Modern photo showing the path that *Harry* took under the wire showing how close it was to the fence, and just short of being amongst the trees

Modern photo showing the path that *Harry* took under the wire showing how close it was to the fence, and just short of being amongst the trees
Photo Credit: Vorwerk-wiki commons

Ted Barris- non fiction- The Great Escape- A Canadian Story

It was the culmination of years of intensely secretive planning. It was an astounding achievement of hard work and incredible ingenuity. It was a tale of courage and daring, but also with the knowledge that for the most part it would fail, at least in one sense.

This weekend marks the anniversary of that mostly Canadian event 72 years ago.

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Ted Barris, journalist, author, broadcaster, speaker
Ted Barris, journalist, author, broadcaster, speaker © via Dundurn Press

On the cold night of March 24-25, 1944, dozens of Commonwealth prisoners crawled from a tiny hole outside the wire of the German Stalag Luft III prison camp near Zagan in what was wartime Germany, (now Poland), and made their way into the woods and beyond.

It became known as “The Great Escape”.

The idea was simple, but simple in theory only.

The prisoners would dig a tunnel, four actually, from the prisoner huts out under the fence and into the woods.

In reality however, it was exceptionally complex, and required an amazing variety of skills to pull it off.  Old military clothes had to be made into civilian ones, escapees had to learn languages, authentic documents had to be prepared, maps, compasses, suitcases and more, all created secretly and virtually out of scraps.

And all this had to be done under the vigilant eyes of watchtower guards, and guards patrolling inside the camp.

Tony Pengelly, from Ontario was the master forger making all the carefully crafted documents for potential escapees
Tony Pengelly from Ontario was the master forger making all the carefully crafted documents for potential escapees
Canadian Wally Floody-shown in this camp photo- was a miner in northern Ontario. He was the tunnel king
Canadian Wally Floody-shown in this camp photo- was a miner in northern Ontario. He was the tunnel king. In spite of the popular US movie, the great escape was a mostly Canadian operation, with no Americans involved

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The prisoners realized that few were likely to make it back to Allied forces. Another goal however was that the escape would tie up vast numbers of German resources in tracking the escapees down thereby hampering the German war effort and keep soldiers and other resources busy looking for them and not fighting on the front.

View form the bottom of *Harry* looking up towards the prisoner hut some nine metres above
View form the bottom of *Harry* looking up towards the prisoner hut some nine metres above

In that aspect it succeeded. However for fifty of the escapees the effort ended in their cold-blooded murder.

Almost two decades later Hollywood picked up this amazing tale. The 1963 release of “The Great Escape” featured some big name movie stars and was a huge success. But it was wrong. Although virtually no Americans were involved, they turned it into an American story

A new book seeks to set the record straight.

Ted Barris is professor of journalism and broadcasting at Centennial College in Toronto, and author of several books, including “The Great Escape- A Canadian Story”

Ted Barris website

Dundurn Publishers- Great Escape

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