80. rocznica Wielkiej Ucieczki

Mandatory Credit: Photo by Charlotte Graham/Shutterstock (14399874a) The Memorial near Stalag Luft III The Great Escape: On March 24, 1944, a mass escape of Allied soldiers from the German prisoner of war camp Stalag Luft III was set into motion. The mass escape of 76 Allied airmen from a Nazi POW camp in March 1944 remains one of history's most famous prison breaks. Although the German Luftwaffe designed the Stalag Luft III camp to be escape-proof, the audacious, real-life prison break immortalized in the 1963 movie The Great Escape proved otherwise.Berlin to house Allied aviators captured in World War II-many of whom had made previous escapes-they took elaborate measures to prevent tunneling, such as raising prisoners' huts off the ground and burying microphones nine feet underground along the camp's perimeter fencing. In addition, the camp was built atop yellow sand that would be tough to tunnel through and difficult to conceal by anyone who tried. The Nazis, however, didn't account for the daring and ingenuity of the British, American Canadian and other Allied flyboys who toiled for nearly a year to construct a tunnel that would allow them to flee from captivity. For the aviators, the penalty for being caught trying to escape-generally 10 days in solitary confinement under the rules of the Geneva Convention-was worth the risk. 'The Great Escape' 80th anniversary commemorated, Zagan, Poland - 23 Mar 2024