Escape.

This is coolbert:

Military archeology, artifacts of significance as from the era of the Second World War. Interesting stuff indeed! Click on all images to see an enlarged view.

Thanks to the tip from my Aunt C. The topic the escape of captured British aviators from prisoner-of-war [POW] camp. Tunneling and as the subject of the famous movie "The Great Escape".

Read at the wiki entry the full and complete details of the Great Escape.

"The Great Escape:  untouched for almost seven decades, the tunnel used in the Great Escape has finally been unearthed. The 111-yard passage nicknamed 'Harry' by Allied prisoners was sealed by the Germans after the audacious break-out from the POW camp Stalag Luft III in western Poland . . . The tunnel remained undisturbed over the decades because it was behind the Iron Curtain and the Soviet authorities had no interest in its significance.But at last British archaeologists have excavated it, and discovered its remarkable secrets."

"Many of the bed boards which had been joined together to stop it collapsing were still in position. And the ventilation shaft, ingeniously crafted from used powdered milk containers known as Klim Tins, remained in working order."

A recreation of the tunnel. A tunnel two feet by two feet [66 centimeters by 66 centimeters]. Escapees not crawling through the tunnel but being pulled by a trolley mounted on what amounts to railroad tracks!!

"Scattered throughout the tunnel, which is 30ft below ground, were bits of old metal buckets, hammers and crowbars which were used to hollow out the route."

Here shown excavations of the tunnel name "George". Never was used.

"A total of 600 prisoners worked on three tunnels at the same time. They were nicknamed Tom, Dick and Harry and were just 2 ft square for most of their length. It was on the night of  March 24  and 25, 1944, that 76 Allied airmen escaped through Harry."

"The site of the tunnel, recently excavated by British archaeologists . . . The latest dig, over three weeks in August, located the entrance to Harry, which was originally concealed under a stove in Hut 104."

"The team also found another tunnel, called George, whose exact position had not been charted. It was never used as the 2,000 prisoners were forced to march to other camps as the Red Army approached in  January 1945."

Brave and courageous. Dynamic, bold, plucky, ingenious. All those words applicable.

Honestly, I personally have to wonder if the results justified the amount of energy and effort.

Only "76 escapees, 73 were captured", fifty executed on the direct order [?] of Hitler. Those three men not captured only one able to repatriate to friendly territory.

coolbert.