The Great Escape - The True Story

Comments · 1.3K

• ST

  @steveh1792 · 3 years ago

  My high school math and woodshop teacher, Larry Wolfe, was a B-17 navigator shot down over Regensburg and badly injured. After recovering in hospital, he was sent to Sagan, where he spent most of the rest of the war. Never judged physically well enough to consider for any escape, he was one of the many who did support work for the tunnelers. Near the end, he was part of the batch sent on foot to a camp near Moosburg; "the coldest I ever was in my life". One time only he collected all his personal records and pictures from that time and gave a presentation at the school. A soft-spoken man, he was one of the best teachers I ever knew.

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• KE

  @kenowens9021 · 3 years ago

  What's very interesting is that Donald Pleasance, who played the artist in the movie, was actually in the real camp during the time of the escape. So, he was able to give specific advice to the director to make the scenes more real.

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• TI

  @tim7052 · 3 years ago (edited)

  My primary school headmaster was a rear gunner in Lancasters, who was shot down and became a POW in the camp when this escape took place. My primary school Headmaster has long since gone to the Big Teacher's Staff Room in the sky - and the school has since erected a memorial to him on the grounds - and I, too, have never forgotten him. Thank you and RIP Mr Payne. 👍

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• BI

  @billfarley9167 · 3 years ago

  From Canada:  Not a word about Wally Flood, a very experienced Canadian mining engineer who actually designed and lead the construction of the three tunnels, Tom, Dick and Harry. I met him in Toronto when the film, "The Great Escape" debut.  It was his technical expertise that actually got the whole scheme off the ground in the first place.

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• GA

  @gailcarey3597 · 3 years ago

  Thank you! My father was a prisoner at Stalag Luft lll.<br>His war memorabilia is at the wonderful 100th Bomb Group Museum in Diss, England. &nbsp;<br>His grandson and great grandson will be present for the flag laying at the Bomb groups reunion this month at the 8th Air Force Museum. <br>Preserving this history is a gift.

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• TO

  @tonymcbride3428 · 3 years ago (edited)

  My father Bob McBride, was number 80 and was climbing out of the tunnel when the guard found the opening.<br>He and three other prisoners captured at the tunnel opening spent 30 days in the Cooler. Hitler ordered them to be shot. But the Commandant refused. He was replaced, but the lives of these escapees were spared.

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• TH

  @thedisabledwelshman9266 · 4 years ago

  long live the fifty. they will never be forgotten.

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• JO

  @johnsmith-ik6uz · 3 years ago

  30 ft underground,2 foot square,sandy soil,working nakedHarry was the 98th tunnel found in this section.This is the mind set of true heroes.The Germans did&apos;nt stand a chance.They had their captors defeated.Absolute legends.Another cracking history presentation about men who any country would be proud to have.The history chap has done these soldiers justice.Incredible.

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• AN

  @andersdannstedt5825 · 2 years ago

  My father was a pilot in SAS (Scandinavian Airlines System) and he was stationed in Nairobi, Kenya, in 1968. At that time I was 12 and had to learn English as I had to go to school and one way was to (try) to read books. The crew was from Sweden, Norway and Denmark and our families often had lunches and parties. One time we went for a lunch with the captain of the crew, a Norwegian. I brought my book to read, the book was &quot;The great escape&quot;. The captain (I can&apos;t remember his name I have to ask my father, now 93) asked me if i liked the book? I answered that it was a great book about an escape from a German prison camp. I was at the end of the book and told him that 2 tried to get to Sweden. He then surprised me and said and they made it, I was one of them! &nbsp;True story! He was a bomber pilot for RAF and was shot down over Germany. After the war he joined SAS in Norway. He signed my book with a dedication, a paper back book I unfortunately lost, but I still have the memories from that.

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• RA

  @raymondtonns2521 · 3 years ago

  thanks for telling this story of men that craved freedom

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• MI

  @michaelvol8922 · 3 years ago (edited)

  One of the TV personalities i remember from my childhood in the 60&apos;s was named Ray Raynor. &nbsp;He used to do kids shows in the Chicago area. &nbsp;He was always dressed in a flightsuit. &nbsp;Imagine my surprise reading his Bio later that he was shot down over France and was a prisonor at Luft Stalag III. &nbsp;His bio says he was involved in part of that escape planning, but was transfered before it actually occured. &nbsp;Im glad he made it home. &nbsp;All these guys were true heros. &nbsp;I know we had a chance to know one of these heros daily! &nbsp;Thanks Ray, RIP

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• BR

  @Brehat29 · 4 years ago

  As a Frenchman, I did a little research regarding the French pilot in your story. His name was Bernard Scheidhauer. Strangely enough, he was born in 1921 in... Germany, in Landau, Rhenish Palatinate. His father was colonel Michel Scheidhauer, a WWI hero who was made himself prisoner (and wounded) in 1914 and later released because of his declining health (he would be back in duty in 1918). He would then be assigned to Brest to take command of the 2ème RIC (Colonial Infantry Regiment), in Brittany (where he had previously been assigned from 1899 to 1902). It was at this time that his son would become fascinated by the airplanes coming and going from the Lanruz air field (today Brest-Guipavas airport).<br>After the fall of France, and with his father&apos;s consent, he would leave Douarnenez with five friends on &quot;La Petite Anna&quot; (Little Anna), a pinnace, a 12 meters long boat.<br>Unfortunately none of them was a sailor and they did not have enough gasoline to reach England. They would run out of gas only 12 hours after their departure on october 20, 1940. Unable to man the boat, they would be lucky enough with good winds in an unlucky situation. They had to suffer one of the strongest &quot;blows&quot; of the years of hostilities. They were rescued on october 31 by the S.S Cairgorn.<br>Bernard Scheidhauer would then enlist to become a pilot with the FAFL (Free French Flying Force) and would become a patented one in april 1942. &nbsp;He would take part to Operation &quot;Jubilee&quot;, the failed landing in Dieppe on august 19, 1942. On november 18, he was part of operation &quot;Rhubarb&quot;, a straffing raid on the Bayeux railway near Cherbourg. He was shot and forced to land on Jersey.<br>After a bit of explaining regarding his German-sounding name and his birthplace, he was sent to Stalag Luft III where he became friends with &quot;Big X&quot; : Squadron Leader Roger Bushell. You know the rest.<br>His father would spend the war as a Resistance cell leader in charge of helping allied airmen shot above France and would be forced into hiding in march 1944. Tragically, he would then learn of his wife&apos;s death in the Sadi-Carnot underground shelter explosion on september 9, 1944. This 560 meters long shelter in Brest was used by French civilians as well as German soldiers. It was also used by the Todt organization as a warehouse for ammunitions and gasoline. At 2.30 AM, september 9, 1944, a false maneuver from a Todt soldier started a fire. For the people inside the shelter, it was like being trapped inside a gun barrel. 371 French and 500-600 Germans wered killed in the ensuing explosion.<br>Colonel Michel Scheidhauer died in november 1951. <br>Now, reading the list of the 50 executed, I first investigated for a french name. The only french sounding name would be Henri Picard. He was a Belgian pilot. He was part of a four-men group who were arrested near Schneidemühl on march 26, 1944, they were executed by the Gestapo near Prusce.

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