The Great Escape captured the imagination of filmmakers and had a big impact on World War II (Picture: Charlotte Graham/REX/Shutterstock)
The Great Escape, starring Steve McQueen, was one of the highest-grossing films of 1963 and has been cemented as a true classic.
While it was based on a true story, historians have raised their eyes at its historical inaccuracies.
It has a 94% score on Rotten Tomatoes and was included in the British Film Industry’s ’10 great prisoner of war films’ round-up.
But what actually happened during the real-life Great Escape 80 years ago today, how does the film differ, and what was its wider impact on World War II as a whole?
Metro.co.uk spoke with Jem Duducu, a historian and presenter of the Condensed Histories podcast, who pointed out that there were many escapes from prisoner of war (POW) camps throughout World War II.
It’s estimated about 35,000 Allied prisoners managed to escape various prisons – and it became enough of a problem that the Nazis created Colditz prison, which was hoped to be ‘inescapable’ and could hold the repeat offenders.
He described the film as ‘a strange mixture of fastidious creation and pure Hollywood fantasy’, with some elements 100% accurate and others completely fabricated to create ‘amazing cinema’.
Steve McQueen starred in the 1963 film (Picture: Mirisch/United Artists/Kobal/REX/Shutterstock)
It’s considered to be one of the best war films ever made (Picture: Everett/REX/Shutterstock)
But in fact there was only one American involved in the real Great Escape (Picture: Mirisch/United Artists/Kobal/REX/Shutterstock)
When was the Great Escape, how did it happen, and how many people escaped?
The Great Escape was a mass breakout of Allied airmen from Stalag Luft III, a prison camp run by the Luftwaffe (German air force), on March 24, 1944.
It involved 600 prisoners at the camp, located at Sagan in south east Germany, and took months to come to fruition.
Squadron Leader Roger Bushell kickstarted the operation in 1943, as prisoners started digging three large tunnels – nicknamed ‘Tom’, ‘Dick’ and ‘Harry’.
They all began under different huts within the camp and were 30ft deep, designed to run for more than 300ft underground before opening up in woodland outside the camp.
Prisoners bartered and stole equipment which let them line the tunnels with wood, run a railway and electric lighting throughout, and ventilate them with primitive air conditioning.
Captured RAF officers lay the foundations for a new hut at Stalag Luft III (Picture: Hulton Archive/Getty Images)
Inside the ‘Harry’ tunnel, which was boarded up and even had air conditioning and a working trolley system (Picture: Geoffrey Robinson/REX/Shutterstock)
The entrance to ‘Harry’ was hidden in a POW hut (Picture: Geoffrey Robinson/REX/Shutterstock)
According to German reports, materials missing from the camp used in the escape included:
4,000 bed boards
1,699 blankets
161 pillow cases
34 chairs
478 spoons
30 shovels
1,000 feet of electric wire
600 feet of rope
192 bed covers
3,424 towels
Tom, the first tunnel, was discovered by guards in September 1943 just as it reached the woods. Dick was abandoned and used for storage, so the prisoners focused their efforts on Harry.
On the night of March 24, 1944, 76 RAF officers successfully broke out of the camp.
Of the escapees, 73 were recaptured and 50 were shot by the Gestapo. Three managed to make their escape.
Jem commented: ‘The escape infamously led to 50 men being shot. It did lead to further brutality against escaped prisoners.
‘The Great Escape, sadly, led to more death and misery than anything else.’
What are some of the main inaccuracies in the Great Escape film?
The RAF Benevolent Fund considers the film to be ‘true to the spirit of events in the north compound and the character of many of the men involved’.
They say Steve McQueen’s character represented composites of the men involved – and one major inaccuracy is that in fact there was only one American prisoner involved in the escape.
Jem explained: ‘The classic movie is a strange mixture of fastidious creation and pure Hollywood fantasy.
Jem Duducu presents the Condensed Histories podcast (Picture: Supplied)
‘The way the tunnels were constructed and how the prisoners went about disposing of soil and covering the entrances are all 100% accurate.
‘However there was only one American involved in the actual escape, and he was already a naturalised British citizen and had been serving in the British Army.
‘Everything with Steve McQueen is amazing cinema, but total fantasy when it comes to history.’
He also said the time period was condensed during the film – which is understandable, as in reality it took close to a year for the Great Escape to succeed.
‘The prisoners had a tough time getting rid of all the soil during winter when the snow covered the ground,’ Jem added.
‘Similarly, one of the tunnels ceased being mentioned in the film because it wasn’t useful anymore as more American airmen were brought to the camp.
‘The prison huts were expanded over the area where the tunnel was, meaning it was now going into the camp rather than out.’
Who was involved in the Great Escape?
Alongside Squadron Leader Roger Bushell, who came up with the initial plan, there were hundreds of POWs who helped to dig the tunnels.
More than 600 inmates were involved, and Bushell hoped to get more than 200 out in the Great Escape – a hugely ambitious plan eclipsing previous escape attempts which only involved up to 20 men.
Captured RAF officers at Stalag Luft III(Picture: Hulton Archive/Getty Images)
Andy Wiseman (left) and Charles Clarke OBE (right), former Inmates at Stalag Luft III, revisited the camp in 2008 where stone markers plot the route of the tunnel and commemorate the participants who were killed (Picture: REX/Shutterstock)
Deciding who would get to take part, the prisoners were divided into two groups: the first group of 100 included 30 who spoke German well or had a history of escapes, and 70 more who had put in the most work to dig the tunnels.
The second group was chosen by drawing lots, and its members would have to travel by night as they didn’t speak much German and only had very basic fake papers, instead of the more convincing forgeries used by the first group.
On the night of the escape, 76 men managed to crawl to freedom. The 77th man was spotted by one of the guards, and while the Germans searched for the other end of the tunnel, other planned escapees had time to burn their fake papers.
Of the 50 recaptured prisoners who were executed, 20 were British, six were Canadian, six were Polish, five were Australian, three were South African, two were from New Zealand, two were Norwegian, and there was one each from Argentina, Belgium, Czechoslovakia, France, Greece, and Lithuania.
Only three of the escapees made it to freedom:
Per Bergsland, Norwegian pilot of No. 332 Squadron
Jens Müller, Norwegian pilot of No. 331 Squadron
Bram van der Stok, Dutch pilot of No. 41 Squadron
What impact did the Great Escape have on the wider World War II?
Stalag Luft III had specifically been built to house POWs who had already attempted escape previously – so the Great Escape was seen as a major embarrassment for the Nazis.
The prison had purposely been built on sandy soil, making it difficult to tunnel, the huts were raised off the ground, and microphones were even buried under the border fences to try and catch tunnellers in the act.
Ken Rees was one of the tunnellers and he wrote a book about his experience during the Great Escape (Picture: Christopher Jones/REX/Shutterstock)
Jimmy James was a serial escapee and was involved in 13 escape attempts in total (Picture: Nestor Bachmann/EPA/REX/Shutterstock)
The RAF Benevolent Fund describe it as ‘significant for the sheer impact it had on the Nazi leadership and the way in which it embodied the will of Allied prisoners of war to resist Hitler’s tyranny’.
The escape attempt was being discussed by Adolf Hitler hours later, who demanded retribution – which is why so many of the recaptured escapees were shot by the Gestapo.
The fact that the Fuhrer had been briefed about the Great Escape within hours shows just how seriously it was taken.
The camp commandant, Friedrich-Wilhelm von Lindeiner-Wildau, was removed from his post and threatened with court martial. He was eventually sent to the front line, where he was captured and taken as a POW in Britain.
Several members of the Gestapo were executed or imprisoned following the war, after being convicted of war crimes during the Nuremberg Trials.
Are any of the survivors of the Great Escape still alive today?
Sadly, none of the survivors of the Great Escape are still alive to mark its 80th anniversary.
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Many of them were involved in other prison break attempts, and some went on to write autobiographies or speak to historians to share their account of the escape.
Some of the longest living survivors include:
Squadron Leader BA ‘Jimmy’ James MC was subsequently was involved in 13 escape efforts from various camps and prisons, including the Great Escape. He wrote an account of these escapes and his role in the building of the tunnels in his 1983 book Moonless Night. He died on January 18, 2008, aged 92
Flight Lieutenant Tony Bethell was an RAF officer who was taken to Stalag Luft III and, aged 21, was the youngest man to escape through ‘Harry’ tunnel on 24 March 1944. He was captured on 28 March and interrogated by the Gestapo before being returned to Stalag Luft III. He died at his home in Canada in 2004
Les Broderick, who kept watch over the entry of the ‘Dick’ tunnel, died on April 8, 2013, aged 91. He was in a group of three who had escaped out of the ‘Harry’ tunnel but were recaptured when a cottage they had hoped to rest in turned out to be full of soldiers
Ken Rees, a digger, was in the tunnel when the escape was discovered. He later lived in North Wales and died at age 93 on August 30, 2014. His book is called Lie in the Dark and Listen
Dick Churchill was one the last surviving of the 76 escapees before his death on February 15, 2019. He was among the 23 not executed by the Nazis. He was discovered after the escape hiding in a hay loft. In a 2014 interview at the age of 94, he said he was fairly certain he was spared execution because his captors thought he might be related to Prime Minister Winston Churchill
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