Remembered: the heroes of "The Great Escape"

[theHandpuppet]

http://www.scotsman.com/lifestyle/remembered-great-escape-heroes-1-3352301

The Scotsman
March 25, 2014
Remembered: Great Escape heroes

THEY were the prisoners of war who tunnelled to freedom and were later immortalised by Hollywood.

A ceremony to commemorate the 70th anniversary of the events portrayed in The Great Escape took place yesterday on the former site of prisoner-of-war camp Stalag Luft III.

Survivors, families and officials from the British and Polish governments gathered at the site, in what is now Poland, to honour the daring escape plan that saw 76 Allied prisoners of war escape the camp in 1944. The Gestapo later shot 50 of the 73 men who were recaptured.

The ceremony was the first time the plot had been marked by a formal act of remembrance and was attended by survivors of the prisoner-of-war camp.... MORE

[virgdem]

1. Interesting article.

my Dad was Prisoner of War on the American side of Stalag Luft III. They dug their own tunnels, but all were discovered by the Germans. My Dad does not talk very much about the experience, but he did show me his log book that he kept during his 22 month imprisonment. To this day, he will not eat barley, which is mostly what they were fed. Were it not for the Red Cross packages that they received via Switzerland, the POW's diet would have been completely horrible.