Ceremony honours 'The Great Escape'

A ceremony to commemorate the Great Escape, the famous breakout from German prisoner of war camp Stalag Luft III in 1944, is taking place.

Survivors, families and UK and Polish officials are gathering at Zagan in Poland, 70 years after the escape plot.

Of those who broke out of the camp, only three reached safety and of the 73 recaptured, 50 were shot. 

The ceremony, from 11:00 to 13:00 GMT, is the first formal act of remembrance held in their honour. 

Between five and 10 survivors of the prisoner of war camp were expected to attend. 

Afterwards, 50 RAF service personnel will march for four days to the cemetery at Poznan where they will lay wreaths at the graves of the 50 executed prisoners. 

The RAF's Air Vice-Marshal Stuart Atha told those gathered the Great Escape was "an extraordinary chapter" in the history of the allied air forces "written by men with great courage and character".

Those who escaped were "an exceptional band of airmen whose bravery, ingenuity and resilient spirit set an example for all time", he added.

"When first captured, they did not accept that for them the war was over.

"Far from it, they were not prisoners of war - they were prisoners at war.

"And through their activities, they opened another front that distracted and diluted enemy forces and demonstrated that no fence, no Stalag Luft, could contain allied airmen."

British ambassador to Poland Robin Barnett and former prisoner of war Charles Clarke were among others expected to speak.

10,000 prisoners

The daring bid for freedom was immortalised in the classic 1963 film The Great Escape, starring Steve McQueen, James Garner and Richard Attenborough. 

Stalag Luft III, which was 100 miles south-east of Berlin on the Polish border, held about 10,000 prisoners at the height of its occupation.

Members of the RAF, the US Air Force and other allied forces were among prisoners at the camp.

Because of border changes, the location of the camp is now in Poland.

An escape committee was formed at the camp in spring 1943 and the escape plan hatched under the leadership of Squadron Leader Roger Bushell.

Three tunnels, codenamed Tom, Dick and Harry, were started in April 1943. 

The tunnels were dug to a depth of 30ft and shored up with wooden boards from the prisoners' beds. 

On the night of 24 March 1944, about 200 prisoners prepared to escape through Harry, a tunnel measuring over 300ft long, beneath Hut 104. 

Only 76 were able to make their break for freedom using the tunnel.

Norwegian pilots Per Bergsland and Jens Muller, and Dutch pilot Bram van der Stok - who all died in the 1990s - made it to safety.

Of the 73 who were recaptured, 50 were subsequently shot by the Gestapo on Adolf Hitler's orders. 

Ex-prisoner of war Andrew Wiseman

"Hitler flew into a rage," he said.

"He wanted all those who were recaptured shot but he was persuaded by Goering and Himmler to go for 50 instead in a perverse attempt to reduce the international outcry afterwards.

"The 50 were selected randomly by the SS."

British ex-serviceman Andrew Wiseman, who is in Zagan for the commemoration, arrived as a prisoner at Stalag Luft III shortly after the Great Escape.

"When I arrived at the camp, the camp was in a state of shock, disbelief," he told Today.

"Until the Great Escape, and the murder of the 50, the RAF prisoners of war were treated reasonably well by the Germans.

"But after the Great Escape, relations between us and the Germans changed.

"The camp could not believe what the Germans had done to the 50 and there was shock, horror almost, and a great deal of sadness."

German disbelief

According to the Daily Telegraph, Dick Churchill, 94, is the last British survivor among the 76 escapees.

Captured RAF airmen at Stalag Luft III in 1944 RAF airmen were kept prisoner at Stalag Luft II 

He and fellow escapee, Australian Paul Royle, are the only survivors, it says.

Mr Churchill, who says he was captured while hiding in a barn after heading towards Czechoslovakia, told the paper he was lucky not to have been shot.

"I think it was my name - I'm pretty certain.

"I'm not related to Churchill, to my knowledge. But they thought I might be." BBC