Lost Great Escape tunnel is pinpointed

BRITISH archaeologists have discovered a missing tunnel at one of the most infamous German prison camp of the Second World War and unearthed a wealth of escapers’ tools and equipment sealed underground.

The tunnel, named George, was shut down in 1945, when the Prisoners of War of Stalag Luft III were led off at gunpoint by their Nazi guards as the advancing Red Army closed in.

Its location at the camp, immortalised in the Hollywood blockbuster The Great Escape starring Steve McQueen, Richard Attenborough and Donald Pleasance, remained a mystery until experts arrived in August and spent three weeks excavating the relics.

George was built by men bitter that they failed to escape through a tunnel named Harry on the night of 24 March, 1944, which had been dug by Allied PoWs at the prison. Harry and two other tunnels, named Tom and Dick, were dug beneath the feet of the Germans in what was intended to be the biggest breakout of the war, with more than 200 men set to escape. In the end, only 76 got out through Harry – and 50 of them were murdered by the Gestapo.

After the failure of the break-out, prisoners began a fourth tunnel, George, in the theatre of the sprawling camp, which held 10,000 men and stood in Germany during the war but today is in Poland . The tunnel’s precise location was lost to history until last month.

Now, with the use of ground-scanning radar and the testimony of veterans who helped to construct it, George has yielded a hoard of materials chronicling the life of a PoW.

They include yards of wire that inmates stole from the Nazi searchlight power-lines to make electric light in the shaft and tunnel. Also found were numerous “klim tins” – powdered-milk containers – which were hollowed out and used as fat lamps stuck into the side of the tunnel walls when the electricity failed.

Others were joined together to form tubes along which air was pumped for the men digging at the face. Numerous bedboards were used to shore up the workings, and many jagged hinges, bits of old metal pails, hammers and jemmies, used to scour away the sandy soil of the camp, were also excavated.

“It is hardly a treasure in the conventional sense,” said Marek Lazarz, director of the museum that has been built to honour the men of Stalag Luft III. “But it is priceless to us and a time capsule of what life was like back then.

“The finding of George brings to a close the mystery of where the tunnel exactly was. And we now have to change the model in the camp museum, because the tunnel was on the opposite side of the theatre to where we thought it was.

“Speculation remains, however, as to where they intended to go with the tunnel. From the theatre they were digging straight towards a separate part of the camp where the German guards lived.

“One theory is that they wanted to break in and arm themselves – there were real fears as the war drew to a close they would be massacred – and of course they knew by then of the fate of the other prisoners.

“But it could also be that they were headed for a wood that stood between their camp and the German one. From there they might have fancied their chances of escaping deeper into the forest. The tunnel was excavated with great care as it was an archaeological expedition. It has now been sealed again.”

After the executions, British Intelligence managed to send orders to prison camps to halt all escape bids, but as the Allies closed in fears of reprisals from SS units grew – the famous Colditz glider was to be used to reach help if a massacre was imminent – so a means of escaping slaughter is the most likely reason for continuing to dig a tunnel after the order to stay put.

Squadron Leader Ivor Harris, 90, who operated the pump that fed air to the diggers at the end of the tunnel, said George was intended “for emergencies only”.

As the Red Army approached in January 1945, the 2,000 remaining prisoners were forced to march 100km westwards to Spremberg, where they were dispersed to other camps. Some 200 died on the journey, killed either by the freezing temperatures or by the German guards.

Mr Lazarz added: “This rounds off the history of the camp. Tom, Dick and Harry have now been reunited with George, and the artefacts found within him will go on display soon.”