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Part 7, and finally  a breakout form the German POW camp in Poland back in 1944

4/30/2014

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Last week we ended with German guards discovering the tunnel known as TOM at the Stalag Luft lll POW camp. Because of its discovery, the Allied POW air force officers shut down operations for a cooling off period. But by January of 1944 HARRY was started up again. At that time the purpose of TOM was then diverted from one of escape to one of storage of tools and even sand coming to the surface from HARRY.

Even though there was  a cooling off period, the Germans were still on the lookout for more tunnels. They were also well aware of tunneling activity in other camps and no doubt still having thoughts of the large escape of prisoners at Oflag 17A Austria a year earlier. Some 6000 POW's mainly French offices were held there and 132 escaped over two nights in September 1943, but almost all were quickly caught.

The men had smuggled in a movie camera...in parts.. hidden in SAUSAGES, rebuilt it in camp, and then made over 30 secret films of life in the camp, about 450  miles south of Stalag Luft lll, but in Austria. There is a movie on the net showing snipets of the films taken and depict daily life and escape activity including them making carvings out of boot heels, making phoney documents, compasses and even digging in the tunnels. This actual footage and can be seen at   http://www.gizmodo.com.au/2013/08/the-astonishing-tale-of-nazi-prisoners-a-smuggled-camera-and-survival/  and shows camp and activities no doubt quite like those at Stalag Luft lll.

Back at HARRY, tunnelling had been going on daily since restarting it in early January 1944. By early March it had passed under the gate  wire obstacles and the POW's were ready to break ground, with just a few feet at the top of the escape shaft left to go. Those  few feet would trade years of captivity to freedom for hundreds. So went the plan!

Final preparations were tightened up, uniforms and civy clothes and maps and compasses were lined up and language last minute tutoring was on going. A moonless night was now being waited on and then it came of March 24th. Last minute dates were then put on the forged documents.

The Senior Allied Officer presided over the selection of men to go. Five hundred wanted to be among those going but all knew that with timings involved. less than 200 could be scuttled through in the dark and before daylight and perhaps as many the next night . The first 200 chosen were men with the best chances of survival. Those with contacts nearby on the outside. Those speaking European languages and especially German and with experience in Europe on the civy street. The next 70 would be those who contributed the most above and below ground. The remaining hundred selected for the first night were draw from a hat. 
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The date was also picked as the most troublesome guard had just started a holiday and so the going for the men might have been easier.

The date was further picked because it would not be long before the temperature would rise and with that would come the melting snow, the build up of water, and it sinking down into the earth, making the sand above the tunnel much heavier and greatly increasing the possibility for a collapse.

The GO was finally given and around 8.30 at night  the men, 200 strong, piled into hut #104 awaiting the word to get into the tunnel. These men had gathered up many of their belonging and in many cases even travelled with a suitcase full of treasures. They also had on several layers of clothing to ward of the frigid temperatures and deal with the fresh blanket of snow that had just come down. (Despite the Great Escape 1963 moving of a breakout in spring weather conditions)

But then things started to go wrong!

It would take several minutes, according to the plans, to get each man out. Move through the tunnel would start at dark and end at daylight. Possible 150 could make it in that time, with others on hand in the hopes things went quicker than planned.  But they went slower. Much slower.

To begin. The entrance trap door had frozen over. It took over an hour to break it free. Then the  men started to enter. But many of these officers had never been in the tunnel before. Some panicked. Others had claustrophobia, still others would jerk around needlessly while on the route through. Some actually got stuck because they were too bulky due to all the extra clothing worn, or a suitcase bumping into the side walls. Two minor collapsed took place.

In all of this men had to be backed out, and repairs made on the spot and then men sent in again. When the first officers got to the exit end, the final few feet had to be removed. But the hatch was also frozen over and took about 30 minutes to free up. Once this was done, to their horror,  they discovered that the tunnel WAS NOT LONG ENOUGH. It was short some 30 feet and was only about 45 feet from a guard tower. AND WORSE THAN ALL THIS... it was in OPEN GROUND because of recent chopping down of trees that once had the forest much closer to the fort.

The first out had to make on the spot emergency plans that would take into account the guard roaming patrols and the powerful search light activity in the area. They came up with a plan to stretch a rope across the open ground and hide in the bushes and tug on it to send a message of the ALL CLEAR when it was safe for another to exit. But they had to send a message back, and from man to man in the tunnel to the opening that rope was needed at the other end. Yet another delay. When it arrived it was put into play and the men started finally emerging, dashing to the woods, waiting for their escape partner to exit and then heading off to freedom.

During all of this an air raid siren went off and the camp quickly shut down all the power. And with that power, the tunnel lights also went out, causing more panic and a race for some to get candles and matches down for lighting. (The raid was the 24th March raid of over 800 bombers flying over Berlin, with 72 being shot down and with losses of almost 400 Allies.)

Soon the lights returned and the escape continued until one officer got the signals wrong and exited when the signal was to stay concealed. An approaching guard saw the officer and no doubt both were near startled to death. Then a shot went off, no one was hit but four men were captured on the spot, with many still down in the tunnel waiting their turn.

Four men were captured at the exit point but 76 had gotten out and dispersed.

When word got back to Hitler he was furious. He had often bragged about the security of the camp and with egg still on his face re other escapes, especially the 132  in Austria, be ordered that every man caught was to be shot. He further order the cancelling of all off duty soldiers and called out well over 100,000 troops to find the POW's. Naturally all the barns in the area were also searched and from within many, POW's were huddled together to  get a break from the cold weather and thus were caught. Others were caught at various points over the next few weeks.

Hitler also ordered that after each man was shot he was to be immediately cremated. His senior officers were outraged and argued that the most severe retaliations would come to them if the story ever got out. One proposed a far lesser number and finally the number of 50 from the 77 caught  were taken one by ones and twos and told they were being taken back to Luft lll. Enroute they had a pit stop to allow the men to stretch their legs and relieve themselves. Then the Gestapo shot them in the back of their heads and ordered the local police to make the cremation arrangements. Some of the Gestapo were  men who did not want to carry out the orders but realised that if they did not, they would be shot and their families probably rounded up and taken into prison.  Some 27 officers were sent back to various POW camps including Stalag Loft lll

So the 50 were shot at various locations, the bodies then cremated and shipped back to the camp in Urns. These officers all aged between 21 and 45.

Of the 80 who exited the tunnel, only three made a home run and got back to England. 

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The above is probably a scene from the 1963 movie, while on the right is an image of the war crimes trial after the war and showing some of the Gestapo responsible for the shooting of the 50 Allied air force officers in their backs.

Shortly after the shootings the Germans put up signs in the camp saying that 41 POW's had been caught TRYING TO ESCAPE and were shot in the process. They then changed the number to 47 and finally to 50.

They also posted a notice warning the POW's that any further attempts may well end up with the same punishment despite being clearly illegal, and war crimes at that.

Here is that notice.... 

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On Friday I will bring an update to this story some 70 years after the event.

Bart

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Yet more of the famous WW ll escape for the Stalag Luft lll camp in Poland

4/25/2014

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Wednesday's blog spoke of the need for those planning to get away to being able to speak German. Luckily several of the officers had lived in Europe and spoke many of these languages including German. Yet others had studies languages formally and all were put to good use teaching those hoping to get out some of the key phrases they would need to get bye. The blog also showed you some of the many types of fake documents the POWs produced and an earlier blog told of the maps and compasses they even made for their escapes.

While all of this activity was going on above ground many of about 600 officers taking various escape roles would of course be constructing the three tunnels, and then a fourth. And using the very primitive tools they also had to create by hand to get the job done.

As previously mentioned, very earlier in the planning stages it was decided to use the terms TOM, DICK and HARRY, and finally GEORGE, as names for the tunnels. They chose not to us the term tunnel to prevent the guards from catching on from any overheard conversations.

Each of the tunnels was rather long. The very idea of doing three was so that in the event of one being discovered, the enemy would hopefully be dumbfounded with the originality of all the work. The guards would probably not then expect that there was another... and yet a third (and even a fourth) also being constructed at the same time. 
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There were several compounds in the camp. This is the North one. TOM and DICK were to travel over 250 feet to the west, and end just inside the treeline. (Not shown at right in above sketch.) HARRY would travel northbound and also was planned to end inside the tree line (again not shown) but almost 340 feet away from its start point.  

Most of the above ground escape crew did not know the whereabouts of the entry to the tunnels. TOM's was in hut #123 and in a dark corner below a secret trap door built within the four walls of the chimney base. Dick's was most creatively build UNDER a constant pool of water in the washroom area in hut #122. Here the water was constantly pooled from drippings from the shower area. And HARRY's, where the escape of this story took place, was below the stove in hut #104. 

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The sketch on the left shows the tree line outside the compound and  to the left, bottom and right. At the bottom, or north end, the tree line was pushed back further northbound when HARRY was almost completed. So too at the right in this image, or west side when TOM was completed.  The image on the right shows the entrance shaft of HARRY in hut #104, and its route northbound to front end of the camp and then beyond the barbed wire obstacles and into the woods beyond. At least that was the plan!

The right image also shows some workspace at the base of HARRY and the other tunnels. Forgers and manufactures worked in these spaces to make their tools etc. The fellow on the left is working the bellows they created to send air into the tunnels.

When the tunnels began they were not secured by being re-enforced on the sides and top, but as the tunnel got longer and longer shoring was needed. For these they "borrowed" bed boards that were all 2 feet long and used these at the sides and top. (They used over 4,000 of these boards and lots of other wood found in support rafters, wall studs,  etc in this work.) As they were put in place the men would force loose sand behind them to make a tight and secure wall and ceiling  before digging further along the way.

The tunnels were so narrow that only one man could fit into them. But they would be in two man teams. Feet to feet. The first facing the end of the tunnel being worked and the 2nd man facing the entry end. The first would do the digging and push most of the sand past his body and the second would scoop it up and put it into pails or whatever was available for tying up and being hauled out by ropes back at the base of the entry shaft. From there the dispersing teams would pack it for movement above ground and tossed about the camp. Much later a trolley system would be built to haul the sand along a set of runners to the face for unloading. By this means the men could advance about 3 feet a day in each tunnel, and at the same time move about a dozen tonnes of sand DAILY... by hand!

The men also had to work at first in the dark. But soon they would get the manufacturers to make candles out of fat from food supplies and wicks from pajama ropes, and use these to see what they were doing. Later the air became so bad that they had to create the bellows used to pump air along the route and also pull out stale air through another line of KLIM tins.  

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The stove pictured at the left is the actual stove out of hut #104 that hid the entrance to tunnel HARRY. (It still exists today and is on display in the Luft lll museum on site.)

The security crew would be responsible to control who entered the tunnel and to remove the hidden trap door below the stove, and replace as needed.

They had this refined to such an art that upon notice of an approaching guard the POW's could put the stove back in place and clean up any fallen sand... and do this, remarkably in  20 seconds.

The above right image is of the entry trap door to TOM. Below this is the entry shaft that starts the 30 foot drop to the start of the tunnel. When the tunnel was discovered it was blown up and it is doubtful any of this exists today.

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The image on the left is a re-creation of the tunnel done as part of the 50th anniversary of the 1944 escape. It is unknown if the other two are actual photo's, those made for the 1963 movie or yet other celebrations etc. But clearly all show what an incredible cramped space over 1/3rd of the 600 men worked in at some point or other during the construction of these tunnels. 

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As noted in an earlier blog, the bellows were simply 2 kitbags sewn together and mounted in a frame that allowed them to be pulled first in one direction and then the other by up and down action of the handle by the operator, in this case a guard after it was discovered.

Each tunnel had such a device. By so doing they either pumped air into the Klim can tubing, or pulled stale air out with the opposite  stroke. Men would man these constantly when the digging was going on.

In the bottom photo you can see an actual candle holder... a bowl of sorts...  that fat would be drained into, a homemade wick put in and lit for tunnel use.

Later, when the POW's and trades people came in to work on the new theatre, two of the POW's scooped over a thousand feet of  wiring when the guards were not looking. This was ultimately  hung in the tunnels and tapped into the camp power supply and thus, lighting came to the tunnels. Later when the Gestapo started investigating and finding those involved in the loss of the wiring, they learned the men did not report the loss for fear of retaliation. Indeed they had good fears. The Gestapo shot them!



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The image on the right is believed to be the actual entrance into tunnel DICK. Not long ago this tunnel was excavated but very quickly closed up again because the sand was so shifting that the workers thought it just too dangerous to continue. These first two shots show the depth the men dug...just to get past the entrance shaft and then start the tunnel out to freedom. The fellow at the left is not a part of the working crew. His is  one of the actual former POWs  who worked on this tunnel and possible the others as well.

As the three tunnels were being pushed forward, more and more American airmen were being shot down and eventually ending up at Stalag Loft lll. It was only a matter of time before the Germans decided that they ought to open up another compound for the every increasing numbers, dedicate to the Americans, and move all Yanks out of the north compound and into the new facility. Rumors of this caused horror within the north compound were so many of the Americans had worked on TOM and played support roles for so many other escape duties above and below ground as well. 

It was felt by many that with the relocation they would not be able to participate in the escape and so all work on DICK and HARRY was suspended and  TOM became the hub of activity. This of course resulted in far more sand being brought to the surface from that area. And with this it was only a matter of time before one of the dispersing crew was discovered droping the sand at the surface. The guards then started a massive hunt for a tunnel.

With long metal probes many a guard would wonder about prodding the ground, of course not realizing that any probe led than 30 ft. would find nothing. But in one of the searches the guards were inside hut #123 when one stumbled and dropped his probe. It hit the corner of the false trap door to the tunnel and chipped off a piece. The guard snooped about and soon the tunnel was discovered.

Men were marched off to the cooler and the German high command were so interested in the workmanship that it sent experts to Stalag lll to witness first hand what the POW's were up to. Then they brought in a special crew to blow TOM up, and with it they took its roof.

Soon after this they rounded up many of those thought to be involved in the digging and sent them off to other camps miles away. Those transferred included many of the ringleaders.This could not have happened at a worse time. The tunnel was just about finished and the Allies were really just waiting for a moonless night to make the final break through of the last few feet and make their escape.

All work was then put on hold for several months to give everyone a chance to cool off and of course at the same time luring the Germans into a sense of false security.

But then it was decided to start up HARRY again and just use DICK as a storage place for all their tools and even some of the sand coming to the surface.

And then it happened! They got to the end of their tunnel and about to break surface outside the camp.

But 'll bring you that next Wednesday.

Bart


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Still more of the Stalag Luft lll German WW ll Prisoner of War camp in Poland

4/23/2014

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Several blogs in this space have been bringing more and more to you on the above noted POW camp, and the escape that became known as the "Great Escape" thanks to the 1960's Hollywood version of the story staring Steve McQueen and host of other mostly US and British actors.

Last Wednesday we looked at the real roles many talented Allied officers played in the "scrounging" up off supplies and the "manufacturing" of various devices all used in their secretive efforts to escape the camp and get back into their planes and the war effort. In that blog I mentioned that a handful of the men were involved in the creative building of compasses and mentioned about 25 so built. It turns out that the more accurate figure was about 250 compasses that were made from scratch. So too was the number of maps they produced. I mentioned that over 1,000 were secretly printed from home made mimeograph machines... if you will. Actually they were bowls of Jelly almost! Re-read the last blog for fascinating details if you missed this. But again the numbers were low, with the more accuate figure being almost 4,000 printed for escape purposes. All made underground to boot!

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And speaking of boots, did you know they could be used to forge documents?

What you are looking at here at the left and right are two boot heels carved up to make German stamps that can be used in the making of forged documents. One of these may well be the boot stamp recently recovered during the temporary excavation of tunnel DICK, before the dangerous conditions caused it to be filled back in again.

Among the many sectors of the Organization X were about two dozen officers that were known as the "forgers." Like so many of the talented prisoners, these men also had a creative talent,  a steady hand and good eye. When the scroungers  buddied up with the guards, they would then coerce the guards through various means to "loan" their documents to the men. These would be copied, and the originals returned with a token gift of chocolates etc. Off the POW's would then go to their underground little print shop at the base of the entry shaft to the tunnel known as DICK. There they would then use the new document  to forge fake escape documents.

Others would read newspapers that came in Red Cross packages or left from the guards and would search every page for information of "intelligence." This could be the name of an employer, or his or her business, the address and phone number, a logo etc. All of these tidbits were useful and could be used by an escaping prisoner who could pretend he was an employee of that company. He could show a fake ID card with his picture, thanks to the scrounger's obtaining a camera and supplies, and  forging the company logo, company name etc. onto the document. Other most valuable details would include the names and addresses of local officials, police etc. Having these names and sample signatures would be a gold mine because they too could be copied and used to create fake passports, travel documents, gates passes etc.

One of the POW's actually pickpocketed a guard's wallet, got everything copied and later that day when the guard returned looking for it, it was returned which much THANKS from the guard. Yet another guard was befriended and then extorted into getting his girlfriend... who worked in the Camp Commander's office, to lift papers for intelligence gathering, with the same being being returned ASAP.

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This is an actual gate pass into another Camp, known as Luft l and about 300 miles north west of Luft lll, but many of the troublesome POW's from there were later moved to Luft lll. With them of course they brought their talents... among these may well have been that of forgery. (Tunnel digging was certainly one of their talents, and thus causing the move.) The image at above right is a forged gate pass. 

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Here are a couple of fake passes. Note in each the use of a boot stamp. The one of the left is a fake ID of an electrical worker who has a temporary job coming into camp to do some work. (Maybe it was the work wiring the theatre that was built not that long before the escape)

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The left image is yet another forged document for an electrical worker and those to the right are 3 more travel documents that were forged.

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Here are a couple of fake ID cards and three German  ID disks (dog-tags) issued to POW's.

While quite a handful of officers were working on forging documents, others kept themselves busy actually taking higher education courses in the camp. Some studied languages and some would concentrate on teaching others European languages, especially useful phrases  in German so that they could answer basic questions if challenged during the escape. 

Still others used their talent to help out in the tailor shop on site. Created for the use of helping the officer with the odd torn shirt  or jacket and pants...it very soon turned into a major tailor and costume shop operation. All of the day to day needs were looked after in the making of shorts and mending pants, but a complete wardrobe of outfits was needed for the shows put on in the theatre as well.

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As you can see from these images of just two of the plays the men put on, the costumes certainly called for some talented tailors. Every one of the actors was a male... despite what you might think by looking at the pictures. And every one of those dresses the men made... and wore.

And of course in the back rooms, the men would be making something very different. Escape clothes. They would make a dozen German uniforms so accurate that one man walked out of camp wearing one, (but was soon caught.) One of the uniforms was put on by an escaping soldier that was about to enter the tunnel when another escapee walked into the hut, saw him and almost panicked because he thought the escape plan was discovered.

The men would make coveralls, and tourism type clothing and business suits... over 50 suits in all. They would raid Red Cross boxes for shorts, shirts, jacekets, blankets, sheets and from anything sent to POW's from back home they would try to pull out any materials that could be used to tailor up yet another outfit for an escapee. 


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These four men are Allied officers. The picture was taken by the Germans after the men were caught. Each carries a briefcase, and it is known that in the camp the "manufacturing" crews had been making some of these out of the KLIM tins and others just out of cardboard and probably painted with shoe polish.

Men like Sergeant Noble, Lt. Officer Ogilvie, Pilot Officers Brown, Davidson and Muller, Flight Lt's  Buckingham, Bergsland and Pengally, and Flight Officers Colwell and Kidder with dozen more all played active, if not leadership roles in teaching various languages, tailoring, and forgery during the planning stages of the escape.

From what you have hopefully read in the last several columns you can readily see that there was so much more than simply digging a hole and running for cover in this story. It was because of all this other support work that was needed... and missing in earlier attempts, that so many ended with failure.

On Friday we will finally get to the digging! 

Bart




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Part four of Stalag Luft lll

4/16/2014

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Last week some information was provided about the massive level of Prisoner of War involvement, in the collection of intelligence regarding German Guard activity at the WW ll POW camp in Poland and known as Stalag Loft lll. There were hundreds of stoolies that would daily watch the guards in the towers and on patrol and even just visiting the camp. They would pass on this information through a signalling system so that within seconds a message could travel from one end on the camp to the other. This of course being  to warn any POW's involved in clandestine operations to be on the lookout for the approaching enemy.

Under the auspices of the most senior British Officer at the camp, an organization called Organization X had as many POW's... and more. And all these men were working on numerous other activities in the aid of planned escapes.

One of the arms of this organization consisted of what was fondly called the scroungers, those that could use their creativity to get anything that could aid in their goals to get back into the war. These men were always on the lookout for anything that could be used to get out, perhaps in a way unintended, for the greater cause.

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One of the sources of these "tools" would be the very Red Cross packages that arrived for each POW held in the camp. These would contain the basics for daily living, but not escape. Unless you looked at the parcel with the later in mind. To begin, with rationing, some of the contents of each could be removed and pooled for special events like an Xmas party, Easter etc. Some goods could be put aside to build up a supply that would carry over a new arrival until such time as his own parcels started to arrive. Some goods could be stashed as emergency supplies to carry if you were lucky enough to escape. When POW's are caught doing bad things, sometimes the Red Cross rations were only dispersed by the guards as half rations. Anything earlier stored by the POW committees could then be relied on till full rations were again being distributed.

Coffee and chocolates were a favourite for the POW's. And so too for the German guards who rarely had this luxury. Having the brew on while the guard was wandering  through the hut was a way to eventually invite him in for a drink or piece of chocolate.


This might sound strange, but in this camp, things were not like most POW camps. It was just for officers, and air force ones at that.. And it was run by older, or wounded German air force officers who tended to treat their enemy officers almost like brothers.. not nearly as nasty as what would be found in other camps. Thus, an easier task to invite the enemy in for a drink or candy. Better yet, by befriending the guard, it would only be a matter of time before you could offer a whole chocolate bar or can of coffee for him to take home to the family when he got a leave.

Having cultivated the guard with these little gifts, it would simply be a matter of time before the POW would ask for something seemingly innocent, in return. Some pens and paper to write home... that could be used in forgery efforts.  Some buttons, thread and needle to help repair his torn uniform that could be used to tailor uniforms for an escape.  All things that could be put to creative use by the POW. A few hours on the net and you would be surprised with what can be discovered about the amount of goodies the men obtained through this form of scrounging.

And should the guard be reluctant, perhaps a suggestion that the bosses would be most upset to hear of the bartering going on and would be very harsh on the guard... perhaps enough to send him back to the front lines.

The Red Cross boxes were tools in themselves. They were made of wood that, as previously noted, were used to build the seats in the theatre. They were also used to haul out sand from the tunnels and even in some cases for the storage of the sand itself, throughout the camp.

Perhaps some of the most useful "tools" were the very cans in these boxes. With the tops chopped off, they could be used as cooking and eating utensils, holders for make-shift candles in the tunnels so the men could see what they were doing and of course digging instruments. Since each can was  soldered together, a little heat application got you some solder to be used later  to fasten many cans together after being cut and shaped. Things like weapons, tools, and believe it or not, furniture and even brief cases as you shall soon see. 

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The Borden Company was around for a long time. Back in Civil War days it supplied milk to the troops. Here is an image of MILK spelt backwards...  that came in the Red Cross packages. The cute note under the key to open the cans tells the holder that the key must be saved, as DEMANDED, by the government for the use of making war weapons. There seemed to be no requirement to save the tin cans though. Just as  well because the POW's had their own need for these cans as you shall soon see.

The image in the right appears to be some of the Organization X Red Cross committee members sitting around a table and going through the Red Cross parcels to pull out stuff they want to store for future use.

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Here it looks like a  POW is standing in the beginning of a hole and dumping sand out of a tin.

An earlier blog noted that three tunnels were being dug by the Organization X and that they totalled several hundred feet in length. As the men got further and further along, the air became so stale that another plan had to be developed. Part of this plan called for the creation of a ventilating system to be built underground that would not only force air into the tunnel but give it an ever expanding venting system that would continue to grow with the tunnel as it got longer an longer. And that's where the KLIM cans came into play. With tops and bottoms removed, they were pressed together to form a very long tube into which the air could be forced  through.

The centre image shows some of these being put together. The right image shows the tube installed in one of the tunnels... probably HARRY. 

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One of the guards had been very suspicious of POW activity and finally the day came when he saw one of the men in the act of dumping sand on the ground. Guards moved in and started poking all over the place with long medal rods hoping to find the tunnel. Without success they turned their attention to the inside of all the huts. In one of these, the guard accidently dropped his rod, it hit the corner of a concrete slab, and upon further investigation they found that it was the trap door into the tunnel called TOM. 

Ultimately lots of POW's went to the cooler and the Germans blew up the tunnel... taking with it part of the roof of the building it started in. But before doing so the Germans were so impressed with the POW ingenuity at work that the higher commands sent teams out to inspect what was being done at Stalag lll. The above pictures have one of the guards working the ventilator... or bellows... created by the POW's. It was simply two kit bags sewn together and designed in such a way that it moved backward and forward and with each stroke, man made of course, the kit bags would suck air into the bag... and also push air out of the other end...and inside all those tin cans to the face of the tunnel where the digging was going on.

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After the war one of the prisoner's war notes and cartoons were discovered. From these, here is a partial page showing some of the items the KLIM cans were used to create. 

Some of the POW's from the "manufacturing" section of the Organization used their talents to make maps to be used when escaping.  They even made their own mimeograph machine of sorts.

Remember the days of school children who would turn a picture face down and lay it across a bowl of jelly and rub it lightly. Some of the ink would then sink into the jelly, and in so doing would replicate the image from the page above.

Remove the page and then place a clear sheet of paper down and give this a light rub and some of the ink will now come off, and onto your clear page... and thus... you now have a map. The POW's discovered they could make 20 or 30 maps from one original. And Organization X made OVER A THOUSAND during their days at Stalag Luft lll

But what good is a map without a compass. So they made them too! 

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Canada's Prime Minister one year at Xmas sent  Canadian POW's at Luft lll some 78 RPM gramophone records. I guess the songs were not all that great and so many of these were melted down and some of the goop produced was pushed into a mold and allowed to harden. This became the case for the compass. They would then take  some razor blades and rub them about 50 times in the same direction over a horseshoe which would magnetize them. They would then slice up the razors to get a compass arm. Mount it on a thin piece of paper or cardboard, and perch it on top of an old record needle. The face was mounted over it using glass from bombed out windows. The end product  was a perfectly functioning compass.

Both of the above compasses were made at Stalag Luft lll, the first for the story in these blogs. The one of the right was from another escape at the camp earlier. More on this 2nd compass in a future blog.

Many dozens of men played important, and  some, less important roles in the above events. Without men like Flight Officer Johnny Colwell, Pilot Officer Barry Davidson, Lieutenant Officer Alfred Ogilvie and Sergeant Red Noble, much of the above would not have been possible.

On another note, today is my 250th blog. Please take some time to send me some comments on these efforts over the past 15 months.

With Friday and Monday Easter celebrations, the next blog will be a week from today.

Cheers till then.

Bart







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Part three of Stalag Luft 111 and the murder of 50 Allied Air Force Officers in WW11.

4/11/2014

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On re-reading last Wednesday's blog I note that the title mentioned the number of escaping officers to be 76, and in this Wednesday's blog the number of those recaptured became 73 for some strange reason. The most often quoted number of escapers is 76 men but this is really not right. It was 80. Four of the men not usually mentioned are the four that were captured right at the exit point of tunnel HARRY. Thus 80 escaped, 3 eventually made it a home run, while 77, not 73 were caught. Fifty of these were murdered and the rest returned mostly to Stalag Luft 111 but a few were sent elsewhere.

So much for the numbers! Now back to where I left off with Wednesday's blog, and the distribution of sand pulled out of the tunnels. 

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In 1944 a scheme was hatched for yet another major distraction. It involved the building of a theatre in the compound that would provide seating for 350, a pit area for a full 40 piece orchestra, projection room, lighting bays, a reading room, library and equipment storage area.

The camp officials felt that if this kept the prisoners busy, they would not be thinking of escapes and tunnels. So materials and tools were supplied for the venture.

The Red Cross and others soon got requests for and complied with the supply of all the needs of the orchestra, especially that of the instruments themselves. There would be marching bands and posters displaying the next attraction, coming play or musical including those of Bach, Bethoven and Mozart The POW's could come to be entertained...or on the other hand, use their own talents to do the actual entertaining. One  internet story tells that in one of the plays one of the German Guards actually played a part... and in full German uniform.  The POW's put on many plays including  The Man Who Came to Dinner, Little Women and Arsenic and Old Lace..

Soon word got out that the entertaining was so good that you needed tickets to get in. Tickets that even the Guards wanted to get. And get they got... with a price... of a favor to a POW. Like the supply of some sort of innocent item that could be converted for escape purposes. An example was a camera and film. The POW'S argued that they needed to preserve these memories. The guards loaned a camera...that was ultimately secreted off at different times for the purposes of taking photos of POW's for forged documents to be used in future escape attempts.  

The above sketch and photo are obviously of the theater and perhaps a shot off POW's rehearsing a play. Look closely at the back of the rows of seats and see the red cross image on them. The seats were made from wooden Red Cross packages. They  were so well made that the backs actually flipped up and they even had arm rests.

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These are actual photos of some of the scenes in plays being acted out. Since women were not allowed in the camp... every one of the women depicted is a male POW. One talented actor would later comment that he felt he was "forever in wigs and fallsies."

The prisoners did not have the theatre built. They built it. They designed it and put down the foundation and the walls and roof and the interior. Oh! I almost forgot. When they built the exterior walls, they mysteriously ensured that they did not stop a few feet above the ground like all the other buildings in the compound. They went right down to the ground.

I wonder why? 


Perhaps it had something to do with seat # 13. Which, unlike the others, was not fastened down... but on hinges that would flip up and allow access to a trap door and entry beneath the floor. Winter was a coming and the POW's knew that tunnelling would be continuing but disbursement of sand on snow covered ground would not be possible.... unless it was UNDER a building. Not only was this new space used to hold tonnes of sand from the tunnels, an area under the building also became the entrance to yet a fourth tunnel called GEORGE.

In all of these activities, many men with talents were brought into the overall scheme of the Organization X. That of getting hundreds of POW's out of the compound and back into the war. Men like Flt. Lt 's Arthur Creighton, George Harsh, Gordon Kidder, Tony Pengelly, Alfred Thompson, James Wernham, George Wiley and dozens of others. Each helped in his own way, be it the disbursement of sand here and elsewhere or in acting in the plays, managing, directing and producing them, working the lighting and props, arranging and conducting the orchestra and a  dozen other jobs connected with this building. A building designed to entertain, amuse, get minds off the war for some, and secretly aid in escape activity as well as distract the GOONS (German Officers and Officers Non-commissioned) from paying closer attention to what was really going on all around them. And if you will pardon the pun... right under their feet. Many of these men also played important roles in other areas of the Organization X work.

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Have a long look at these three images. At the bottom right there is a fellow standing way of to the right of the spectators watching the boxing match. Why is he not with the rest? The image above shows five men standing at the garden while others worked. All are looking down... EXCEPT the fellow on the left. He may be dispersing sand. What is he watching? Why is another fellow standing against the building and it appears as though he also is NOT looking down at the gardeners. What is he looking at... or for?  Why are most windows up except one? The large image on the left also shows something curious if you study the picture. At the corner of each of the 3 barrack blocks there as at least one if not more POW's. What  are they doing?

While the photographer has not left any comments on the issues raised, what you are looking at could well be part of the massive security network that the POW's operated within the compound.

This network involved more than 200 Kriegies. That's a POW in the language of the POW's. In German a POW is called a Kriegiesgefangenen. And thus the term Kriegies. These men acted as stoolies or massive information gatherers for the Organization X. Men would be constantly watching the guards in the towers and on the ground and patrol and by a series of creative means would constantly pass along the movements of all of these men...including any that visited the camp... and for every minute of the day and night.

The above men pointed out could well be part of this team of stoolies. By the raising or lowering of a window, or the placing a book in a window, this  would tell someone that a guard is approaching, That someone would pass the message on to another strategically placed, and he to another and another and another until the  message finally arrived at the face of each tunnel and the word would then be sent underground to stop all activity till the danger passed. In Harry the signal to shut down was rather crude. It simply involved a string attached to a can with a few pebbles in it. Pull the string and you get a noise that sends the men into immediate ceasing of all underground activity, till the all clear was later sent.

Men would have a book in the window that could be taken away, or be playing chess and a simply move on the board would be a signal, or even the turning of a page of a stoolie's book as he read at his 'station" near the front gate. These were all signals used at Stalag Luft 111. The system was so reliable that it had been said by many that their accountability of all German movement at any time of the day was superior to the German's own accounting of where their men where. 

Pilot Officer's Gordon King and George Sweanor, Bomber Pilot Kingsley Brown and Flight Lt.'s George Harsh and George McGill all played supervisory roles in this network of informers. As did perhaps another 200 men.

Much more to come next week.

Bart









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Part two of the Stalag Luft 111 German POW Camp, and escape of 76 Allied Officers, recapturing 73 and cold blooded murder of 50 of them.

4/9/2014

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Last Wednesday I started to bring you the story of the 50 Allied officers who were murdered by the Gestapo. This war crime happened after the officers escaped from the German POW camp called Stalag Luft 111 and were later recaptured. For those who have read that blog, you might want to revisit it as I have made a few minor changes.

There were five compounds in this POW camp, and these blogs are about one of them, that which mainly housed the British Air Force Officers shot down, and called the NORTH Compound. Some of the tough measures taken by the Germans in this compound to prevent escaping came about as a result of Germany's experiences throughout the country, and even in some of the adjoining compounds, where there alone, 98 tunnels were discovered in the years past. However most resulted in no escapes, or captures soon after escape.

But the Allies were getting smarter and with considerable background experiences in underground tunnelling they soon came to the basic understanding that individual attempts were not likely to be rewarded with freedom. The old way gave the POW's something to break the boredom, some hope and even tied up enemy manpower as it tried to detect their activities. But the ultimate goal of escape and the rejoining with friendly forces to continue with the war was far from their reach.

But Stalag Luft 111 was to be different. To begin with, it brought together about 15,000 officers, men who were often highly educated and very successful in a host of different ventures in the civilian world. Men with smarts that could pool together their imaginations and talents and address the old problems with new creativity and more positive results. And about 1,500 of these men were in the North Compound.

These officers soon realized that no mater how hard... and smart... they worked underground...  that was only half the problem. There were as many if not more problems above ground that also had to be tackled. And one without the other would only see yet more failed attempts at freedom.  
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One of the first problems they had was what the heck to do with all the sand they would produce. They were digging three tunnels, TOM, DICK and HARRY to begin with. A fourth, GEORGE, came later. In the first three alone they would dig underground for about 550 feet parallel to ground level. In addition there would be 3 shafts down at the 3 entry points, another 3 at the exit points amounting to another 180 feet and workspaces dug out underground too boot. Advances on each tunnel of 3 to 4 feet a day produced TONNES of sand DAILY. Three feet produced over a ton, and with 3 tunnels that was almost ten tonnes alone.

From the above, you can see a yellowish or gold coloured soil. Now look at the top layer in the picture of the right. See how dark the soil was. Clearly any distribution above ground, of subsurface soil of another colour would be a dead giveaway that tunnelling was ongoing. So they needed a solution.


Not long ago an excavation of DICK was undertaken. In both above images the dark spot is the  beginning of the tunnel... and that is after the shaft was dug 30 feet down from the surface. It was dug by hand with utensils perhaps about  1/10th the size of the bucket at the foot of Flight Officer Gordon King shown at above left, and one of the POWs back in 1943-45. Note also the edges of the pit in both images. They are not straight down but slanted. This is because of the instability of the sand. One of the very problems the tunnelers had to face daily, and also a fear of some of the very men recently excavating. But more on this in another blog.  

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Flight Lieutenant Wally Floody was the Tunnel King. He came to Stalag Luft 111 with many, many tunnels under his belt. He would soon be invited to join with the group that called itself the X Organization and it would be led and commanded by the most senior British officer in the camp, a Group Captain.

He would in turn appoint a Squadron leader who would command the  day to day escape details. And Floody would answer to him.

This officer would actually design the three tunnels and have many sub-groups that would each play a major role in the overall success or failure of the escape plan they hatched. It called for the escape of some 200 men on day one and as many in the days following. It would involve over 600 men playing a variety of roles out of the 1,500 at the compound.

As  the herculean task of bringing tonnes of sand to the surface was on going each day and night, the next job was getting rid of the sand. Many dozens of men like Flying Officer Hank Birkland, Flt Lt. George Harsh, Officer Art Hobten, Flt.t. Pat Langford, Flt. Lt. George Summers, Flt. Lt. Albert Wallace, and  Flt. Lt. John Weir would work at one specialty or another and also as PENGUINS. So named because they waddled like a penguin.

From the images above you can readily see why. One of the men designed these secret carrying bags for the movement of the sand. Often it was nothing more than a leg from long johns. The bottom end was slit, and fitted with some sort of a clip fastened to a string that travelled up the leg under the trousers and into the pocket of the penguin. After he waddled into position he would pull on the string, the clip came lose and opened up the leg and the 2 foot pile of sand, 3 inches across,  would flow out and onto the ground. 

The above left picture has a German Guard later finding and having his picture taken with one form of the device that was simply slung around the neck of the carrier. The image on the right is of actor David McCallum in his younger days, and imitating one of the penguins in the famous movie The Great Escape of the early 1960's. His fame from that movie pushed him on to greater recognition in the TV series, The Man Form Uncle, and much later in a most successful career, now with the crew of NCIS as the ever inquisitive doctor with a zillion stories of past cases to bore his fellow investigators, but not the audience. 


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When the above mentioned men and many dozens of others were sent off to drop their loads of sand, they would be dispatched to areas were other events were often taking places. Events like a boxing match or cricket or ice hockey were large crowds could not only hide the penguins within, but also do much to stir up the soil dropped in the hopes that it would be well mixed with the surface soil and thus not detectable. During one of the boxing matches arranged by Flt. Lt George McGill several men were trying to get over the wire at the very moment the impromptu match took place... obviously as a diversion.

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The golf match above would have been a great place to drop soil as so many could help in mixing it up. So too whenever there was a crowd gathering. The officers had plenty of time on their hands as it was not lawful under the Geneva Convention to force them to be on work parties. Thus many took to gardening... where soil is always turned up and over and over. Note that a couple of fellows standing have a hand in their pocket. Are they holding onto a string?

Much more of Friday.

Bart



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Still going though some great new info of the subject at hand, but cannot possible disseminate as early as hoped. Next  Wednesday I'll bring you an update.

4/5/2014

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A few details still need confirming and so the Friday blog is being put off till Saturday.  Sorry folks.

4/4/2014

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Seventy years ago last week 76 POW's broke out of a German POW Camp. THREE made it to safety.  Seventy three were captured. Hitler ordered all to be shot.  Fifty were! In the back, many with hands tied.

4/2/2014

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Late in the night of 24 March 1944, and early the next morning a daring escape was launched that saw 76 Allied forces Officers, mostly British, escape from the Stalag-Luft 111 massive camp near what today is Zagan Poland. Back then it was German held territory.

News last week told of the 50 RAF men and women, all commissioned officers, who marched  over 100 miles to honour those murdered. They started their memorial at the start place of the story, that being at the location of the old POW camp in Zagan and ended it at the final resting place of 49 of these heroes. That being the Commonwealth War Graves Commission's cemetery located at Poznan Poland.
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The march started at Zagan, bottom center of map. This is located about 210 kms. south east of Berlin. The march ended at the cemetery to the north east some 170 kms., at Poznan. But more on that later.

First the camp!

In 1942 the Germans had become quite concerned about the amount of POW's escaping via tunnels. Vowing to resolve this issue they went on the hunt for a special location to build a camp that could incorporate a lot of problems for those bent on tunnelling their way out.

First they chose a spot that was somewhat remote, and thus not easy to hide out or get transportation to spirit them off. Next they wanted a wooded area that they could clear and leave a baron space all around that would require very, very long tunnels to overcome. They felt if too long, a tunnel would never be attempted. Then they wanted somewhere that had surface dirt that was very noticeably different in colour than that a few feet below grade. And finally they wanted somewhere with soil that was very sandy and difficult to dig in because of the edges just flowing into the hole made.

Zagan proved to be the spot, land was cleared and a camp built. But with more and more successes in the air, the Germans found the camp getting overcrowded with POW's and had to make several new clearings for more buildings. Each of these was built up off the ground a few feet so that the guards would hopefully discover any escaper efforts by tunnelling, or by piles of earth appearing under any of the buildings.

Outside the cleared space around the camp they erected not one but two 9 ft. high fences topped with barbed fire. And between each was a 7 ft space also filled with barbed wired entanglements. As if this was not enough they also had a warning line. One string of wire about two feet off the ground that was the no go line. Cross it and you would immediately be shot.

And to deter digging they had sensitive microphones placed in holes dug 9 ft down and strung the exterior of the camp with these. Each would hopefully pick up any vibrations and thus alert the enemy that something was going on underground. And topping all of this off they had several guard towers mounted along the edge of the camp with guards equipped with machine funs and powerful search lights These would be used all night and aided by roaming guard patrols complete with trained search dogs.

The officials would constantly brag that the camp was escape proof. But then came along a South African RAF officer named Roger Bushel who had repeatedly tunnelled out of earlier camps, (almost 50 under his belt),  and had a major grudge with the enemy...especially the Gestapo. They had murdered all of those who helped hide him for a while after his latest escape.

He was so incensed that he decide that he would not only tunnel out again, he would make plans to make the escape a massive one with 200 getting out in the first phase and more to follow.

On arrival at Stalag Luft 111 he was assigned to one of the 15 huts in the north compound were most of the British officers were housed. The population of this area was about 1,500 and there were 5 more compounds in the camp.

Not long after arrival Bushell met up with a former colleague who happened to be the senior British Officer in the compound. That fellow preferred that no tunnels be made due to past negative experiences and the Germans in constant search for more escape efforts. But the officer pressed upon his new boss that co-ordinated efforts between hundreds, instead of hundreds of individual tunnel efforts, was part of the key to a success. He also stressed his experience, and very strong grudge and that his idea did not involve a few but upwards of 200 men escaping, and that was just a start. 

He was then given the OK to move on it. Soon a team was brought together under the code name Operation X with Bushel being the head... or X man. Soon others with very special talents were brought into the plan. One of these was an officer named Floody, an ex mining man who immediately came up with plans for not one... but 3 tunnels. Three because, if one was found they might not expect another and yet a third also being dug. To avoid detection it was ordered that the word tunnel no longer be used. From now on is was simply Tom, Dick and Harry, the names of each new venture. Soon many other talented men would join up to work the many tasks both above and below ground. 

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This air photo shows the several compounds at the POW camp. The RAF Officers were housed in the North Compound in the 3 identical rows of five huts. The hut that concealing the entrance to the HARRY tunnel, the one in which all 76 escapes were made, was in hut #104 which is the one in the middle of the five in that first row at top of page. The tunnel ran northbound...up the page and under the cooler, a hut where troubled POW's were held in solitary confinement. The tunnel would then hopeful travel further north until well into the woods shown as the dark area at the top of the page and exit the underground within those woods.

The first two huts on the left of the third row of five, looking at the above image, are where a 2nd and third tunnel were being built that headed off to the left... or westbound. This area was covered with pine woods like the top and right in the picture, but when the image was taken the woods on the left had been cut down to build the newer west compound. 

A fourth tunnel was started as an emergency tunnel and ran under the theatre the POW's built. This building is the one, shaped like the others but much darker in the above image and below the third row of huts, It is the southern most building in the compound.  It was to run eastbound into the woods outside the compound. This fourth tunnel is rarely mentioned when Stalag Luft 111 is spoken about.



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This sketch is a little easier to understand. At the bottom center you can see HARRY travelling north and beside, (should be under) the cooler and then off to the woods. A second and shorter tunnel called TOM exited from hut #123 and travelled some 98 ft to the woods off to the west. And tunnel DICK, started at hut #122, went  westbound travelling under hut #105 and would have exited within the woods to the west.

On Friday I bring you some of the fascinating tidbits pulled together to dig these tunnels, the ultimate results, and then we will join up with the marching 50.

Bart




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    Author;
    Bart Armstrong, C.D.,
    Recipient, Sovereign's Medal for Volunteers 

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