Of the 76 men who escaped from Stalag Luft III, three managed to reach safety, 50 were shot, 17 were returned to Sagan, four were sent to Sachsenhausen and two were sent to Colditz Castle. Here, former PoW Charles Clarke recalls finally being released
On January 27, 1945, with Soviet troops only 16 miles away, the remaining 11,000 PoWs at Stalag Luft III were marched out of camp with the eventual destination of Spremberg, Germany. The prisoners were eventually liberated by Allied forces.
One of the difficulties of being a prisoner of war – we never knew quite how long it would take to be released.
The Germans used to say, for you the war is over. Everyone used to say you'll be home for Christmas, but no one said which Christmas. When the invasion came, I honestly thought we would be home in a matter of months. But it was not to be, it was well over a year. We knew the troops were advancing. We didn't know how far away they were. The first sign of the cavalry – they probably were cavalry – was a reconnaissance vehicle. A two man reconnaissance vehicle drove up. The Germans had disappeared the night before because they obviously knew.
This reconnaissance vehicle I'm sure had lost its way because it was way ahead of the main force. We then were told to wait there until we had transport to Brussels to be flown home. I decided not to wait. There were two friends from 617 Squadron and we made our way down to Brussels and spent about four days in Brussels before reporting to the reception centre. And then we were put in a Lancaster and flown to Westcott, which is somewhere near Oxford.
You've seen people kissing the ground when they get back and that was the feeling we had. We just couldn't believe it. We obviously thought we would go to the Far East as part of Tiger Force but by that time the Far East was collapsing, so we were all allocated jobs. It was certainly a heart-breaking summer to realise we were going to leave the Service quickly.
Here, Charles Clarke tells us how The Great Escape film has helped ensure that these men are never forgotten
The escapees made their way to Sagan railway station but in the darkness they could not find the entrance and precious hours were wasted with many missing their trains.
Eventually, in the early hours, they caught the first trains out of Sagan, or continued their journey on foot, but due to the delays, nearly all were eventually caught in the Sagan area.
The escape enraged the Germans and a directive was issued by Hitler to shoot all of the recaptured men. In the end 50 were killed, an act that horrified the Luftwaffe. The following day [after the Great Escape] we were kept most of the day on the parade ground. We were counted and recounted with little help from us because the Germans were trying to establish how many had escaped. It was either drizzling or snowing.
It was a very cold day. Indicative of the mood at the time was that you rarely saw a vehicle and there was one in the distance. And someone said, "That's a gas chamber or a gas wagon." And the number of people that looked around. It was a joke, but it showed that it was somewhere in the back of our minds.
After The Great Escape, escaping was forbidden by our own senior British officers. Life was tougher after the escape.
People often ask me about what I think of The Great Escape film. I say looking at it now is a bit like a Boy Scout camp. There were too many Oxford accents, too many people wearing uniforms, too many hats and a lot of saluting. I mean that went on but not to the same extent because people didn't fly in uniform. And obviously Steve McQueen wasn't there! But without the film, who'd remember the 50 who were murdered?
I think it's often forgotten that The Great Escape was probably one of the most audacious operations that the RAF carried out. When you see what was achieved with limited resources. When you think that all the equipment they had had to be made. The air pump was made of a kit bag and a few other bits. The air pipes were made of powdered milk tins, and even the little fat lamps were made of boiled margarine.
The German Luftwaffe, who were responsible for Air Force prisoners of war, maintained a level of professional respect for their fellow aircrew prisoners, and treated them quite fairly within the Geneva Convention. However, food supplies were erratic and inconsistent and of course, security was strict.Food parcels were regularly sent in via the International Red Cross and distributed equally amongst the prisoners.
The trouble with prison life is that we were all very young people. It seemed an age for us. The period we spent in prison camp would be nothing now. And you never knew how long it was going to take before we were freed or what would happen to us at the end. Particularly after the 50 [were shot in the Great Escape] and the uncertainty.
Food was very short. We used to get a loaf of German bread that I was convinced was made of sawdust. And there was one bread slicing machine on the camp – a hand slicer – and we used to cut it up to see how many slices we could make out of it. And then we would lay it on the table. There were 16 of us in the hut, in the room, and we would then cut cards [to see] who had choice of slice, just in case one had a grain of sawdust more than the other.
The same happened with what we used to call "glob". Very occasionally we would get some sort of liquid with weevils in it. We'd ladle it out into 16 bowls and we'd cut cards [to see] who had choice of bowl, just in case one had a little more than the other. And then we'd actually cut cards [to see] who would lick out the pail it came in.
For exercise we used to walk around the perimeter. We used to call it bashing the circuit. The perimeter was probably a mile around. But that's how we exercised. And lots of sports, football, a kind of cricket with limited equipment. But volleyball was popular because you needed so little for that.
There was a so-called gymnasium, I mean it was one room with some weights – homemade weights.'
As the PoWs began to escape through the tunnel on the night of March 24, 1944, it was a long wait for Jack Lyon as he stood in the queue in Hut 104. Jack describes that historic night and the eventual discovery of the tunnel by the guards
It was a moonless night on the evening of March 24 1944 – the best conditions in which to attempt an escape from Stalag Luft III. At around 10.30pm the first men made their way through the tunnel. With the tunnel mouth some 15 feet short of the tree line and within 30 yards of the nearest watch tower, the chance of detection was high but Squadron Leader Roger Bushell knew the plan had to go ahead. A length of rope was used to signal to the men below when the coast was clear.
As soon as we reached Hut 104 we were allocated a place in one of the rooms and told not to move until we were called, and so we remained until the discovery in the early hours of the next morning.
The camp lights went out when the air-raid sirens sounded and we were then in total darkness. We didn't talk – we didn't want the guards to suspect anything but I wasn't nervous.
I was waiting in the queue for quite a few hours when I heard a single shot and that meant that the odds were that the tunnel had been discovered and the goons would be here pretty shortly. We set about destroying anything incriminating like maps, compasses, ID cards and above all German currency. It was a serious offence to hold German currency. It was the only time I ever burnt money, I can assure you!
We waited and not long after the guards arrived in the hut and we were herded onto the parade ground, searched and stripped to our underwear. It was just after dawn and a bitterly cold night. Bitterly cold.
Of course our spirits were very low. The thing I remember – etched indelibly on my mind – is the attempt by two prisoners to indulge in a bit of horseplay – the idea being to either confuse or prolong the counting of the remaining prisoners and to help those who may have escaped.
Von Lindeiner-Wildau, the commandant, who was obviously furious and already aware the escape would terminate his command, said he would personally shoot the next officer who moved. The effect was salutary. Later on we were allowed to return to our huts and, as you say, the rest is history. It must have been at least ten days later before we discovered what happened to the recaptured officers. We couldn't understand why the Germans seemed almost at a loss afterwards.
They closed the cinema as a reprisal, but there weren't any other serious repercussions – they weren't foaming at the mouth and we couldn't work out why. And I think the reason was they had heard what had happened to the escapees and many of them felt great shame because they knew such an act would inevitably tarnish the reputation of the Luftwaffe.
When the news came through of the murder of the 50 – 47 first of all and then later another three names were posted – it was then that we realised why they had seemed so constrained. I received a punishment, a sentence, of 28 days solitary confinement. But that was a punishment I never suffered because the list for the cooler was too long!
It was a costly operation but not necessarily unsuccessful. It did do a lot for morale, particularly for those prisoners who'd been there for a long time. They felt they were able to contribute something, even if they weren't able to get out. They felt they could help in some way and trust me, in prison camps, morale is very important.
