Stalag Luft III, a Luftwaffe prison camp in Sagan, in what is now Żagań, Poland, held captured Allied aircrew. Under RAF Squadron Leader Roger Bushell, prisoners secretly dug tunnels and planned for 200 men to escape. On the night of 24–25 March 1944, 76 got out before the breakout was discovered. Nearly all were recaptured: 73 were caught, and 50 of them were handed to the Gestapo and shot. Only three men reached safety.
The camp had been built to defeat tunnellers. Its huts stood off the ground and its sandy soil was bright yellow, so fresh spoil was easy to spot. Bushell's organisation answered with a small army of forgers, tailors, mapmakers and diggers. They planned for 200 men to go out on a single night, through a tunnel that had to run under the wire and on into the woods beyond.
The break began after dark on 24 March 1944 and went more slowly than planned. By the time guards spotted a man coming out of the tunnel exit before dawn, 76 prisoners were loose in the Reich. The Germans launched a huge manhunt, and 73 escapers were caught.
Then came the reprisal. Fifty of the recaptured men, Bushell among them, were handed to the Gestapo and shot, a killing later prosecuted as a war crime. Only three of the 76 made it all the way to freedom. The 1963 film The Great Escape made the story famous around the world, but the real ending was far grimmer: of the men who got out that night, 50 died and only three got home.
Key people: Roger Bushell