The Great Escapers by Tim Carroll

Author:Tim Carroll [Tim Carroll]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Mainstream Publishing
Published: 2011-04-24T16:00:00+00:00

Chapter Six

Harry

The news of the success of the wooden horse escape reached Stalag Luft III shortly after the three men had arrived back in England. When their safe arrival home was announced at morning Appell, a huge cheer went up. The escape of Williams, Codner and Philpot proved to be a huge psychological boost after the devastation wrought by Tom’s discovery. The prisoners’ morale was raised further by news of the Allies’ incursion into southern Italy. The arrival of a contingent of Allied officers who had been involved in the Italian campaign, and had escaped from POW camps in Italy, also cheered them up. For the hungry and weary men of Sagan, the sudden appearance of the comrades-in-arms with tanned faces and tales of victories against the Nazis came as a welcome change. They listened, thrilled at their stories of enjoying weeks of freedom in the Alps hoping to get to Switzerland. Hitler’s hated Third Reich, which had held the world in its thrall at the beginning of the war, now appeared to be a less formidable beast. ‘Fortress Europe’ was quickly crumbling. The once-feared Nazi war machine was on the retreat at sea, in the air and on land. German cities were falling under a relentless Allied bombing campaign. Often the prisoners were treated to the sight of American Flying Fortresses or Liberators high in the sky returning from their sorties. A ripple of applause and cheering would break out across the camp, much to the irritation of the goons. At night it comforted the inmates to hear the soft, distant boom of British air raiders. After Berlin had been subjected to a particularly heavy pounding, an angry Glemnitz marched up to Bub Clark in the South Compound. The two men normally had a cordial relationship, but on this occasion Glemnitz poked his finger at Clark’s face and hissed: ‘When this war is over, you will rebuild this country, Colonel Clark.’ The American officer couldn’t help but sympathise with the German, whom he liked and would continue to see after the war. But at that stage of hostilities Clark had seen enough of the Nazis’ barbarity not to be too concerned about the methods used to bring it to an end.

The escape season was now effectively over. The winters in Central Europe were so cold that few prisoners wanted to endure the hardship of life outside the wire. Most of them battened down the hatches to enjoy a quiet Christmas, dreaming of their escape plans that would begin once more in the spring, or simply settling down to reading or attending classes and staging theatrical and musical productions. German classes were the most popular, with so many officers preparing themselves for escape. It was generally agreed that October’s Macbeth was one of the theatre’s most accomplished productions. Welcome arrivals around this time were British and American feature films shown at the cinema, among the favourites being the Ginger Rogers and Fred Astaire classic Shall We Dance? The atmosphere in

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