1963 The Great Escape Movie Stills
Prison Break is an enduring hot topic in many movies, such as The Shawshank Redemption, Air Scam, Prison Break and so on. The tense and thrilling atmosphere, gripping plot and fantastic techniques are all amazing.
These fictional plots may have their origins, but the real history is even more amazing. 1On March 24th, 944, 76 allied pilots fled the Nazi prison camp on a large scale, which is still one of the most famous prison escapes in the history of World War II.
One survivor, Captain Paul royle, died on 20 15 at the age of 10 1. When he recalled those thrilling memories, he showed people all the details of his escape from prison.
Survivor Paul royle
Luft III is a heavily guarded camp where the German Air Force held allied pilots during World War II. It is divided into five courtyards, east, west, south, north and middle, with a total area of 2400 mu.
Each compound has 15 cells, holding more than10/000 pilots from Britain, the United States, Canada, Australia and New Zealand.
East Hospital 1942 was built on March 2 1 day, and it was mainly used to detain Commonwealth Air Force officers. Subsequently, the Intermediate People's Court (1April 942), Beiping Court (1March 943), South Court (1September 943) and West Court (July 65438+July 0944) were successively built, and a large number of prisoners of war came here continuously.
They live a miserable life every day, and the rations distributed are far from meeting the normal needs. It can only be barely supplemented by parcels sent by the Red Cross and their families.
Stalag Luft No.3 prison camp
In order to prevent prisoners of war from escaping, the Germans tried every means:
First, the camp was built in the center of the battlefield-about 100 miles southeast of Berlin, in the Sagan area of Lower Silesia, Germany (near the town of Sagan in Poland today), far from allies and neutral countries. More than 800 guards guarded day and night with machine guns.
Secondly, this is sandy land, and the soil is loose and easy to collapse, which is very unsuitable for tunneling. The top soil of the camp is dark gray. If someone pours bright yellow sand on the ground or just touches clothes, it is easy to find it.
The Germans also raised their cells to 60 cm above the ground, making it difficult to hide any tunnel exits. There are a lot of listening devices buried around the camp, and you can hear the sound of digging tunnels.
It is more difficult to escape from here than to ascend to heaven, but no matter how tight the prison is, it can't stop the allied pilots from yearning for freedom.
1943 spring, British Air Force Major Roger? Bouchair conceived a large-scale escape plan, prepared to dig three deep and long tunnels, and let 200 people put on casual clothes and leave here with forged passes and documents.
He was shot down over France during the retreat of Dunkirk in 1940. Now he is a member of the prison escape Committee of the prison camp, responsible for managing all prison escape opportunities in Peking University, so he called a meeting of the Committee to present the plan.
Bouchair said: "everyone in this room lives in borrowed time, and it stands to reason that we should all die!" The only reason why God gives us extra life is to fight the Germans to the end ... I suggest digging three deep and long tunnels in Peking University and escaping from one of them. One of them will succeed! "
Roger Bouchard (right) and his comrades-in-arms
Herbert, the head of the camp? Colonel Messi thinks that this method of "three caves for a cunning rabbit" may succeed. The Germans may find one or even two tunnels, but it is hard to think that there is another tunnel at the same time, so he approved the "Great Escape" operation.
The scale of escape is unprecedented, which requires the participation of a large number of people and efficient organization. As a planner, Bouchair became the operational commander, code-named "Big X".
The three tunnels were named Tom, Dick and Harry respectively. In order to keep it strictly confidential, Bouchair asked everyone to use only code names and never mention the word "tunnel". Anyone mentioned will be tried by a military court. In the end, more than 600 prisoners of war participated in the tunnel construction.
After some preparations, this great project began to be fully launched.
Escape plan
"Tom" began to dig from a dark corner next to the chimney of cell 123, and extended westward into the forest, but was discovered and blown up by the Germans on the way. The guards did not expect that there were two tunnels in the secret.
The entrance of "Dick" is hidden under the drainage pool of cell 122, and there is a movable door on the drainage pool. In the same direction as Tom, but farther from the wall, it is not easy to arouse suspicion.
Only when the German army expanded the camp in the middle of the excavation, the exit of Dick was just occupied, so the tunnel had to be suspended and turned into a warehouse for storing sand and excavation tools, which played a certain role.
Only "Harry" finally succeeded. It went north through the cell, ward and watchtower until it reached the Woods next to the camp.
The prisoners of war had a hard time passing through the support column of cell 104, so that the guards would not find them working under the house. The entrance of the tunnel is hidden under the stove, and the main body is 9 meters deep. Guards generally don't approach it, and they can also avoid listening.
Schematic diagram of Harry tunnel
In order to prevent the sands from getting on their clothes, the prisoners of war stripped off all their clothes and worked in the dark and horrible underground. They put sand into small bags made of towels and clothes, hide them under their pants, and then put on coats to cover the protrusions, so they are called "penguins".
They carefully spread sand into the soil of similar color in the camp or the small garden they usually look after. Two people pretended to be talking, one turned over the soil, and the other quickly sprinkled sand into the pit.
After more than 200 people moved about 25,000 times, they successfully carried 100 tons of sand under the eyes of the doorman!
The Germans also vaguely felt that something was wrong, but found nothing. In order to disrupt suspicious operations, the German army transferred 19 suspects to other prisons, and 6 of them participated in tunnel construction.
In the prison camp
Tunnels are getting longer and longer, and craftsmen have made many technological innovations. They built an underground network of ropes and wooden trolleys, and named the intersection after two famous squares in London.
Bob, captain of the 37th Squadron? Nelson invented a crude air pump system, using hockey sticks, backpacks and table tennis bats to send fresh air into the tunnel.
With the help of the Red Cross, they also made tin cans into shovels and oil lamps, used grease in soup as fuel, and used ropes as wicks. Even connected the power supply system with stolen wires and lit several light bulbs.
In order to prevent the tunnel from collapsing, they removed about 4,000 bedplates to support the 0.6-meter-wide sandy wall, and laid10.7 million blankets on the wall to reduce noise. So that there are 20 pieces of wood on each bed board, and finally there are only 8 pieces on average.
Others bribed guards with money and tight commodities to get key materials such as maps and passes, and then several skilled guys forged copies. Several anti-Nazi guards also provided a lot of help and played a key role.
1in March, 944, the "Harry" tunnel was finally dug. The first group of people, including 30 people who are fluent in German or have escaped from prison, have the greatest hope of survival, and the remaining 70 people have made the greatest contribution to tunnel construction. The second batch 100 people will be selected by drawing lots. They can hardly speak German and have little hope of survival. They can only hope to escape Germany at night.
On March 24, the escape began on a dark night. However, many accidents happened. At first, the trap door froze, and it took an hour and a half to fix it.
Secondly, the tunnel is not long enough and the exit position is deviated. When the first man climbed out at night 10: 30, he found himself on the edge of the forest, not far from the watchtower. There are too few trees here to provide enough cover.
It's cold and there is snow on the ground, so crawling will leave obvious marks. In order to avoid being found by the guards, they can only reduce the number of escapes from once a minute to about ten times an hour.
At about one o'clock in the morning, some tunnels collapsed and it will take some time to clean up.
After a night of hard work, 76 people escaped from the tunnel at 5 am on the 25th. The 77th man failed to escape, when a security patrol almost fell off the entrance and exit, exposing the plan.
Those who haven't escaped, burn their papers and evacuate. The Germans climbed back from the exit and found the entrance.
The shrill alarm sounded, and the Germans searched the whole camp and were dumbfounded. The whole escape operation is huge, * * * involving 4,000 bedplates, 1700 blankets, 635 mattresses, 192 bedspreads, 52 long tables, 478 spoons, 582 forks ... and 300m wires,1.80m ropes.
People in the Woods tried to escape. The Germans blocked the border, set up roadblocks, searched farms and hotels, and captured 73 people in two weeks. Only three people managed to escape and return to Britain with the help of Swedish sailors and French resistance organizations, becoming the only lucky ones left.
Monument at the end of the tunnel
1945 65438+ In October, the Soviet Union liberated the concentration camp, and all prisoners of war ushered in a new life. After Germany surrendered, the 1947 international military court tried 18 Gestapo officer who killed prisoners of war and sentenced him to death and imprisonment for war crimes.
1963, this tragic and surprising story was made into a movie "The Great Escape" by Hollywood, which caused a sensation after it was released.
However, the film made some fiction and changed the ending to American pilots leading everyone to freedom. Therefore, some survivors are very dissatisfied. Royle said, "I don't like this movie very much. No motorcycles helped us escape ... and no Americans participated. "
The centenarian never thinks he has done anything special. He said quietly, "We all want the future, and I was lucky to get it. We finally defeated the Germans, that's all ... "
The fictional protagonist and motorcycle in the movie