Wartime PoW escape stories were irresistible to film and television
Chris Smyth - The Times
There were 200,000 British prisoners in Germany by the end of the Second World War and most spent their time in uncomfortable tedium.
Yet many hundreds did try to escape, even though success was highly unlikely. Most were soon recaptured and only a few dozen made it all the way home.
At the time, some officers felt that, whatever the odds, the discipline and effort of the planning would prevent a collapse in morale. Later generations have simply marvelled at the astonishing ingenuity and daring of the escapers.
Untypical though the escapes were, such feats proved irresistible to film and television, making them, and the rich mythology that has has built up around them, firmly part of our common culture.
Two of the most famous escapes took place in Stalag Luft III. Designed to be the most secure prisoner-of-war camp, it was a bleak place hundreds of miles from the Swiss border and the Baltic ports that offered the best route out of Germany.
Yet in 1943, Flight Lieutenant Eric Williams hatched a plan to dig a tunnel from close to the perimeter wire, under cover of a wooden vaulting horse.
This was brought out every day to the same spot, where Williams and his fellow prisoners, Michael Codner and Oliver Philpot, dug down from a trapdoor underneath. After 114 days of work, the three officers escaped and made it back to Britain via Sweden.
The "Great Escape" was less successful. Although 76 RAF officers made it out, all but three were recaptured. Hitler personally demanded that they all be shot. Although Himmler told him that it would horrify neutral countries, 50 officers were killed by the Gestapo.
Persistent escapers were sent to Colditz, a rocky castle with its own garrison. Most of the 316 escape attempts failed, yet 32 men managed "home runs" back to Britain, more than from any other camp.
In the most daring plan, two pilot officers, Jack Best and Bill Goldfinch, built a glider, which was to be launched from the prison roof to take two men across the River Mulde. The glider - designed with the help of a copy of C. H. Latimer-Needham's Aircraft Design found in the prison library - was built behind a false wall in an attic.
The Americans liberated the prison before it was launched, but a replica built 40 years later showed that it would have flown.
© 2010 Times Newspapers Ltd.
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