Stalag VIIIC several weeks before the escape. Only six of these were heavily involved in the tunnel construction.

German prison guards: Predominantly either civilians too old for combat duty or young Luftwaffe crew recovering from wounds, many were on friendly terms with the POW’s and bribery with cigarettes, coffee or chocolate was usually sufficient to encourage guards to supply blank documents or loan official papers to be used as samples for forgery. A camera with film was acquired after Bushell threatened to inform on a guard who had naively signed a receipt for chocolate he had accepted as a bribe. After the war ended several Luft III prison guards, including Oberfeldwebel Hermann Glemnitz who was the senior security officer responsible for preventing escapes, were invited to Luft III POW reunions.

Tunnel construction

In order to keep the tunnels from being detected by the perimeter microphones, they were very deep — about 30 feet (9 m) below the surface. The tunnels were very small, only 2 feet (0.6 m) square, though larger chambers were dug to house the air pump, a workshop, and staging posts along each tunnel. The sandy walls of the tunnels were shored up with pieces of wood scavenged from all over the camp. One main source of wood was the prisoners' beds. At the beginning, each had about twenty boards supporting the mattress. By the time of the escape, only about eight were left on each bed. A number of other pieces of wooden furniture were also scavenged.

Entrance of "Harry" showing outline of building

A variety of other materials was also scavenged. One such item was Klim cans; tin cans that had originally held powdered milk, supplied by the Red Cross for the prisoners. The metal in the cans could be fashioned into a variety of different tools and 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 made from old and worn clothing. The main use of the Klim tins, however, was in the construction of the extensive ventilation ducting in all three tunnels.

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 push fresh air along the ducting into the tunnels - invented by Squadron Leader Bob Nelson of 37 Squadron. The pumps were built of odd items including major bed pieces, hockey sticks, and knapsacks — as well as Klim tins.

Later, electric lighting was installed and hooked into the camp's electrical grid. The tunnelers also installed small rail car systems for moving sand more quickly. The rails were key to moving an estimated 140 cubic meters (200 tons) of sand in a twelve-month period; they also reduced the time taken for tunnelers to reach the digging faces.

With three tunnels, the prisoners needed 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 the prisoners 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 the soil, another would release sand while the two appeared to carry on a normal conversation. The prisoners wore greatcoats to conceal the bulges made by the socks and were referred to as "penguins" because of their supposed resemblance to the animal. More than 200 were recruited who were to make an estimated 25,000 trips.

The Germans were aware that something major was going on, but all attempts to discover tunnels failed. In an attempt to break up any escape attempts, nineteen of their top suspects were transferred without warning to Stalag VIIIC. Of those, only six were heavily involved with tunnel construction.

"Harry"

Eventually, the prisoners felt they could no longer dump sand on the surface as the Germans became too efficient at catching prisoners using this method. After "Dick's" planned exit surface became covered by a camp expansion, the decision was made to start filling the tunnel up. As the tunnel's entrance was very well-hidden, "Dick" was also used as a storage room for a variety of items such as maps, postage stamps, forged travel permits, compasses, and clothing such as German uniforms and civilian suits. Surprisingly, a number of friendly guards co-operated in supplying railway timetables, maps, and the large number of official papers required to allow them to be forged. Some genuine civilian clothes were also obtained by bribing German staff with cigarettes, coffee or chocolate. These were used by escaping prisoners to travel away from the prison camp more easily — by train, if possible.

The prisoners later ran out of places to hide the sand and snow cover now made it impractical to scatter it over the ground. Underneath the seats in the theatre was a huge enclosed area, but the theatre had been built using tools and materials supplied on parole and the parole system was regarded as inviolate - such equipment was never used for other purposes. Internal "legal advice" was taken, and the SBOs decided that the theatre itself did not fall under the parole system. Seat 13 was hinged and the sand problem was solved.

As the war progressed, the German prison camps began to be overwhelmed 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 in September 1943 the entrance to "Tom" became the 98th tunnel to be discovered in the camp. Guards hiding in the woods watching the "penguins" noticed sand was being removed from the hut where Tom was located. Work on "Harry" ceased and did not resume until January 1944.

Tunnel "Harry" completed

"Harry" was finally ready in March 1944, but the American prisoners, some of whom had worked on the tunnel "Tom", had been moved to another compound seven months earlier. No American prisoners of war actually participated in the "great escape", with one possible exception, Flight Lieutenant E. G. Brettell RAF(VR) of 133 (Eagle) Squadron. Previously, this escape attempt had been planned for the summer as good weather would be a large factor in the escapes success. However, in early 1944 the Gestapo had visited the camp and ordered increased efforts in detecting possible escape attempts. Bushell ordered the attempt be made as soon as the tunnel was ready.

Of the 600 prisoners who had worked on the tunnels only 202 would be able to escape in the time available. The prisoners were separated into two groups. The first group of 101, nicknamed "serial offenders", were guaranteed a place and included 31 men who spoke German well or had a history of escapes, plus an additional 70 men considered to have put in the most work on the tunnels. The second group of 101, considered to have very little chance of success, were chosen after drawing lots to determine inclusion. Called "hard-arsers", these would be required to travel by night as they spoke little or no German and were only equipped with the most basic fake papers and equipment.

End of "Harry"

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 and as night fell, those allocated a place in the tunnel moved to Hut 104. Unfortunately for the prisoners, the exit trap door of Harry was found to be frozen solid, and freeing the door delayed the escape for an hour and a half. An even larger setback was when it was discovered that the tunnel had come up short. It had been planned that the tunnel would reach into a nearby forest but at 10.30 p.m., the first man out emerged just short of the tree line and close to a guard tower. (According to Alan Burgess, in his book The Longest Tunnel, the tunnel reached the forest, as planned, but the trees were too sparse to provide adequate cover.) As the temperature was below freezing and snow still lay on the ground, any escapee would leave a dark trail while crawling to cover. Because of the need to now avoid sentries, instead of the planned one man every minute, the escape was reduced to little more than ten per hour. Word was eventually sent back that no prisoner issued with a number higher than 100 would be able to escape before daylight. As they would be shot if caught trying to return to their own barracks these men changed into their own uniforms and got some sleep. An air raid then caused the camp's (and the tunnel's) electric lighting to be shut down slowing the escape even more. At around 1 a.m., the tunnel collapsed and had to be repaired.

End of "Harry" tunnel showing how close the exit was to the camp fence

Despite these problems, 78 men crawled through the tunnel to initial freedom. Finally, at 4:55 a.m. on March 25, the 79th man was seen emerging from the tunnel by one of the guards. Those already in the trees began running while a New Zealand Squadron Leader Leonard Henry Trent VC, who had just reached the tree line stood up and surrendered. The guards had no idea where the tunnel entrance was, so they began searching the huts, giving the men time to burn their fake papers. Hut 104 was one of the last huts searched and despite using dogs the guards were unable to find the entrance. Finally, German guard Charlie Pilz crawled the length of the tunnel but found himself trapped at the other end. Pilz began calling for help and the prisoners opened the entrance to let him out, finally revealing the location.

An early problem for the escapees was that most of them were unable to find the entrance to the railway station until daylight revealed it was in a recess in the side wall of an underground pedestrian tunnel. Consequently, many of them missed their nighttime trains and either decided to walk across country or wait on the platform in daylight. Another unanticipated problem was that this March was the coldest recorded in 30 years and snow lay up to five feet deep, the escapees had no option but to leave the cover of woods and fields and use roads.

After the escape

Following the escape, the Germans took an inventory of the camp and found out just how extensive the operation had been. 4,000 bed boards had gone missing, as well as the complete disappearance of 90 double bunk beds, 635 mattresses, 192 bed covers, 161 pillow cases, 52 20-man tables, 10 single tables, 34 chairs, 76 benches, 1,212 bed bolsters, 1,370 beading battens, 1219 knives, 478 spoons, 582 forks, 69 lamps, 246 water cans, 30 shovels, 1,000 feet (300 m) of electric wire, 600 feet (180 m) of rope, and 3424 towels. 1,700 blankets had been used, along with more than 1,400 Klim cans. The electric cable had been stolen after being left unattended by German workers; as they had not reported the theft, they were executed by the Gestapo. From then on each bed was supplied with only nine bed boards which were counted regularly by the guards.

Of 78 escapees, 73 were captured. Hitler initially wanted to have not only the escapees shot as an example, but also Commandant von Lindeiner, the architect who designed the camp, the camp's security officer and the guards on duty at the time. Hermann Göring, Field Marshal Keitel, Major-General Westhoff and Major-General von Graevenitz, who was head of the department in charge of prisoners of war, all argued against any executions as a violation of the Geneva Conventions. Hitler eventually relented and instead ordered Himmler to execute more than half of the escapees. Himmler passed the selection on to General Artur Nebe. Fifty were executed singly or in pairs. The leader of the escape Roger Bushell, was shot by Gestapo official Dr Leopold Spann just outside Saarbrücken, Germany. Wounded badly, Bushell died after Spann ordered Emil Schulz to "finish him off."

The 50 victims

Memorial to "The Fifty" Allied airmen executed after the "Great Escape"

Name	Country of origin D.O.B.	History	Capture	Comments
F/L Henry J Birkland	Canada 16 August 1917	72 Sqdn: Spitfire Vb Shot down 7 November 1941	Recaptured near Sagan, last seen alive 31 March 1944	Executed by Lux and Scharpwinkel Cremated at Liegnitz.
F/L E Gordon Brettell DFC	England 19 March 1915	133 (Eagle) Sqdn: Spitfire IX Shot down 26 September 1942	Recaptured at Schneidemühl	Executed by Bruchardt 29 March 1944 Cremated at Danzig.
F/L Lester G Bull DFC	England 7 November 1916	109 Sqdn: Wellington IC Shot down 5/6 November 1941	Recaptured near Reichenburg	Executed by unknown Gestapo 29 March 1944 Cremated at Brux.
S/L Roger J Bushell	South Africa 30 August 1910	92 Sqdn: Spitfire I Shot down 23 May 1940	Recaptured at Saarbrucken	Posing as Frenchmen, Bushell and Bernard Scheidhauer were captured after a German policeman said "Good luck" to Scheidhauer in English and recieved the reply, "Thank you very much," also in English. Executed by Schulz 29 March 1944 Cremated at Saarbrucken.
F/L Michael J Casey	England 19 February 1918	57 Sqdn: Blenheim I Shot down 16 October1939	Recaptured near Gorlitz	Executed by Lux and Scharpwinkel 31 March 1944 Cremated at Gorlitz.

Escaped

Name	Country of origin	DOB/DOD	Capture	Comments
F/Lt Per Bergsland aka "Rocky Rockland*"	Norway	born 17 January 1919 died 9 June 1992	332 Sqdn: Spitfire Vb Shot down 19 August 1942	Reached Britain in March via Sweden. *As Norway was occupied, Bergsland did not know how he would be treated if captured and took this alias.
Jens Muller	Norway	born 1921 died 30 March 1999	331 Sqdn:	Reached Britain in March via Sweden.
F/Lt Bob van der Stok	Holland	born 13 October 1915 died 8 February 1993	41 Sqdn: Spitfire Vb Shot down 12 April 1942	Reached Britain in July via Spain. Moved to Syracuse, New York after the war, later to New Mexico, Santa Barbara and Hawaii.

Recaptured

Returned to Luft III

• F/Lt Albert Armstrong: (born -, died 1987) 268 Sqdn.
• F/Lt R Anthony Bethell: (born April 9, 1922, died February 2004) 268 Sqdn, Mustang shot down near Alkmaar, December 7, 1942.
• F/Lt Leslie Charles James Brodrick: (born May, 1921) 106 Sqdn, Lancaster shot down near Stuttgart, April 14/15, 1943, living in South Africa.
• F/O William J Cameron: RCAF

• F/Lt Bernard Pop Green: (born -, died in the 1960s) Believed to be 44 Sqdn, Hampden I shot down July 19/20, 1940
• F/Lt Roy Brouard Daddy Long Legs Langlois: (born 1917, died 1993) 12 Sqdn, Wellington II shot down August 5, 1941. Awarded a Distinguished Flying Cross and attained the rank of Wing Commander before retiring from the RAF in 1962.
• F/Lt Henry Cuthbert Johnny Marshall: (born -, died July 8, 1980)
• F/Lt Robert McBride: (born -, died in the 1980s)
• F/Lt Alistair Thompson McDonald:
• Lt Alexander Desmond Neely (born November 1917, died October 2001) RN: 825 Sqdn Fleet Air Arm, shot down near Dunkirk in May 1940. He was captured after the escape when the distinctive tie he habitually wore was recognised at a checkpoint.
• F/Lt Thomas Robert Nelson: (born March 1915, died August 25th 1999) 37 Sqdn. Crashed in the Sahara desert with only enough water for five days. After walking for ten days he was captured by a German patrol within a mile of friendly forces. His experience of desert survival was later included in aircrew training. By retirement he had attained an international reputation as an air accident investigator.
• F/Lt Alfred Keith Ogilvie DFC: (born March 1915, died in Ottawa, Canada, 28 May 1998) Canadian, 609 Sqdn.
• Lt(acting) Douglas Arthur Poynter: (born 1921) RN Fleet Air Arm, was an observer on a Swordfish TSR forced to land near Trondheim.
• F/Lt Laurence Reavell-Carter: (born - died 1985) 49 Sqdn.
• F/Lt Paul Gordon Royle: 53 Sqdn RAAF
• F/Lt Michael Moray Shand: (born March 18, 1918) 5 Sqdn RNZAF.
• F/L Alfred Burke Thompson: (born -,died 1985) 102 Sqdn, Whitley III shot down September 8/9, 1939.
• S/Ldr Leonard Henry Trent VC DFC: (born April 14, 1915, died May 19, 1986) 487 Sqdn, Ventura II shot down May 3, 1943.

Recaptured and sent to Stalag Luft I, Barth

• F/Lt Desmond Lancelot Plunkett Rhodesian (Born February 1915, died February 2002) 218 Sqdn. Stirling I shot down near Emden 20/21 June 1942.

Recaptured and sent to Colditz

• F/Lt Ivor B Tonder Czechoslavakian (Born April 1913) 312 Sqdn.
• F/Lt Bedrich Dvorak

Recaptured and sent to Sachsenhausen

• W/C Harry Melville Arbuthnot Wings Day DSO OBE British (died 1977).
• Major Johnnie Dodge DSO DSC MC British (born 1896 - died 1960)
  Related to Winston Churchill, Dodge was later released into Switzerland by the Germans in an unsuccessful attempt to sue for peace.
• F/Lt Sydney Henstings Dowse MC British (born November 21, 1918 - died April 10, 2008)
  A wealthy playboy who lived a high society lifestyle, Dowse was rumoured to have run off with W/C Harry Day's wife after the war which caused ill feeling with the other escapees.
• F/Lt Bertram Arthur Jimmy James MC British (born April 1915 - died January 18th, 2008) 9 Sqdn, Wellington IA shot down near Duisburg June 5/6, 1940.
• F/Lt Ray van Wymeersch (born September 1920 - died June 2000) 174 Sqdn Free French Air Force, Hurricane Iic shot down on August 19, 1942. Later returned to Stalag Luft III.

Transport of Sachsenhausen inmates to Tyrol

Following their recapture W/C Harry Melville Arbuthnot Wings Day, Major Johnnie Dodge, F/Lt Sydney Henstings Dowse, F/Lt Bertram Arthur Jimmy James and F/Lt Ray van Wymeersch were sent to Sachsenhausen concentration camp. van Wymeersch was later transferred from there to Stalag Luft III.

In February, 1945 the Oberscharfführer in charge of their block received orders to execute the 80 inmates under his control. After executing 67 the killings were stopped due to the approach of allied forces. The remaining 13, which included the four escapees, were transferred by train to Flossenbürg concentration camp where the commandant complained there was no room and ordered them shot. However, the Sachsenhausen guards who had travelled with them had become friendly with the prisoners and spoke to the Commandant convincing him that the British officers would be useful as hostages and they were allowed to live. Two weeks later they were transferred to Dachau Concentration Camp and placed in a prison block with other high value hostages including the former French Prime Minister Léon Blum and his wife, Martin Niemöller and a leader of the Italian resistance General Sante Garibaldi. F/Lt James later recounted how Dachau conditions were so bad that more than 50 prisoners a day were dying from disease and hunger and described watching as their bodies were burnt first in the camps crematorium then later in bonfires when the crematorium could no longer handle the numbers. From Dachau the hostages, accompanied by dozens of SS and SD guards, were transferred to the “Arbeitserziehungslager Reichenau” (Reichenau police education camp), 70 km northeast of Bozen (Bolzano) where relatives of the 20 July plot against Hitler and other high ranking Germans were being held. These included the former German Chief of Staff for the eastern front General Franz Halder, General Alexander von Falkenhausen, Colonel Bogislaw von Bonin, the entire Hungarian cabinet, including Prime Minister Miklós Kállay and his general staff, the Austrian Chancellor Kurt Schuschnigg and his wife, Fritz Thyssen the industrialist and Hjalmar Schacht, the German Finance Minister. However, camp authorities told their guards that they could not accept the prisoners and in late April 1945, 139 prisoners were put in trucks and on buses and driven south. On April 27th the convoy stopped in the Brenner Pass for the night after being strafed by the allies. Years later it was revealed that had the allies followed up the strafing by bombing the pass, as was the usual practice, the SS had planned to execute all the prisoners and claim they had died in the bombing. In the morning they drove down the valley to Villa Bassa (Niederdorf) in the Italian State of Tyrol where the convoy ran out of petrol. The SS allowed the prisoners the freedom of the town which enabled the resistance to make contact and one resistance member, who was an Austrian official, then arranged for the allied prisoners to be accommodated in the Town Hall while the other higher ranked prisoners were split between two hotels, albeit all were still kept under loose guard by the SS who told them they would be shot if they attempted to leave the town. Wing Commander Day decided to make an attempt to reach the American lines and with Tony Duce, the resistance leader, commandeered a Volkswagen. They did reach the allied lines but not before the other prisoners had been liberated.

After it was discovered that the SS guards had orders to execute the prisoners before the advancing allies arrived, Colonel von Bonin telephoned Captain Wichard von Alvensleben in Bozen, asking him to send his Wehrmacht unit to Niederdorf in order to protect the prisoners. Alvensleben’s unit surrounded the village on april 30 and von Bonin gave the SS guards the option of surrendering or fleeing, making this event the only time in WWII that allied prisoners were liberated by German troops. The SS fled but it was later reported that they had all been caught by partisans and hung. The now free prisoners were then accommodated at the Pragser Wildsee Hotel. A thanksgiving Mass attended by all the prisoners was being celebrated by the Bishop of Clermont-Ferrand in the local church when U.S troops liberated Niederdorf on May 5.

Investigations and repercussions

The Gestapo carried out an investigation into the escape and, whilst the investigation uncovered no significant new information, the camp Kommandant, von Lindeiner-Wildau, was removed and threatened with court martial. Having feigned mental illness to avoid imprisonment, Von Lindeiner was wounded by Russian troops advancing toward Berlin while acting as second in command of an infantry unit. He later surrendered to advancing British forces as the war ended and was imprisoned for two years at the British prison known as the "London Cage". He testified during the British SIB investigation concerning the Stalag Luft III murders. Originally one of Hermann Goering's personal staff, after being refused retirement Von Lindeiner had been posted as Sagan Kommandant. He had followed the Geneva Accords concerning the treatment of POWs and had won the respect of the senior prisoners. Von Lindeiner was released from prison in 1947 and died in 1963 at the age of 82.

On 6 April 1944, the new camp Kommandant, Oberstleutnant Erich Cordes, informed the Senior British Officer that he had received an official communication from the German High Command stating that 41 of the escapees had been shot while resisting arrest. Cordes was later replaced by Oberst Franz Braune. Braune was appalled that so many escapees had been killed, and allowed the prisoners who remained at the camp to build a memorial, to which he also contributed. It still stands today.

General Arthur Nebe, who is believed to have selected the airmen to be shot, was later executed for his involvement in the July 20 plot to kill Hitler.

The British government learned of the deaths from a routine visit to the camp by the Swiss authorities as the Protecting power in May; the Foreign Secretary Anthony Eden announced the news to the House of Commons on 19 May 1944. Shortly after the announcement the Senior British Officer of the camp, Group Captain Herbert Massey, was repatriated to England due to ill health. Upon his return, he informed the Government about the circumstances of the escape and the reality of the murder of the recaptured escapees. Eden updated Parliament on 23 June, promising that, at the end of the war, those responsible would be brought to exemplary justice. When the war ended, a large manhunt was carried out by the Royal Air Force's investigative branch.

American Colonel Telford Taylor was the U.S. prosecutor in the High Command case at the Nuremberg Trials. The indictment in this case called for the General Staff of the Army and the High Command of the German Armed Forces to be considered criminal organizations; the witnesses were several of the surviving German Field Marshals and their staff officers. One of the crimes charged was of the murder of the 50. Colonel of the Luftwaffe Bernd von Brauchitsch, who served on the staff of Reich Marshal Hermann Göring, was interrogated by Captain Horace Hahn about the murders. Several Gestapo officers responsible for the executions of the escapees were executed or imprisoned.

Gestapo Involved in Executions of the 50

Adolph Hitler initially ordered that all those recaptured were to be shot. However Hermann Goering, Feldmarschall Wilhelm Keitel, Maj-Gen Westhoff and Maj-Gen von Graevenitz, who was head of the department that was in charge of prisoners of war, all argued against it. Eventually Hitler ordered, "more than half are to be shot and cremated."

Heinrich Himmler sent the order to Gestapo headquarters where General Artur Nebe and Dr Hans Merton selected 50 names for a list of those to be executed. From a list of escapees, Nebe selected all the eastern Europeans with the remainder to make up the 50 chosen randomly. Nebe was later executed for his involvement in the July 20 plot to kill Hitler.

Breslau Gestapo

Responsible for the execution of 28 escapees.

Name	Involvement	Outcome
Kriminalkommissar Dr Gunther Absalon	Chaired the German enquiry into the Escape and collected evidence. It is not known if he was involved in the executions.	Reported in May 1948 to have died in a Russian prison.
Obersturmbannfuhrer Max Wielen	Breslau Gestapo Chief.	Sentenced to life imprisonment on 3 September 1947. Released after two years.
Standartenfuhrer Seetzen	Breslau Sicherheitsdienst.	Arrested in Hamburg on 28 September 1945. Took a cyanide capsule whilst being taken for interrogation, and died.
Dr Wilhelm Scharpwinkel	Shot six of the escapees.	Arrested in Breslau by Russian troops. During the enquiry into the murders, the Russians refused to co-operate with the Allied investigation but eventually allowed Scharpwinkel to make two statements to SIB officer Maurice Cornish in Moscow during August and September of 1946. The Russians offered to hand him over in exchange for Anton Kindle who had served as a commandant of the Sachsenhausen concentration camp which the Foreign Office refused. Although reported by the Russians to have died on 17 October 1947 it is believed he was instead appointed to a senior position in the Soviet administration of the East German occupation zone.
Lux (Luxe?)	Assisted Scharpwinkel in shooting six escapees. Over the next week he personally shot another 21 escapees either singly or in pairs and is also suspected in the execution of another.	Little is known of this Gestapo agent apart from his last name. Reported as KIA in Breslau.
Dankert and Kreuzer	Assisted Lux.	Never located.
Kiske, Knappe, Kuhnel, Pattke and Lang	Assisted Lux.	KIA in Breslau.
Lauffer	Assisted Lux.	Committed suicide.
Prosse	Assisted Lux.	Died of natural causes in 1944.
Walter Hampel	Assisted Lux.	Arrested 1 September 1948. Not tried after the British Cabinet decided not to prosecute war criminals arrested after 31 August 1948.
Erwin Wieczorek	Suspected of assisting Lux and Scharpwinkel in the executions.	Arrested in 1948. Sentenced to death but the sentence was later quashed.
Richard Haensel	Suspected of assisting Lux.	Tried and acquitted on 6 November 1948.
Robert Schröder		Granted immunity in exchange for testimony.

Brno/Zlin Gestapo

Responsible for the execution of two escapees.

Name	Involvement	Outcome
Hugo Romer	Brno Gestapo Chief. Believed to have ordered the executions.	Never located.
Kriminalrat Hans Ziegler	Gestapo Chief of Moravia. Arranged the executions.	Committed suicide in the London Cage at Cockfosters on 3 February 1948.
Erich Zacharias	Carried out the executions.	Arrested in Fallersleben. Hanged at Hamelin on 27 February 1948.
Adolf Knippelberg	Carried out the executions.	Arrested in Czechoslovakia by the Russians. Released by them in 1945, he disappeared and was never relocated.
Schwartzer and Friedrich Kiowsky	Truck Drivers.	Both arrested in 1947 in Prague. Executed for “other” crimes by Czechoslovakia.
Wilhelm Nolle		Arrested 10 June 1948 but never tried.

Danzig Gestapo

Responsible for the execution of four escapees.

Name	Involvement	Outcome
Dr Venediger	Danzig Gestapo Chief. Ordered the executions of the eight escapees in Danzig and Kiel.	Sentenced to 2 years on 17 December 1957.
Hauptmann Reinholt Bruchardt	Shot the four escapees.	Arrested in 1948 and sentenced to death. Commuted to life imprisonment.
Max Kilpe, Harry Witt and Herbert Wenzler		Not prosecuted.
Walter Sasse, Walter Voelz and Julius Hug		Never located.

Karlsruhe Gestapo

Responsible for the execution of one escapee.

Name	Involvement	Outcome
Oberregierungsrat Josef Gmeiner and Kriminalsekretar Otto Preiss	Shot the escapee.	Both arrested in France. Sentenced to death and hanged at Hamelin on 27 February 1948.
Heinrich Boschert	Truck Driver.	Arrested in Karlsruhe. Sentenced to death September 3, 1947. Commuted to life imprisonment.
Otto Gannicher		Committed suicide 26 April 1946.
Magnus Wochner		Sentenced to 10 years for deaths at the Natzweiler-Struthof camp.

Kiel Gestapo

Responsible for the execution of four escapees.

Name	Involvement	Outcome
Friedrich Schmidt	Kiel Gestapo Chief.	Arrested May 1968. Sentenced to 2 years in prison.
Sturmbannfuhrer Johannes Post	Shot the four escapees.	Considered the most ruthless of all the executioners by investigators, Post was unable to be located after the war ended. He was in fact interned as Johannes Polman in Minden POW camp. He was identified by chance after being recognised in mid 1947 by an investigator who had visited the camp on other matters. Hanged at Hamelin on 27 February 1948.
Hans Kaehler	Shot the four escapees.	Hanged at Hamelin on 27 February 1948.
Oskar Schmidt and Walter Jacobs		Both hanged at Hamelin on 27 February 1948.
Arthur Denkman and Wilhelm Struve	Truck Drivers.	Both sentenced to 10 years on 3 September 1947.
Franz Schmidt		Committed suicide 27 October 1946.

Munich Gestapo

Responsible for the execution of two escapees.

Name	Involvement	Outcome
Johan Schneider, Emil Weil and Eduard Geith	Shot the two escapees.	All three were hanged at Hamelin on 27 February 1948.
Martin Schermer		Committed suicide on 25 March 1945.
Oswald Schafer		Charges dismissed on 11 December 1968.

Reichenburg Gestapo

Responsible for the execution of four escapees.

Name	Involvement	Outcome
Bernhard Baatz	Reichenburg Gestapo Chief.	Arrested by the Russians. Disappeared after being released in 1946.
Robert Weyland		Settled in the Russian Zone and was never arrested.
Robert Weissman		Captured by the French but disappeared from the records after capture.

Saarbrucken Gestapo

Responsible for the execution of two escapees.

Name	Involvement	Outcome
Kriminalsekretar Dr Leopold Spann	Saarbrucken Gestapo Chief. Shot the two escapees.	Killed in an air raid on Linz on 25 April 1945.
Oberleutnant Emil Schulz	Shot an escapee who did not immediately die after being shot by Spann.	Arrested in Saarbrucken Hanged at Hamelin 27 February 1948.
Walter Breithaupt	Truck Driver.	Arrested in Frankfurt. Sentenced to life on 3 September 1947.

Strasburg Gestapo

Responsible for the execution of one escapee.

Name	Involvement	Outcome
Alfred Schimmel	Along with a Gestapo agent who was never identified took the escapee from Strasburg jail on 6 April 1944, and executed him near Breslau.	Hanged at Hamelin, 27 February 1948.
Max Dissner		Committed suicide 11 May 1945.
Heinrich Hilker		Acquitted in 1966.
Erich Isslhorst		Executed for other crimes.

See Also

• Stalag Luft III
• Transport of concentration camp inmates to Tyrol
• List of prisoner-of-war camps in Germany
• The Great Escape (book)
• Paul Brickhill
• The Great Escape (film)

External Links

• Prison Camp Locations (map) Luft III (near the Poland border) is highlighted.
• Żagań Museum web site
• Interactive Map of the Tunnel "Harry" From the website accompanying the Nova documentary "Great Escape" which aired on PBS on June 5, 2007
• StalagLuftIII.net
• The Last Escape - John Nichol, Tony Rennell - 2002 Penguin UK
• Death of Alex Lees, who helped with construction of tunnel 'Harry'
• The Story of Cy Eaton