KEW, Feb 2 — The mass 1944 breakout of Allied prisoners of struggle from the infamous Stalag Luft III camp was famously immortalised by Hollywood.
But for practically 80 years the true tales of “The Great Escape” captives have remained hidden in sealed UK defence ministry information.
Now particulars of the experiences of these and different World War II detainees are being revealed for the primary time after a treasure trove of wartime information was handed over.
On the evening of March 23-24, 1944, greater than 70 Allied airmen tunnelled out of the infamous PoW camp in Nazi-occupied Poland.
The escape was the fruits of months of work by the PoWs who used ingenious strategies not simply to stage the breakout but additionally to obtain and ship info out of the camp.
The 1963 celluloid portrayal famously sees Steve McQueen’s character attempting — and failing — to leap his strategy to freedom on a stolen Nazi motorcycle over barbed wire.
In actual life, 73 of the 76 escapees have been recaptured, in response to Will Butler, joint curator of a brand new exhibition on the UK’s National Archives.
POW card particulars for future MP, Airey Neave, a prisoner of struggle as a Lieutenant within the Royal Engineers, who escaped from Colditz, are seen on the exhibition ‘Great Escapes: Remarkable Second World War Captives’. — eNM pic
“Fifty of these later captured have been executed by the Gestapo,” he instructed eNM.
The exhibition, “Great Escapes: Remarkable Second World War Captives” which opens on Friday, explores some of the wartime strategies utilized by detainees to smuggle info.
Secret messages
One of the preferred strategies was coded letters or letters with hid info despatched in apparently routine communications to with members of the family.
A clue within the kind of one thing written within the letter that might solely seem unusual to the recipient would point out that the letter ought to be handed on to navy intelligence.
In one such letter, captured Spitfire pilot Peter Gardner hid very important info inside a photograph of fellow PoW Guy Griffiths.
Experts consider the point out of Griffiths within the letter to his mom may have been a concocted story and meant as an alternative for British intelligence service MI9.
MI9 was arrange the British authorities firstly of the struggle to help escapes.
Gardner, captured after he bailed out over France in July 1941, hid his secret message by writing in tiny script — unreadable with out magnification — painstakingly sandwiched between the picture and its backing card.
The covert messages have been typically requests for gadgets to be smuggled in to help the escapers corresponding to radio components or on this case for forging pretend paperwork.
“Had marked success with numerous paperwork equipped to quantity of escapees on 5 March, however have appreciable problem acquiring originals to repeat,” he wrote.
“Therefore request tracing of id card for overseas employee in Germany… Suggest appropriate paper as fly leaves in books. Request additionally powdered Indian ink, three very high quality nibs,” he added within the 1942 secret letter.
Two years later cast paperwork performed an important position within the Stalag Luft III escape.
Two of the three who made it house used pretend papers claiming that they have been Norwegian electricians working in Germany permitting them to evade detection as they made their means throughout occupied Europe.
Concealed
Butler, head of navy information on the archives, stated that along with requests for supplies, the key letters have been additionally used to offer info to MI9 about different PoWs who could be seen as appropriate candidates for intelligence work or the planning of escapes.
Other gadgets featured within the exhibition embody supplies smuggled the opposite means into the camps in parcels to assist escape efforts.
These embody a enjoying card with maps hidden in them or a hairbrush with a map and a noticed hid inside.
A map exhibiting future MP, Airey Neave’s escape route (sprint and dot line) via a wooden to the Swiss border, 1942, is seen on the exhibition ‘Great Escapes: Remarkable Second World War Captives’. — eNM pic
The audacious breakout from Stalag Luft III may need captured the general public’s creativeness, however a lesser identified escape of 70 German prisoners from a camp in Wales additionally options within the exhibition.
The escapers tunnelled underneath three traces of barbed wire in March 1945 earlier than being captured and returned.
Other tales featured embody those that “mentally escaped” with actions starting from theatre to drawing corresponding to British creator and playwright PG Wodehouse and artist Ronald Searle.
Wodehouse wrote at the very least one novel whereas a prisoner in an internment camp in Nazi-occupied territory whereas Searle produced over 300 sketches of his fellow PoWs in Changi camp in Singapore and dealing on the Thai-Burma railway. — eNM
