Wynn, Stephen Escaping Stalag Luft III

From the Wooden Horse to the Great Escape

The book recounts the escapes from Stalag Luft III and the true stories behind their enduring fame. Stalag Luft III was the place where Germany sent all its habitual Allied escapees, and the first British and Commonwealth prisoners of war arrived there on 11 April 1942. The following year, on 29 October, the so-called Wooden Horse Escape took place the name derives from the use of a gymnastics horse to conceal the fact that a tunnel had been dug underneath it. The escape was planned by Flight Lieutenant Eric Williams and Lieutenant Richard Michael Codner. Together with Lieutenant Oliver Philpot, all three men escaped and made it back to England safely. The escape inspired others, and five months later, on the night of 24 to 25 March 1944, the so-called Great Escape took place. The aim was to free more than 200 British and Allied prisoners of war, but due to a combination of tunnel collapses, a nearby Allied air raid and the discovery of the tunnel exit, only 76 prisoners managed to escape. Only three made it back to Britain; 73 were recaptured and 50 of them were murdered by the Gestapo on Hitler's orders. Both escapes became famous, first through books and then through their respective film adaptations. Although these were not entirely accurate, they ensured that the stories reached a global audience.