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The Great Escape and what really happened
 |
| Former POW Andrew Wiseman |
The 1963 Hollywood film depicted the escape from Stalag Luft III camp as
a Boys' Own adventure, with stiff upper lips all round and carefree Steve
McQueen performing a daredevil motorbike jump in a bid for freedom. Brian Redhead meets two men who were held at the camp
THE 1944 escape from
the Stalag Luft III
camp remains one of
the most audacious
wartime acts pulled
off by Allied officers - even if
McQueen's dash for the border
was fictional.
And the reality of daily life
behind the wire was brought
vividly to life in a fund of
stories delivered yesterday by
two former prisoners, invited to
give a talk to airmen and
women at a North Yorkshire
base.
As moves are made to build a
exact replica of the hut that
contained the famous Tunnel
Harry, on the site of the original
prisoner of war camp, near the
town of Sagan, now in Poland,
90 Signals Unit at RAF
Leeming played host to former
bomber crew members Charles
Clarke, who helped plan the
escape, and Andrew
Wiseman.
While they reminisced about
Red Cross food parcels and
other necessities of life in close
confinement, the highlight of a
prisoner of war day
on the station
was a lunch
consisting of
a typical
1944 menu -
corned beef hash and cabbage
and potato soup. Mr Clarke, an
84-year-old retired air
commodore, was a bomb aimer
on a Lancaster when his
aircraft was shot down in 1944
during one of many RAF raids
on a heavily defended Berlin.
After bailing out, he tried to
reach neutral Switzerland, but
was captured and ended up in
Stalag Luft III.
Mr Wiseman, 85, was born in
Berlin to Polish Jewish parents
who sent him to England for his
education following the rise of
Nazism.
He was in a Halifax shot down
over France in 1944 and arrived
at Stalag Luft III shortly after
the historic escape.
 |
| Former POW Charles Clarke |
The purpose-built camp was
opened in 1942 and was
considered escapeproof
by the
Germans, who
hoped such
attractions as a
sports field, a
theatre and
gardening would
discourage
anyone from
trying to get out.
One who
remained defiantly
unconvinced was
Squadron Leader
Roger Bushell, a
Spitfire pilot who
hatched a plan
to spring at least 200 prisoners
by tunnelling out. It involved
three tunnels named Tom, Dick
and Harry, but the first two
were discovered by the
Germans. The escape through
Tunnel Harry below hut 104
was fixed for a moonless
night in March 1944, but its
exit was on the path of a
patrolling perimeter
guard and a few feet
short of a sheltering
wood.
This caused
uncertainty about when
to give the all-clear and
further delays caused
by men panicking in
the tunnel meant that
only 76 managed to
escape.
Mr Clarke and
Mr Wiseman said
this led to a
tougher stance
against escaping
PoWs by the
Germans, who
had largely been
observing the
Geneva
Convention.
Hitler personally
ordered 50 of the
men to be executed by the Gestapo. Mr Wiseman said:
"It ceased to be a game."
Three men made it back to
the UK, but 23 were recaptured
and returned to Stalag Luft III,
where the commandant was
court martialled by the Gestapo
for failing to prevent the escape.
Mr Clarke and Mr Wiseman
described the ingenious
methods adopted in digging the
tunnel, which had electric
lighting and a makeshift rail
system, while prisoners played
cat and mouse with German
guards, known as ferrets
because they were looking for
anything suspicious. Powdered
milk containers became part of
the tunnel's air pump.
Talents in the camp were so
diverse that the plan involved a
network of forgers producing
maps and other papers so
convincing that they were more
up to date than corresponding
German documents, while
tailors skilfully cut and dyed
military uniforms to produce
civilian dress.
Powdered milk from food
parcels was used for making
pancakes, prisoners could
receive news from the BBC on a
homemade radio that had to be
dismantled every day to conceal
it from guards, and cigarettes
became camp currency.
Education among prisoners
was such that the camp became
known as a university behind
the wire and some men went on
to distinguish themselves after
the war.
Mr Clarke, who worked
behind the scenes on the
escape, said: "People who were
shot down early in the war
settled down better than people
like us, because they knew they
were going to be there a long
time.
"For morale, we had the radio
and someone would take the
news down in shorthand and go
from hut to hut reading it.
Morale would be up and down
according to how the news
went. The favourite expression
was we would be home by
Christmas - no one said which
Christmas."
Mr Wiseman recalled that discipline was good, but said:
"Some people could cope better
than others. I had no great
desire to escape, but some were
driven mad by it. After five
years my brother-in-law needed
psychiatric treatment when he
came home."
Mr Clarke said of the film: "It
was fairly artificial and Boy
Scoutish, and everyone had
perfect Oxford accents when 75
per cent of the chaps who were
shot down were NCOs, but who
would remember the 50 who
were murdered without the
film? It has been a very
emotional experience sharing
our memories. We all grew up
into men during that period.
Eighteen months in a PoW
camp is a very long time for a
young man."
Yesterday's event was
organised with the help of the
RAF Ex-Prisoner of War
Association. The audience was
also told of the infamous Long
March of 1945, when thousands
of Allied prisoners were forcibly
driven westwards in freezing
temperatures as the Russian
Army approached Germany.
Today, groups are able to
follow the same route and use
the original barns and
warehouses where prisoners,
walking without food, water or
adequate clothing, found brief
shelter.
The project for a replica of
Hut 104 as a memorial and an
education centre was the idea of
Mr Clarke and Howard Tuck, a
Cambridge lecturer specialising
in the Second World War, and is
being supported by 90 Signals
Unit. Building is due to start in
August, following fundraising
throughout the RAF.
10:28am Wednesday 30th April 2008
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