Stalag Luft III: the Pommel Horse, and the Great Escape
Stalag Luft III was a Nazi prison camp for Allied prisoners-of-war. Unlike Colditz, Stalag Luft III had a lower proportion of guards to prisoners; however, it had a clear drawback for those hoping to escape. The dirt at Stalag Luft was quite unusual, with a gray dusty surface and yellow subsoil. Tunneling of any sort would soon become obvious to the guards, making escape more difficult.
A small group of British POWs, Lieutenant Michael Codner, Flight Lieutenant Eric Williams, and Flight Lieutenant Oliver Philpot, found a creative solution, and dug their tunnel to freedom. The prisoners constructed a large pommel horse, a piece of gymnastics equipment, from the plywood used for Red Cross packages. The pommel horse was large enough to hold both dirt and men. Each day the men carried the pommel horse to a spot near the fence. There, they practiced gymnastics, while men worked under the pommel horse, digging an escape tunnel. The sound of the gymnastics practice provided coverage for the noise of digging. Over time, the three men completed their tunnel, and all were successfully able to escape in October 1943 and be repatriated to Britain.
In another daring escape, Squadron Leader Roger Bushell made a plan to get 200 inmates out of Stalag Luft III. Bushell didn’t plan to dig one tunnel for a few men, but three tunnels, called Tom, Dick and Harry, to provide a route to freedom for a large number of POWs. He also believed that if one tunnel was found, the remaining two tunnels would remain, as it was unlikely the Germans would imagine the creation of multiple tunnels. More than 600 prisoners were involved in the creation of these three tunnels. These were not just simple tunnels, but even had ventilation systems, lights and small rail cars to remove soil. The men created a number of ways to release the excavated sand onto the ground without attracting notice. Eventually, “Dick” was filled in and used for storage, as a change to the structure of the camp made it otherwise unusable. “Tom” was discovered late in 1943 by the Germans.
“Harry” was complete in March of 1944. Originally, the escape had been planned for summer, but the deadline was moved up due to increased SS activity. On March 24, 1944, 76 men escaped through Harry; all were prior escapees, spoke German, had worked extensively on the tunnels, or were otherwise deemed especially important. It took the Germans some time to find the entrance to Harry, and when they did, they soon discovered the size of the escape operation. Seventy-three of the 76 escapees were recaptured.