The Great Escape from Stalag Luft III: The Full Story of How 76 Allied Officers Carried Out World War II's Most Remarkable Mass Escape by Carroll Tim

Author:Carroll, Tim [Carroll, Tim]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Gallery Books
Published: 2015-10-03T16:00:00+00:00

Chapter Seven

Per Ardua ad Astra

The decision to go ahead with the escape provided at least one prisoner with a break of a different kind. That midday Ian McIntosh was to learn that he would after all be replacing Roger Bushell as Professor Henry Higgins in the theatre production of Pygmalion. It’s doubtful, however, whether Bushell’s understudy relished his unexpected chance of theatrical stardom. Digger McIntosh had been one of the most ardent escape artists and had almost made it to Switzerland in the famed delousing party attempt. Although he suffered from intense claustrophobia, there was no doubt he would have preferred to have been down the tunnel that night. Instead, rehearsals for the current production in the theatre went ahead as normal and the Escape Committee ordered classes, exercise groups and other activities to continue.

Every prisoner in Stalag Luft III sensed something was in the air. “It’s inconceivable,” Bub Clark said of those last few hours, “that the Germans didn’t pick up on the sense of tension.” The letters home of some of the escapers betrayed a combination of homesickness, excitement and fear that they might never see their friends and loved ones again.

In the meantime, the X-Organisation started the final preparations for the escape some of them had waited years for. Those who were going to take part in the escape had to present themselves one last time for inspection. As Tim Walenn’s department churned out dozens of date-stamped documents, the Little Xs in each barrack block distributed them to the escapers.

That evening, after roll-call, the inhabitants of North Compound seemed to scatter back to their individual barrack blocks as they usually did. Most appeared to rush back to escape the cold, or attend evening classes to escape the boredom. In fact, over the next few hours before lights out, many of the prisoners were not retiring to their usual quarters but were obeying a prearranged plan to facilitate the escape. The usual residents of Block 104 who were not on the escape list were to stay in other quarters for the evening. In the meantime, the 200 who were on the list were to squash themselves into 104. In order not to raise the goons’ suspicions, an intricate plan was devised in which prisoners and would-be escapers were guided around the compound. Marshals waiting discreetly in the shadows of the barracks guided this flow and counter-flow of clandestine traffic.

Shortly after 6 P.M. a few of the escapers shared a last supper in Johnny Travis’s room, among them Roger Bushell and Bob van der Stok. Jimmy James checked his escape kit before having his last meal in Stalag Luft III. “I wouldn’t put a dog out on a night like this,” said one of his barrack-roommates. They had put on a big spread for Jimmy, pooling together as much of their food as they could to celebrate his last night and keep him sustained for the deprivations ahead, but the meal was taken in silence.

“The sense of excitement was tinged by the dark shadow of doom,” James recalls.

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