Stalag Luft III

Stalag Luft III (Stammlager Luft, or Permanent Camp for Airmen #3) was a Nazi 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, now Żagań in Poland, 100 miles (160 km) southeast of Berlin. The site is best known for two famous prisoner escapes that took place there. The first, in 1943, was recorded in the book and film The Wooden Horse. The second, in March 1944, was later immortalized by the movie The Great Escape.

The prison camp had a number of design features that made escape extremely difficult. The digging of escape tunnels, in particular, was discouraged by several factors. First, the barracks housing the prisoners were raised several inches off the ground to make it easier for guards to detect any tunnelling activity. Second, the camp itself had been constructed on land that had a very sandy subsoil. The sand was bright yellow, so it could easily be detected if anyone dumped it on the surface (which consisted of grey dust - see picture taken on the site of the East Compound in 1994 by Ian Lawther showing approximately 6 inches of grey top soil and yellow subsoil ^*.), or even just had some of it on their clothing. In addition, the loose, unconsolidated sand meant that the structural integrity of a tunnel would be very poor. A third defence against tunnelling was the placement of seismograph microphones around the perimeter of the camp, which were expected to detect any sounds of digging just below the surface.

Until 1943, there had been as many as 30 tunnel attempts, but all failed.

The "Great Escape"

In January 1943, Roger Bushell led a plot for a major escape from the camp. The plan was to dig three deep tunnels, codenamed "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 in one of the washrooms. The entrance to "Harry" was hidden under a stove.

Tunnel construction

In order to keep the tunnels from being detected by the perimeter microphones, they were very deep — about 9 metres (30 feet) below the surface. The tunnels were very small, only two feet square (about 0.37 m²), 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.

A variety of other materials was 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. But the main use of the Klim tins 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. The pumps were 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 and hooked into the camp's electrical grid. The tunnellers also installed small rail car systems for moving sand more quickly, much like the systems used in old mining operations. The rails were key to moving 130 tons of material in a five-month period; they also reduced the time taken for tunnellers to reach the digging faces.

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 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.

Eventually the prisoners felt they could no longer dump sand on the surface, as the German security staff became too efficient in catching prisoners using this method. The decision was made to start filling up "Dick". Since that tunnel's entrances was extremely well-hidden, "Dick" was also used as a storage room for a variety of items such as maps, stamps, forged travel permits, compasses, and clothing such as German uniforms and civilian suits. It is worth noting, however, that some genuine civilian clothes were among material obtained by bribing German staff. These materials would eventually be used by escaping 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 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 the entrance to "Tom" was soon discovered.

Tunnel "Harry" completed

"Harry" was finally ready in March 1944, but by that time the American prisoners, some of whom had worked extremely hard in all the effort to dig the tunnels, were moved to another compound.

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, 76 men crawled through the tunnel to initial 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, the 77th man was seen emerging from the tunnel by one of the guards.

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, not to mention the complete disappearance of 90 beds, 52 tables, and 34 chairs. 1,700 blankets had been used, along with more than 1,400 Klim tins.

Out of 76 escapees, 73 were captured. Adolf Hitler initially wanted to have them all shot as an example, but relented under pressure from Göring, and instead ordered that more than half of them should be shot. General Artur Nebe selected the 50 who were subsequently executed. The remaining 23 were held in the custody of the Gestapo before being sent off to other camps. Seventeen were returned to Stalag Luft III, four were sent to Sachsenhausen, and two to Colditz.

Of 76 men, only three were able to evade capture: Norwegians Per Bergsland and Jens Mûller, and the Dutchman Bram van der Stok. Mûller and Bergsland made it to neutral Sweden while van der Stok travelled the European countryside before finding safety in the British consulate in Spain.

Investigations and repercussions

At Stalag Luft III the Gestapo carried out an investigation into the escape. While the investigation uncovered no significant new information regarding the escape the camp commandant, Von Lineinder, was removed for court-martial for involvement in a black market organisation bringing fine food and wines from Denmark.

The new commandant, Oberst Braune, of Stalag Luft III was appalled by the fact that so many escapees had been killed and he allowed the prisoners who remained at the camp to build a memorial, to which he also contributed. It still stands today. The other 23 men who had been captured were sent to several different camps in Germany, and most remained imprisoned through to the end of the war.

Shortly after learning of the deaths of the 50, 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 escape and the executions. In July 1944, the British Foreign Minister, Anthony Eden announced news of the deaths to the House of Commons, and declared that those responsible would be brought to justice. One of the crimes charged in the Nuremburg Trials was of the murder of the 50.

Several of the Gestapo officers responsible for the executions of the escapees were themselves tried and executed, or imprisoned, by the Allies after the war. It is worth noting that Artur Nebe who was charged with selecting the list of airmen to be shot was himself executed by hanging with piano wire, for his involvement in the plot to kill Hitler.

Questioning the strategy

In The Latter Days At Colditz, Patrick Reid, who escaped from Offizier Lager IVc at Colditz, characterized the strategy of mass escapes as ill-judged, and not just because most of the prisoners were massacred. Reid noted that the "Great Escape" provoked the Germans into putting substantial resources into searching the area, resulting in few successes. Other, slightly smaller, mass escapes during the war met similar fates:

the "Warburg wire job", which also resulted in only three "home runs", and
a later escape by tunnel from a camp in Bavaria, when the escapees were all recaptured.

General references

William Ash, Under the Wire, 2005 (ISBN 0593054083)
Paul Brickhill, The Great Escape. New York, Norton, 1950
Alan Burgess, The Longest Tunnel, New York, Pocket, 1991
Albert P. Clark, 33 Months as a POW in Stalag Luft III, 2005 (ISBN 1555915361)
B.A. "Jimmy" James, Moonless Night, London, William Kimber, 1983
George Millar, Horned Pigeon
Ken Rees, Lie in the Dark and Listen, Karen Arrandale
Calton Younger, No Flight from the Cage, 1956 (ISBN 0352308281)
Great Escape, from the Nova website. Accessed June 19, 2006.

World War II POW camps