The Great Escape was made by The Mirisch Company, released by United Artists, and produced and directed by John Sturges. The film had its Royal World Premiere at the Odeon Leicester Square in London's West End on 20 June 1963.[3]The Great Escape received critical acclaim and emerged as one of the highest-grossing films of the year, winning McQueen the award for Best Actor at the Moscow International Film Festival,[4] and is considered a classic.[5] The film is also noted for its motorcycle chase and jump scene, which is considered one of the best stunts ever performed.[6][7][8]
Plot
In 1943[citation needed], AlliedPOWs who have repeatedly escaped from Germancamps are moved to a new camp under the command of LuftwaffeColonel von Luger. He warns British Group Captain Ramsey—the highest-ranked POW officer—that any man who escapes will be shot. Regardless, several POWs attempt to escape on the first day, but none succeed. Hilts, a notoriously prolific escapee, finds a blind spot at the fence and purposefully gets caught so his discovery is unnoticed. He is placed in a cell next to Ives in "the cooler",[9] and the two become friends.
RAF Squadron Leader Roger Bartlett re-establishes "the X Organisation", an escape-planning committee from their former camp, with Ramsey's tacit approval. He proposes breaking out an unprecedented 250 men, thereby forcing the Germans to divert significant manpower away from the front. The POWs begin working on three tunnels: "Tom", "Dick", and "Harry".
Each POW contributes to the plan: Welinski and Dickes oversee the digging, Sedgwick makes picks and air bellows, Ashley-Pitt hides the excavated dirt, while Cavendish surveys the tunnels’ routes and leads a choir to mask the digging noise. MacDonald gathers intelligence, Griffith sews civilian disguises, Blythe forges documents, and Hendley secures supplies on the black market. Aware that Hilts is planning his own escape, Bartlett asks him to allow himself to be recaptured so he can draw maps of the surrounding area for the X Organisation; Hilts refuses out of pride.
When "Tom" nears completion first, Bartlett orders "Dick" and "Harry" sealed off. Hilts, Hendley, and Goff brew potato moonshine and celebrate the Fourth of July with the camp, but to the men's dismay the guards find "Tom" during the party. Ives snaps, climbs the fence, and is shot dead. Hilts, shaken, agrees to Bartlett's proposal, and Bartlett orders "Harry" reopened.
When the tunnel partially collapses, Welinski reveals to Dickes that he is claustrophobic—he tries to climb the fence in panic, but Dickes calms him down before he is shot. Blythe is forced into admitting that he is going blind due to progressive myopia, but Hendley offers to be his eyes during the escape.
The POWs complete "Harry", but on the night they break to the surface they find themselves 20 feet short of the woods. Helped by Hilts tugging on a rope as a signal that the coast is clear—and aided by a fortuitous air raid blackout—dozens of men flee before Cavendish slips and makes a noise. An impatient Griffith surfaces while a guard investigates and is captured, ending the breakout.
The 76 escapees flee throughout Europe, but only three successfully make it to freedom: Welinski and Dickes take a boat and board a ship for Sweden, while Sedgwick heads to France, where the Resistance smuggles him to Spain. The rest are unsuccessful: Cavendish hitches a ride on a truck, but is turned in by the driver. Hendley and Blythe steal a plane to fly to Switzerland, but crash when the engine fails; Blythe is shot and Hendley is recaptured. Hilts steals a motorcycle and heads for the Swiss border, chased by soldiers, who shoot his bike and recapture him. At a railway station, Ashley-Pitt sacrifices himself when he kills a Gestapo officer before he can recognise Bartlett. However, Bartlett and MacDonald are still arrested after a Gestapo officer tricks MacDonald into speaking English while boarding a bus.
Most of the men—including Bartlett, MacDonald, and Cavendish—are driven to a field and shot dead, bringing the total deaths to 50. Ramsey informs the returning survivors of the murders, and says that Bartlett's plan to "gum up the works" with the escape was a success; Hendley questions whether it was worth the price. Von Luger is relieved of command and driven away by the Gestapo, while Hilts is sent to the cooler, where he begins planning his next escape.
Cast
Steve McQueen as Captain Virgil Hilts ('The Cooler King'): one of three Americans in the camp, a particularly persistent escapee with an irreverent attitude.
James Garner as Flight Lieutenant Bob Hendley ('The Scrounger'): American RAF officer, Eagle Squadron, responsible for finding materials on the black market for the escape attempt; forms a close friendship with Blythe.
Richard Attenborough as Squadron Leader Roger Bartlett ('Big X'): RAF officer and ringleader of the escape committee.
James Donald as Group Captain Ramsey ('The SBO'): most senior British & Allied officer in the camp, serves as an intermediary between the Germans and the POWs as their de facto leader.
Charles Bronson as Flight Lieutenant Danny Welinski ('Tunnel King'): Polish RAF officer; despite having dug 17 escape tunnels in other camps, is severely claustrophobic.
Donald Pleasence as Flight Lieutenant Colin Blythe ('The Forger'): mild-mannered English forger; forms close friendship with Hendley.
James Coburn as Flying Officer Sedgwick ('The Manufacturer'): an Australian officer who constructs tools for the escape.[note 1]
In 1963, the Mirisch brothers worked with United Artists to adapt Paul Brickhill's 1950 book The Great Escape. Brickhill had been a very minor member of the X Organisation at Stalag Luft III, who acted as one of the "stooges" who monitored German movements in the camp. The story had been adapted as a live TV production, screened by NBC as an episode of The Philco Television Playhouse on January 27, 1951.[10] The live broadcast was praised for engineering an ingenious set design for the live broadcast, including creating the illusion of tunnels.[11] The film's screenplay was adapted by James Clavell, W. R. Burnett and Walter Newman.
Casting
Steve McQueen (left) with Wally Floody, a former Canadian POW who was part of the real Great Escape and acted as a technical advisor in production of the film
Steve McQueen, Charles Bronson and James Coburn had previously worked with director John Sturges on his 1960 motion picture, The Magnificent Seven. Steve McQueen has been credited with the most significant performance. Critic Leonard Maltin wrote that "the large, international cast is superb, but the standout is McQueen; it's easy to see why this cemented his status as a superstar".[12] This film established his box-office clout. Hilts was based on at least three pilots, David M. Jones, John Dortch Lewis[13] and Bill Ash.[14][15][16]
Richard Attenborough's Sqn Ldr Roger Bartlett RAF, "Big X", was based on Roger Bushell, the South African-born British POW who was the mastermind of the real Great Escape.[17] This was the film that first brought Attenborough to common notice in the United States. During World War II, Attenborough served in the Royal Air Force. He volunteered to fly with the Film Unit, and after further training (where he sustained permanent ear damage), he qualified as a sergeant. He flew on several missions over Europe, filming from the rear gunner's position to record the outcome of Bomber Command sorties. (Richard Harris was originally announced for the role.)[18]
Group Captain Ramsey RAF, "the SBO" (Senior British Officer), was based on Group Captain Herbert Massey, a World War I veteran who had volunteered in World War II. Massey walked with a limp, and in the movie Ramsey walks with a cane. Massey had suffered severe wounds to the same leg in both wars. There would be no escape for him, but as SBO he had to know what was going on. Group Captain Massey was a veteran escaper himself and had been in trouble with the Gestapo. His experience allowed him to offer sound advice to the X-Organisation.[19] Another officer who is likely to have inspired the character of Ramsey was Wing Commander Harry Day.
Flt Lt Colin Blythe RAF, "The Forger", was based on Tim Walenn and played by Donald Pleasence.[20] Pleasence had served in the Royal Air Force during World War II. He was shot down and spent a year in German prisoner-of-war camp Stalag Luft I. Charles Bronson had been a gunner in the USAAF and had been wounded, but never shot down. Like his character, Danny Welinski, he suffered from claustrophobia because of his childhood work in a mine. James Garner had been a soldier in the Korean War and was twice wounded. He was a scrounger during that time, as is his character.[21]
Hannes Messemer's Commandant, "Colonel von Luger", was based on Oberst Friedrich Wilhelm von Lindeiner-Wildau.[22] Messemer had been a POW in Russia during World War II and had escaped by walking hundreds of miles to the German border.[23] He was wounded by Russian fire, but was not captured by the Russians. He surrendered to British forces and then spent two years in a POW facility in London known as the London Cage.
Angus Lennie's Flying Officer Archibald Ives, "The Mole", was based on Jimmy Kiddel, who was shot dead while trying to scale the fence.[24]
The film is accurate in showing only three escapees made home runs, although the people who made them differed from those in the film. The escape of Danny and Willie to Sweden is based on two Norwegians, Per Bergsland and Jens Müller, while the escape of Royal Australian Air Force (RAAF) Flying Officer Sedgwick, "the Manufacturer", to Spain, was based on Dutchman Bram van der Stok. James Coburn, an American, was cast in the role of Sedgwick who was an amalgamation of Flt Lt Albert Hake, an Australian serving in the RAF, the camp's compass maker, and Johnny Travis, the real manufacturer.
Tilman 'Til Kiwe' Kiver played the German guard "Frick", who discovers the escape. Kiwe had been a German paratrooper officer who was captured and held prisoner at a POW camp in Colorado. He made several escape attempts, dyeing his uniform and carrying forged papers. He was captured in the St. Louis train station during one escape attempt. He won the Knight's Cross before his capture and was the cast member who had actually performed many of the exploits shown in the film.
Filming
The film was made on location in Germany at the Bavaria Film Studio in the Munich suburb of Geiselgasteig in rural Bavaria, where sets for the barrack interiors and tunnels were constructed. The camp was built in a clearing of the Perlacher Forst (Perlacher Forest) near the studio.[25][26] The German town near the real camp was Sagan (now Żagań, Poland); it was renamed Neustadt in the film.[26] Many scenes were filmed in and around the town of Füssen in Bavaria, including its railway station. The nearby district of Pfronten,[27] with its distinctive St. Nikolaus Church and scenic background, also appears often in the film.[26] The first scenes involving the railway were filmed on the Munich–Holzkirchen line at Großhesselohe station ("Neustadt" station in the movie) and near Deisenhofen. Hendley and Blythe's escape from the train was shot on the Munich–Mühldorf railway east of Markt Schwaben. The station where Bartlett, MacDonald and Ashley-Pitt arrive is Füssen station, whereas the scene of Sedgwick (whose theft of a bike was shot in Markt Schwaben) boarding a train was created in Pfronten-Ried station on the Ausserfern Railway.[28][29] The castle Hendley and Blythe fly by while attempting to escape is Neuschwanstein Castle.[30]
Replica of the motorcycle used by McQueen and Ekins.
The motorcycle chase scenes with the barbed wire fences were shot on meadows outside Füssen, and the "barbed wire" that Hilts crashes into before being recaptured was simulated by strips of rubber tied around barbless wire, constructed by the cast and crew in their spare time.[31] Insurance concerns prevented McQueen from performing the film's notable motorcycle leap, which was done by his friend and fellow cycle enthusiast Bud Ekins, who resembled McQueen from a distance.[32] When Johnny Carson later tried to congratulate McQueen for the jump during a broadcast of The Tonight Show, McQueen said, "It wasn't me. That was Bud Ekins." However, McQueen and Australian Motocross champion Tim Gibbes both performed the stunt on camera for fun, and according to second unit director Robert Relyea, the stunt in the final cut of the movie could have been performed by any of the three men.[33] Other parts of the chase were done by McQueen, playing both Hilts and the soldiers chasing him, because of his skill on a motorcycle.[34] The motorcycle was a Triumph TR6 Trophy which was painted to look like a German machine. The restored machine is currently on display at Triumph's factory at Hinckley, England.[35] Filming started on June 4, 1962 and ended in October 1962.
Historical accuracy
Model of the set used to film The Great Escape. It depicts a smaller version of a single compound in Stalag Luft III. The model is now at the museum near where the prison camp was located.End of the real "Harry" tunnel (on the other side of the road) showing how it does not reach the cover of the trees
The film accurately represented many details of the escape, including the layout of the camp, the different escape plans employed, and the fact that only three escapees successfully made it to freedom. The characters are fictitious, but are based on real men, in most cases being composites of several. However, a number of changes were made to increase the film's drama and appeal to an American audience, with some scenes being heavily or completely fictionalised. The screenwriters also significantly increased the involvement of American POWs in the escape. A few American officers in the camp initially helped dig the tunnels and worked on the early plans, but they were moved away seven months before the escape, which ended their involvement.[36][37] The real escape was by largely British and other Allied personnel, with the exception of American Johnnie Dodge, who was a British officer.[30] The film omits the crucial role that Canadians played in building the tunnels and in the escape itself. Of the 1,800 or so POWs, 600 were involved in preparations: 150 of those were Canadian. Wally Floody, an RCAF pilot and former miner who was the real-life "tunnel king", was engaged as a technical advisor for the film.[38]
Ramsey tells Von Luger that it is the sworn duty of every officer to attempt escape. In reality, there was no requirement in the King's Regulations, or in any form of international convention.[39]
The film shows the tunnel code-named Tom with its entrance under a stove and Harry's in a drain sump in a washroom. In reality, Dick's entrance was the drain sump, Harry's was under the stove, and Tom's was in a darkened corner next to a stove chimney.[40]
Former POWs asked the filmmakers to exclude details about the help they received from their home countries, such as maps, papers, and tools hidden in gift packages, lest it jeopardise future POW escapes. The filmmakers complied.[41]
The film omits any mention that many Germans willingly helped in the escape itself. The film suggests that the forgers were able to make near-exact replicas of just about any pass that was used in Nazi Germany. In reality, the forgers received a great deal of assistance from Germans who lived many hundreds of miles away on the other side of the country. Several German guards, who were openly anti-Nazi, also willingly gave the prisoners items and assistance of any kind to aid their escape.[39] The need for such accuracy produced much eyestrain, but unlike in the film, there were no cases of blindness. Some, such as Frank Knight, gave up forging because of the strain, but he certainly did not suffer the same ocular fate as the character of Colin Blythe in the film.[39] In fact, no one in the film says that Colin Blythe's blindness is the result of eyestrain. He identifies his problem as "progressive myopia", suggesting that he has not only heard of the condition but has also been diagnosed.
The film depicts the escape taking place in ideal weather conditions, whereas at the time much was done in freezing temperatures, and snow lay thick on the ground.[39] In reality there were no escapes by aircraft or motorcycle: McQueen requested the motorcycle sequence, which shows off his skills as a keen motorcyclist. He did the stunt riding himself (except for the final jump, done by Bud Ekins).[42]
In the film, Hilts incapacitates a German soldier for his motorcycle, Ashley-Pitt kills Kuhn, a Gestapo officer, when he recognizes Bartlett at a Gestapo checkpoint at a railway station and is shot dead in return. Hendley knocks out a German guard at the airfield. Sedgwick witnesses the killing of German officers at a French Cafe by the French resistance. No German personnel were killed or injured by the real escapees. Blythe is shot and mortally wounded by a German after their plane crashes just short of the border; this incident never happened. Three truckloads of recaptured POWs drive in three directions. One truck contains 20 prisoners who are invited to stretch their legs in a field, whereupon they are all machine gunned in a single massacre, with the implication that the other two were killed in the same manner; in reality, the POWs were shot individually or in pairs. The majority of the POWs were killed by pistol shots taken by Gestapo officers; however, at least ten of them were killed in a manner like that portrayed in the film: Dutchy Swain, Chaz Hall, Brian Evans, Wally Valenta, George McGill, Pat Langford, Edgar Humphreys, Adam Kolanowski, Bob Stewart and Henry "Hank" Birkland.[43][44][45][46][47][48][39] The film depicts the three prisoners who escape to freedom as British, Polish, and Australian; in reality, they were Norwegian (Jens Müller and Per Bergsland) and Dutch (Bram van der Stok).[49]
In 2009, seven POWs returned to Stalag Luft III for the 65th anniversary of the escape[50] and watched the film. According to the veterans, many details of the first half depicting life in the camp were authentic, e.g. the death of Ives, who tries to scale the fence, and the actual digging of the tunnels. The film has kept the memory of the 50 executed airmen alive for decades and has made their story known worldwide, if in a distorted form.[30] British author Guy Walters notes that a pivotal scene in the film where MacDonald blunders by replying in English to a suspicious Gestapo officer saying, "Good luck", is now so strongly imprinted that historians have accepted it as a real event, and that it was Bushell's partner Bernard Scheidhauer who made the error. However, Walters points out that a historical account says that one of the two men said "yes" in English in response to a Kripo man's questions without any mention of "good luck" and notes that as Scheidhauser was French, and Bushell's first language was English, it seems likely that if a slip did take place, it was made by Bushell himself, and says the "good luck" scene should be regarded as fiction.[39]
Music
The film's iconic music was composed by Elmer Bernstein, who gave each major character his own musical motif based on the Great Escape's main theme.[51] Its enduring popularity helped Bernstein live off the score's royalties for the rest of his life.[52] Critics have said the film score succeeds because it uses rousing militaristic motifs with interludes of warmer softer themes that humanizes the prisoners and endears them to audiences; the music also captures the bravery and defiance of the POWs.[53] The main title's patriotic march has since become popular in Britain, particularly with fans of the England national football team.[54] However, in 2016, the sons of Elmer Bernstein openly criticized the use of the Great Escape theme by the Vote Leave campaign in the UK Brexit referendum, saying "Our father would never have allowed UKIP to use his music" because he would have strongly opposed the party.[55]
Intrada Records (release)
In 2011 Intrada, a company specializing in film soundtracks, released a digitized re-mastered version of the full film score based on the original 1/4" two-track stereo sessions and original 1/2" three-channel stereo masters.[56]
Disc one
Original Motion Picture Soundtrack
No.
Title
Length
1.
"Main Title"
2:30
2.
"At First Glance"
3:07
3.
"Premature Plans"
2:28
4.
"If At Once"
2:31
5.
"Forked"
1:28
6.
"Cooler"
1:59
7.
"Mole"
1:28
8.
""X"/Tonight We Dig"
1:30
9.
"The Scrounger/Blythe"
3:50
10.
"Water Faucet"
1:23
11.
"Interruptus"
1:33
12.
"The Plan/The Sad Ives"
1:43
13.
"Green Thumbs"
2:28
14.
"Hilts And Ives"
0:38
15.
"Cave In"
2:01
16.
"Restless Men"
1:56
17.
"Booze"
1:47
18.
""Yankee Doodle""
0:55
19.
"Discovery"
3:40
Total length:
57:35
Disc two
Original Motion Picture Soundtrack (Continued)
No.
Title
Length
1.
"Various Troubles"
3:52
2.
"Panic"
2:05
3.
"Pin Trick"
0:59
4.
"Hendley's Risk"
1:43
5.
"Released Again/Escape Time"
5:25
6.
"20 Feet Short"
3:06
7.
"Foul Up"
2:37
8.
"At The Station"
1:33
9.
"On The Road"
3:27
10.
"The Chase/First Casualty"
6:49
11.
"Flight Plan"
2:09
12.
"More Action/Hilts Captured"
6:07
13.
"Road's End"
2:06
14.
"Betrayal"
2:20
15.
"Three Gone/Home Again"
3:13
16.
"Finale/The Cast"
2:47
Total length:
1:18:58
Disc three
Original 1963 United Artists Score Album
No.
Title
Length
1.
"Main Title"
2:07
2.
"Premature Plans"
2:08
3.
"Cooler And Mole"
2:26
4.
"Blythe"
2:13
5.
"Discovery"
2:54
6.
"Various Troubles"
2:40
7.
"On The Road"
2:54
8.
"Betrayal"
2:05
9.
"Hendley's Risk"
2:24
10.
"Road's End"
2:00
11.
"More Action"
1:57
12.
"The Chase"
2:49
13.
"Finale"
3:14
Total length:
49:11
Reception
Box office
The Great Escape grossed $11.7million at the box office,[57] after a budget of $4 million.[58] It became one of the highest-grossing films of 1963, despite heavy competition. In the years since its release, its audience has broadened, cementing its status as a cinema classic.[5] It was entered into the 3rd Moscow International Film Festival, where McQueen won the Silver Prize for Best Actor.[59]
Critical response
Contemporary reviews for the film were mostly positive. In 1963, The New York Times critic Bosley Crowther wrote: "But for much longer than is artful or essential, The Great Escape grinds out its tormenting story without a peek beneath the surface of any man, without a real sense of human involvement. It's a strictly mechanical adventure with make-believe men."[60] British film critic Leslie Halliwell described it as "pretty good but overlong POW adventure with a tragic ending".[61] The Time magazine reviewer wrote in 1963: "The use of color photography is unnecessary and jarring, but little else is wrong with this film. With accurate casting, a swift screenplay, and authentic German settings, Producer-Director John Sturges has created classic cinema of action. There is no sermonizing, no soul probing, no sex. The Great Escape is simply great escapism".[62]
Modern appraisals
The Great Escape continues to receive acclaim from modern critics. On review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes, the film holds an approval rating of 94% based on 53 reviews. The site's critics consensus reads, "With its impeccably slow-building story and a cast for the ages, The Great Escape is an all-time action classic."[63]
In a 2006 poll in the United Kingdom, regarding the family film that television viewers would most want to see on Christmas Day, The Great Escape came in third, and was first among the choices of male viewers.[64] In an article for the British Film Institute, "10 great prisoner of war films", updated in August 2018, Samuel Wigley wrote that watching films like The Great Escape and the 1955 British film The Colditz Story, "for all their moments of terror and tragedy, is to delight in captivity in times of war as a wonderful game for boys, an endless Houdini challenge to slip through the enemy's fingers. Often based on true stories of escape, they have the viewer marvelling at the ingenuity and seemingly unbreakable spirit of imprisoned soldiers." He described The Great Escape as "the epitome of the war-is-fun action film", which became "a fixture of family TV viewing".[65]
On 24 March 2014, the 70th anniversary of the escape, the RAF staged a commemoration of the escape attempt, with 50 serving personnel each carrying a photograph of one of the shot men.[66]
On 24 March 2019, the RAF held another event for the 75th anniversary of the escape. There was a screening of the film at London's EventimHammersmith Apollo, hosted by Dan Snow. The film was simulcast with other cinemas throughout the UK.[67]
Sequel
A fictional, made-for-television sequel, The Great Escape II: The Untold Story, was released in 1988, starring Christopher Reeve, and directed by Jud Taylor (who played Goff in the original film).[68] The film is not a true sequel, dramatizing the escape itself just as the first film does, but mostly using the real names of the individuals involved (whereas the original film fictionalized them with composite characters). It depicts the hunt for those responsible for the murder of the 50 Allied airmen. Donald Pleasence appears in a supporting role as a member of the SS.[69]
The Great Escape (2003) was released for Microsoft Windows, Xbox and PlayStation 2. The plotline follows that of the film, except there are also levels featuring some of the characters' first captures and early escape attempts, as well as a changed ending.
Japanese novelist Hiro Arikawa noted that she was greatly influenced by both The Great Escape and Gamera franchise, and took inspirations from them.[72]
↑ Bartlett calls Sedgwick "Bluey", an affectionate Australian slang term for a person with red hair; however, Sedgwick is often mistakenly referred to as "Louis" in some sources, including DVD subtitles.
Related Research Articles
The Great Escape II: The Untold Story is a 1988 American made-for-television action-adventure drama film and a sequel to The Great Escape (1963). It stars Christopher Reeve, Judd Hirsch, Anthony Denison, Ian McShane, Charles Haid and Donald Pleasence in a supporting role. The film was directed by Jud Taylor. The Great Escape II premiered in two parts on NBC on November 6 and 7, 1988.
Stalag Luft III was a Luftwaffe-run prisoner-of-war (POW) camp during the Second World War, which held captured Western Allied air force personnel.
Sgt Per Bergsland was a Norwegian fighter pilot and POW in the German POW camp Stalag Luft III and one of only three men to escape to freedom in the "Great Escape".
Jens Einar Müller was a Norwegian pilot trained in Little Norway in Canada and a prisoner of war in the German POW camp Stalag Luft III. He was one of only three men to escape to freedom in the "Great Escape".
Squadron Leader Roger Joyce Bushell was a South African in the British Royal Air Force aviator. He masterminded the famous "Great Escape" from Stalag Luft III in March 1944, but was one of the 50 escapees to be recaptured and subsequently shot and murdered by the Nazi German Gestapo secret police.
The Great Escape is an action-adventure stealth video game based on the 1963 film of the same name. It was developed by UK-based developer Pivotal Games. The game was released on Xbox, Microsoft Windows and PlayStation 2.
Oflag XXI-B and Stalag XXI-B were World War II German prisoner-of-war camps for officers and enlisted men, located at Szubin a few miles southwest of Bydgoszcz, Poland, which at that time was occupied by Nazi Germany.
Harry Melville Arbuthnot Day, was a Royal Marine and later a Royal Air Force pilot during the Second World War. As a prisoner of war, he was senior British officer in a number of camps and a noted escapee.
The Great Escape is a 1950 book by Australian writer Paul Brickhill (1916–1991), that provides an insider's account of the March 1944 mass escape from the Nazi German Luftwaffe prisoner of war camp Stalag Luft III for British and Commonwealth enemy airmen. As a prisoner in the camp himself, he participated in the escape plan but was barred from the actual escape attempt 'along with three or four others on grounds of suffering from claustrophobia'. The introduction to the book is written by George Harsh, an American P.O.W. at camp Stalag Luft III. This 1950 book along with other previously published material was made into the 1963 film The Great Escape.
Bertram Arthur "Jimmy" James, MC, RAF was a British survivor of The Great Escape. He was an officer of the Royal Air Force, ultimately reaching the rank of Squadron Leader.
Stalag Luft I was a German World War II prisoner-of-war (POW) camp near Barth, Western Pomerania, Germany, for captured Allied airmen. The presence of the prison camp is said to have shielded the town of Barth from Allied bombing. About 9,000 airmen – 7,588 American and 1,351 British and Canadian – were imprisoned there when it was liberated on the night of 30 April 1945 by Soviet troops.
John Fancy was a British former airman whose tunnelling escapes from various German prisoner of war camps during World War II earned him the nickname The Mole, and inspired the book and film The Great Escape.
Flight Lieutenant Sydney Hastings Dowse MC was a Royal Air Force pilot who became a prisoner of war and survived The Great Escape during the Second World War.
Romualdas Marcinkus was a Lithuanian pilot. Marcinkus participated in an early trans-European flight on 25 June 1934, and was the only Lithuanian pilot to serve in the Royal Air Force (RAF) during the Second World War. In his youth Marcinkus was a Lithuanian multifold football champion and a playing coach for the Lithuania national football team.
The Stalag Luft III murders were war crimes perpetrated by members of the Gestapo following the "Great Escape" of Allied prisoners of war from the German Air Force prison camp known as Stalag Luft III on March 25, 1944. Of the 76 successful escapees, 73 were recaptured, most within several days of the breakout, 50 of whom were executed on the personal orders of Adolf Hitler. These executions were conducted shortly after the prisoners' recapture.
Gilbert William Walenn, known as Tim Walenn, was a British bomber pilot who was taken prisoner during the Second World War. He took part in the "Great Escape" from Stalag Luft III in March 1944, but was re-captured and subsequently shot by the Gestapo.
Michael James Casey, was a British Blenheim bomber pilot of Irish descent who was taken prisoner during the Second World War. He took part in the 'Great Escape' from Stalag Luft III in March 1944, but was one of the men re-captured and subsequently shot by the Gestapo.
Wilfred Bowes, OBE, was a British Royal Air Force service police detective who ran the Special Investigation Branch from 1944. He headed the investigation into the murders of recaptured officers who had escaped in the 'Great Escape' from Stalag Luft III in March 1944.
Włodzimierz Adam Kolanowski was a Polish Vickers Wellington bomber "Observer and Captain" flying from England when he was taken prisoner during the Second World War. He took part in the 'Great Escape' from the Stalag Luft III prisoner of war camp in March 1944 and was one of the men recaptured and subsequently shot by the Gestapo.
↑ "William Ash – obituary". The Daily Telegraph. London. April 30, 2014. Archived from the original on June 22, 2018. Retrieved August 30, 2015.
↑ Whalley, Kirsty (November 10, 2008). "Escape artist's inspiring exploits". This is Local London. Newsquest Media Group / A Gannett Company. Archived from the original on June 29, 2011. Retrieved September 25, 2009.
↑ Scheuer, Philip K. (March 2, 1962). "'Mutiny' Director Find Make Deals: Bogarde in 'Living Room'; Du Pont Scion Plans Three". Los Angeles Times. p.C13.
↑ Biemann, Joachim (August 10, 2014). "The Great Escape". Eisenbahn im Film – Rail Movies (in German). Archived from the original on April 11, 2021. Retrieved April 11, 2021.
↑ Stone, Matt (2007). McQueen's Machines: The Cars and Bikes of a Hollywood Icon. Minneapolis, Minnesota: MBI Publishing Company. pp.77–78. ISBN978-0-7603-3895-7. There's a chase sequence in there where the Germans were after [McQueen], and he was so much a better rider than they were, that he just ran away from them. And you weren't going to slow him down. So they put a German uniform on him, and he chased himself!
↑ Hansen, Magne; Carlsen, Marianne Rustad (February 26, 2014). "Hollywood droppet nordmenn"[Hollywood dropped Norwegians]. NRK (in Norwegian). Archived from the original on October 15, 2014. Retrieved March 15, 2015.
Andrews, Allen (1976). Exemplary Justice. London: Harrap. ISBN978-0-245-52775-3. Details the manhunt by the Royal Air Force's special investigations unit after the war to find and bring to trial the perpetrators of the "Sagan murders".
Barris, Ted (2013). The Great Escape: A Canadian Story. Toronto: Thomas Allen. ISBN978-1-77102-272-9.
Fry, Helen (2020). MI9: A History of the Secret Service for Escape and Evasion in World War Two. New Haven: Yale University Press. ISBN978-0-30023-320-9.
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