by Read, Simon
Flight Lieutenant George E. McGill (Canadian): Recaptured in Breslau region. Last seen alive in the prison at Görlitz on March 31, 1944. Cremated in Liegnitz, date unknown.
Flight Lieutenant Harold J. Milford (British): Recaptured in Sagan region. Last seen alive in the prison at Görlitz on April 6, 1944. Cremated in Breslau, date unknown.
Flight Lieutenant Jerzy T. Mondschein (Polish): Recaptured on the Silesian Czechslovak border. Died March 29, 1944, and cremated in Brüx.
Flight Lieutenant Kazimierz Pawluk (Polish): Recaptured in Hirschberg. Died on March 30, 1944. Place of cremation unknown.
Flying Officer Henri A. Picard (Belgian): Recaptured on train in Schneidemühl on March 26, 1944. Died March 29, 1944, and cremated in Danzig.
Flying Officer John Pohe (New Zealand): Recaptured near Görlitz. Died on March 31, 1944, and cremated in Görlitz.
Lieutenant Bernard Scheidhauer (French): Recaptured at Saarbrücken. Died March 29, 1944, and cremated in Saarbrücken.
Pilot Officer Sortiros Skanziklas (Greek): Recaptured in Hirschberg. Died on March 30, 1944. Place of cremation unknown.
Lieutenant Rupert J. Stevens (South African): Recaptured on a train south of Munich. Died March 29, 1944, and cremated in Munich.
Flying Officer Robert C. Stewart (British): Recaptured in Breslau region. Last seen alive in the prison at Görlitz on March 31, 1944. Cremated in Liegnitz, date unknown.
Flying Officer John G. Stower (British): Captured on a train outside Sittau. Last seen alive in the prison at Görlitz on March 31, 1944. Died and cremated that same day; place of cremation unknown.
Flying Officer Denys O. Street (British): Recaptured in Sagan region. Last seen alive in the prison at Görlitz on April 6, 1944. Cremated in Breslau, date unknown.
Flight Lieutenant Cyril D. Swain (British): Recaptured in Breslau region. Last seen alive in the prison at Görlitz on March 31, 1944. Cremated in Liegnitz, date unknown.
Flying Officer Pawel Tobolski (Polish): Last seen alive on April 2, 1944, when he was transferred from Berlin to jail in Silesia. Cremated in Breslau, date unknown.
Flying Officer Ernst Valenta (Czechoslovakian): Recaptured in Breslau region. Last seen alive in the prison at Görlitz on March 31, 1944. Cremated in Liegnitz, date unknown.
Flight Lieutenant Gilbert W. Walenn (British): Recaptured on train in Schneidemühl on March 26, 1944. Died March 29, 1944, and cremated in Danzig.
Flight Lieutenant James C. Wernham (Canadian): Recaptured in Hirschberg. Died on March 30, 1944. Place of cremation unknown.
Flight Lieutenant George W. Wiley (Canadian): Recaptured near Görlitz. Died on March 31, 1944, and cremated in Görlitz.
Squadron Leader John E.A. Williams (Australian): Captured on the Silesian Czechslovak border. Died March 29, 1944, and cremated in Brüx.
Flight Lieutenant John F. Williams (British): Recaptured in Sagan region. Last seen alive in the prison at Görlitz on April 6, 1944. Cremated in Breslau, date unknown.
Sources: Air 40/2278/016, Air 40/2487/020-039, Air 40/2488/003-005, 032-035, Air 40/2492/004.
APPENDIX B
A SURVIVOR’S TALE
Squadron Leader Laurence Reavell-Carter’s bomber was shot down over the Kiel Canal on the night of June 26, 1942. He took part in the “Great Escape,” but surrendered to save the life of another escapee when a sentry stumbled across “Harry’s” exit. This is the statement he gave to RAF investigators after the war:
On the night of 24/25 March 1944, I attempted to escape from the North Compound of Stalag Luft III (Sagan) by means of the tunnel known as “Harry.” I was number seventy-five and was followed by Flight Lt. A.K. Ogilvie and Flight Lt. M.M. Shand. I was wearing a wind-breaker jacket, which I had made in the camp. Underneath this I wore Army battle-dress. I carried a LI-LO* for the purpose of enabling me to cross rivers. I had been supplied with false identity papers, purporting that I was a Hungarian worker, and had maps, compass, food concentrate, chocolate, raisons, etc.
On leaving the tunnel at about 0500 hours just before dawn, I received the “all-clear” signal on the rope from Flight Lt. Langlois. I followed the rope, passed Langlois, and joined Flight Lt. Bethell. He then left with his party, and I awaited the arrival of the other eight members of my party. A few minutes later, I was joined by Flight Lt. A.K. Ogilvie. Flight Lt. M.M. Shand emerged from the exit a few moments later and was crawling along the rope towards me. At this moment, a sentry on patrol outside the fence began to approach the exit of the tunnel. I then signaled on the rope to Shand to be still. When the guard got closer to the exit of the tunnel, he appeared to notice the track through the snow caused by the escapers crawling in the woods. In the interval, Shand resumed crawling and the guard raised his rifle in the direction of Shand and shouted. I thought that the guard was about to shoot Shand, so I jumped from my place of concealment in the wood and shouted to the guard in German, “Do not shoot!” He then fired a shot in the air and began to call for assistance. I advanced towards the guard continuing to shout to him in German. In the meantime, Ogilvie and Shand escaped into the woods without the guard being aware of the fact.
A few minutes later, an N.C.O. arrived from the guard room and took Langlois, Squadron Leader McBride, Royal Canadian Air Force, who was caught just as he was about to emerge from the tunnel, and myself back to the guardroom. There, I destroyed my maps, papers, etc., in the fire. The camp commandant, Oberst Von-Lindeiner, the Abwehr Officer, Major Broli, and the Lager Officer, Haputmann Pieber, arrived and began to question us. Major Broli wanted to know how many had escaped. When we refused to tell him, he said, “That will be so much worse for you.”
At this stage, Von-Lindeiner, who had gone into another room, returned and appeared to be in a terrific rage. He was virtually incoherent in his speech and did mention that the Gestapo would have a hand in the affair. Pieber told me that we would never be allowed to return to the compound. We were then placed in a room in the guardhouse, where we remained for about two hours. We were then taken to the cells in the Vorlager [solitary barracks] and placed in separate cells. We were not allowed to have any heating, food, or washing facilities. Those conditions were enforced for two days, and we were told by one of the guards that it was the commandant’s orders. At the end of that time, normal cell conditions applied, and at the end of the week we were sentenced to twenty-one days detention. This was to include the time already spent in the cells. On 15 April, we were released into the North Compound.
ESCAPE ACTIVITIES
From January 1941 until March 1942 at Stalag Luft I (Barth), I was engaged on the construction of four tunnels. All were discovered prior to completion. About June 1943 in the North Compound, Stalag Luft III, I devised a scheme of getting out of the camp. Over a period of weeks, I instituted the practice of collecting all wastepaper, etc. This was stacked in sacks and taken out of the camp into the Vorlager of the East and Center Compounds by horse-drawn wagons. My scheme was to get into a sack, which would be tied, and to be taken out of the camp with the sacks of waste paper. On the road between the gate of the North Compound and the entrance to the East and Center Compounds, I would cut my way out of the sack, jump off the wagon, and escape into the woods which were close to the road at this point. The distance between the gates was about 200 yards.
The scheme was approved, but I was not to use it as I am too big. It was decided that Flight Lt. Carter, Royal New Zealand Air Force, and Lt. Spires, United States Army Air Force, should be allowed to attempt to escape by this method. On the selected day, these two men were placed in sacks and loaded on the wagon under my supervision. I was assisted by [Flying Officer] Dennis Cochran, Royal Air Force, (now deceased). The wagon left the compound, and Carter and Spires escaped on the way to the main camp as planned. Carter was recaptured on the Island of Rugen about a week later. Spires was recaptured near the camp.
LIBERATION
I was liberated by Allied Forces near Lübeck on 5 May 1945 and sent to Rheine. From there, I was s
ent by air to the U.K, arriving on May 8.
Source: Statement by Squadron Leader Laurence Reavell-Carter, M.C., 49 Squadron. Air 40/2491/150-153.
* An air mattress.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
The Royal Air Force SIB case files now kept at the British National Archives in Kew, London, were the primary source of information for Human Game. Files specifically referred to and quoted in the text can be found catalogued in the following folders:
Air 40/2272: Progress reports in respect to Stalag Luft III investigation: results of effort to trace wanted German personnel. September 1945 through August 1947.
Air 40/2278: Murder of [Flight Lieutenant] Hayter and interrogation of associated German personnel.
Air 40/2279: The Kiel murders: enquiries and interrogation of persons involved. September 1945 through January 1947.
Air 40/2286: Reports on action taken in the British Zone to trace Germans wanted for interrogation. September 1945 through August 1946.
Air 40/2287: Reports on action taken to trace Germans wanted for interrogation. January 1946 through December 1946.
Air 40/2487: General papers (Sagan Memorial Book and suspect statements).
Air 40/2488: Progress reports, nos. 1–60. 1945.
Air 40/2489: Progress reports, nos. 61–120. 1946.
Air 40/2490: Progress reports, nos. 121–180. 1945.
Air 40/2491: Progress reports, nos. 181–240. 1946.
Air 40/2492: Progress reports, nos. 241–300. 1946.
Air 40/2493: Progress reports, nos. 301–368. 1946.
FO (Foreign Office) 371/57595: Sagan murder case: interrogation of Dr. Scharpwinkel in Moscow.
Cab 66/56/4: The Committing of Acts of Violence Towards British Prisoners of War. Memorandum by the Secretary of State for War.
BOOKS
Though RAF case files provided the vast majority of information for Human Game, a number of books were relied on in the telling of this story. Two books were of considerable help. Exemplary Justice by Allen Andrews provided anecdotal material, while A Gallant Company by Jonathan F. Vance was a great source of biographical information on the “Great Escapers.” The books consulted and referenced are as follows:
Andrews, Allen. Exemplary Justice. George G. Harrap & Co., Ltd., 1976.
Bessel, Richard. Germany 1945. Simon & Schuster UK, Ltd., 2009.
Brickhill, Paul. The Great Escape. Faber & Faber. 1951.
Burgess, Alan. The Longest Tunnel. Naval Institute Press, 1990.
Carroll, Tim. The Great Escape from Stalag Luft III. Mainstream Publishing Company (Edinburgh), Ltd., 2004.
Davies, Stephen R., RAF Police: The Great Escape Murders. Woodfield Publishing, 2009.
Durand, Arthur. Stalag Luft III: The Secret Story. Louisiana State University Press, 1988.
Gill, Anton. The Great Escape: The Full Dramatic Story with Contributions from Survivors and Their Families. Headline Book Publishing, 2002.
Hastings, Max. Armageddon: The Battle for Germany 1944–1945. Alfred A. Knopf, 2004.
MacDonald, C. A. The Killing of Reinhard Haydrich: The SS “Butcher of Prague.” Da Capo Press, 1998.
MacDonogh, Giles. After the Reich: The Brutal History of the Allied Occupation. Basic Books, 2007.
Nichol, John, and Tony Rennell. Tail-End Charlies: The Last Battles of Bomber Command. Viking, 2004.
Rolf, David. Prisoners of the Reich: Germany’s Captives 1939–1945. Leo Cooper, Ltd. 1988.
Ryan, Cornelius. The Last Battle. Simon & Schuster, 1966.
Scholey, Pete. Who Dares Wins: Special Forces Heroes of the SAS. Osprey Publishing, 2008.
Scotland, A. P. The London Cage. Evans Brothers, Ltd., London, 1957.
Vance, Jonathan F. A Gallant Company: The Men of the Great Escape. Pacifica Military History, 2000.
Online Articles and Resources
Landsman, Mark. “Property and the Banality of Memory.” Cabinet Magazine, issue 10 (Property, Spring 2003): http://www.cabinetmagazine.org/issues/10/banality_memory.php.
Meyhoff, Andreas, and Gerhard Pfeil. “Garmisch-Partenkirchen’s Uncomfortable Past.” Spiegel Online International, January 22, 2010: http://www.spiegel.de/international/germany/0,1518,673241,00.html.
“The Massacre at Lidice.” Holocaust Education and Archive Research Team: http://blog.holocaustresearchproject.org/2008/12/10/the-lidice-massacre.aspx. (Referred to in the Source Notes as “The Massacre at Lidice.”)
Sachsenhausen-Oranienburg, Germany, Jewish Virtual Library: http://www.jew ishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/Holocaust/Sach.html. (Referred to in the Source Notes section as “JVL.”)
Struthof: Site of the former Natzweiler concentration camp: http://www.struthof .fr/index.php?id=1&L=1. (Referred to in the Source Notes section as “Natzweiler.”)
Task Force Baum and the Hammelburg Raid: www.taskforcebaum.de/index1.html. (This was the primary source of information on the Oflag XIII-B rescue operation detailed in Chapter 7, “Munich,” and is referred to in the Source Notes section as “Domes and Heinlein.”)
Report of the International Red Cross: Oflag XIII-B. Prepared by Military Intelligence Service War Department: www.taskforcebaum.de/oflag13/report1.html. (Referred to in the Source Notes section as “RC.”)
Parliamentary Debates, HC 19 May 1944, vol. 400, cc437-9: Officer Prisoners of War, Germany (Shooting): http://hansard.millbanksystems.com/commons/1944/may/19/officer-prisoners-of-war-germany-shooting.
Parliamentary Debates, HC 23 June 1944, vol. 401, cc477-82: Officer Prisoners of War, Germany (Shooting): http://hansard.millbanksystems.com/commons/1944/jun/23/officer-prisoners-of-war-germany-shooting
News Articles and Periodicals:
Charlesworth, Lorie. “2 SAS Regiment, War Crimes Investigations, and British Intelligence: Intelligence Officials and the Natzweiler Trial.” Journal of Intelligence History 6, no. 2 (Winter 2006).
Janowitz, Morris. “German Reactions to Nazi Atrocities.” American Journal of Sociology (September 1946).
“Goebbels invites attacks on fliers.” New York Times, May 27, 1944.
“German Prisoner Recaptured.” London Sunday Times, May 14, 1946.
“Britain condemns 2 in Gestapo.” New York Times, November 7, 1948.
Untitled. New York Times, October 25, 1952.
“Ex-Death Camp tell story of Nazi and Soviet horrors.” New York Times, December 17, 2001.
“The love story that inspired The Great Escape.” Telegraph (UK), September 26, 2004.
“The secrets of the London Cage.” Guardian (UK), November 12, 2005.
“Major Henry Druce” (Obituary). Telegraph (UK), February 7, 2007.
“He shot the hero of the Great Escape in cold blood. But was this one Nazi who didn’t deserve to hang?” Daily Mail (UK), October 24, 2009.
Transcripts and Unpublished Manuscripts
Law Reports of Trials of War Criminals: Selected and Prepared by the United Nations War Crimes Commission, vol. XI. His Majesty’s Stationary Office (London), 1949.
Private Papers of L. H. Harcus. Imperial War Museum, London.
Diary of Master Engineer Robert James Goode. Imperial War Museum, London.
Documentary Films
Clarke, Steven, dir. Great Escape: The Untold Story. A Granada Production, 2001.
West, Steve, dir. The Great Escape: The Reckoning. Electric Pictures, Brook Lapping Productions, and Screen Australia, 2009.
Every effort has been made to trace copyright holders to obtain their permission for use of copyrighted material. The author and publisher apologize for any omissions and would be grateful if notified of any errors that should be corrected in future reprints or editions of this book.
SOURCE NOTES
PREAMBLE: THE GREAT ESCAPE
1 Stalag Luft III location and security details. Gill, pgs. 53, 54; Brickhill, pg. 27; Carroll, pgs. 59–60, 61.
1 Different colored soils and the need for a long tunnel. Gill, pg. 54; Carroll, pg. 60.
1 Size and construction of barrack
s and their distance from the fence. Carroll, pgs. 60, 61.
2 Barracks built on stilts and concrete pilings. Carroll, pg. 61.
2 Germans sink subterranean microphones. Air 40/2486/031.
2 Canine units and weather conditions. Carroll, pgs. 60, 62.
2 “main camps.” Carroll, pg. 59.
2 Roger Bushell arrives at Stalag Luft III. Brickhill, pg. 19.
2 Bushell shot down and captured. Brickhill, pgs. 3–4; Gill, pg. 14; Vance, pg. 12.
3 Bushell’s biographic details from birth to being shot down. Gill, pgs. 11–14.
3 Bushell’s escape from the train, being betrayed in Prague. Brickhill, pgs. 8–9; Gill, pgs. 10, 44.
4 Bushell assumes command of X-Organization, takes advantage of seasoned escapers. Brickhill, pg. 20; Gill, pg. 75.
4 Locations of the tunnels. Gill, pgs. 106–107.
4–5 Concealing the tunnels. Gill, pgs. 111–112, 114; Brickhill, pgs. 34–36.
5 “a standard pastime at Stalag Luft III.” Air 40/2487/009.
5 The role of the “duty pilots.” Gill, pgs. 108, 137–138.
5 The process of digging a tunnel. Brickhill, pg. 79.
5–6 Conditions in the tunnel. Brickhill, pgs. 79, 80.
6 “Digging was the worst…” Brickhill, pg. 80.
6 Fanshawe and his “trouser bags.” Brickhill, pg. 41; Gill, pg. 125.
6 Walenn and the work of “Dean and Dawson.” Carroll, pgs. 110–112; Gill, pgs. 59–60, 146–147.
7 “Made in Stalag Luft III.” Gill, pg. 150.
7 The work of Plunkett’s cartographic team. Gill, pg. 93.
7 “a bed-stead and mattress, knife, spoon…” Air 40/2286/034.
7 Inventory list of items used to build the tunnels. Air 40/2286/034.
7 Lighting the tunnels. Gill, pg. 120; Pumping fresh air into the tunnels. Brickhill, pgs. 50–51.
8 “While bombed-out German civilians had to do their utmost…” Air 40/2286/034-035.