The Great Escape (book)

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The Great Escape is an autobiographical account by Paul Brickhill about the mass escape from the German prisoner of war camp Stalag Luft III. Though Brickhill himself did not escape, he did record the events. The introduction to the book was written by George Harsh.

[edit] Plot summary

The plot of the book centers primarily on the events known as The Great Escape, but it also includes mention of other escape attempts as well as the hunt of the Gestapo agents who killed fifty of the escapees on Hitler's direct order.

Much of the book centers on Roger Bushell, also known as the Big X. It discusses him being shot down, his early escape attempts, and him planning the escape. Unfortunately, he was one of the fifty who was shot.

Though much of the story is centered on Bushell's life, several people that Brickhill knew received much attention, such as Major John Dodge.

In the end, seventy-six men escaped. Out of those seventy-six, seventy-three of them were recaptured and fifty of those were shot by the Gestapo. Four of those seventy-six escaped at a later date and did get away. This includes John Dodge who was related to Winston Churchill and was released to secure a cease-fire.

[edit] The tunnels

Four tunnels were dug for the escape. They were nicknamed Tom, Dick, Harry and George. The operation was so secretive that everyone was to refer to each tunnel by its nickname. Bushell took this so seriously that he threatened to court-martial anyone who even uttered the word tunnel aloud. Tom was dug in hut 123 and extended east into the forest. It was found by the Germans and dynamited. Dick was dug in the shower room of hut 122 and had the most secure trap door. It was to go in the same direction as Tom and the prisoners decided that the hut would not be a suspected tunnel site as it was more inward than the others. Dick was abandoned for escape purposes because the area where it would have popped up at was cleared for camp expansion. Dick was then used to store dirt, supplies, and as a workshop. Harry was the tunnel ultimately used for the escape. It was discovered as the escape was in progress and not even half of the projected 220 people had gotten away. To avoid the disaster of Tom, Harry was filled with sewage, sand, and sealed with cement. After the escape, the prisoners started digging another tunnel called George, but this was abandoned when the camp was evacuated.

[edit] Film, TV or theatrical adaptations

In 1963, the Mirisch brothers worked with United Artists to produce The Great Escape as a film. The men in the movie were composites of those from real life and the timeline was condensed, but otherwise, the movie stayed largely true to Brickhill's book.