Ministry of Defence
![]() |
![]() |
RAF officers make a Great Escape
Six RAF officers have travelled to the former 'Great Escape' prison camp - Stalag Luft III in Zagan, Poland - to re-enact activities which were carried out by prisoners of war (POWs) in their attempts to escape from the camp during the Second World War.
Famously portrayed in the 1963 Hollywood movie starring Steve McQueen, the re-enactment of the mass escape in 1944 took place over two weeks and was filmed by Wildfire TV. The resulting documentary, 'Digging the Great Escape', will be broadcast on Channel 4 later in the year.
On the night of 24 March 1944, 76 allied airmen escaped from the North Compound of Stalag Luft III, a supposedly 'escape-proof' POW camp. The prisoners, almost all of whom were RAF officers, escaped down a tunnel they had dug themselves under the noses of their German guards.