What Was the Great Escape in World War II?

• It was a daring prison break.
• Prisoners dug three secret tunnels.
• The tunnel was called Harry.
• Seventy-six men escaped total.
• Most were caught by the enemy.

During World War II, the German army captured many Allied pilots. These men were sent to a prison camp called Stalag Luft III. The camp was in a forest in a part of Germany that is now Poland. The Germans built this camp to be very hard to escape. They used special guards and tall fences to keep the men inside. But the prisoners were brave and wanted to rejoin their friends in the war. They spent their days planning ways to break out. They felt it was their duty to keep fighting against the enemy. The camp held men from many different countries like Britain and America.

In early 1944, the prisoners decided to dig three long tunnels. They named them Tom, Dick, and Harry. The men worked very hard every single day in the dark. They used old tin cans to dig through the dirt. To hide the dirt, they put it into small bags inside their pants. They would walk around the yard and shake the dirt out slowly. They built a small wooden trolley to move people and tools through the tunnels. On a cold night in March 1944, they were ready to leave. They started to crawl through the tunnel named Harry. Seventy-six men managed to climb out into the trees near the camp. A guard spotted the men and raised the alarm quickly. Many of the prisoners were caught by the German army. Sadly, fifty of these brave men were killed by the enemy. Only three men made it all the way back to their home countries. This event became very famous as the Great Escape.

It forced Germany to spend a lot of time and resources searching for the escaped men. It also proved that Allied soldiers would never stop trying to fight back.

• Royal Air Force
• US Army Air Forces
• German Luftwaffe guards
• Gestapo

• 1.RAF Museum
• 2.Imperial War Museum
• 3.Stalag Luft III Archive