IT WAS an epic act of heroic wartime defiance immortalised in the classic film The Great Escape.
Now, 65 years after the first Allied servicemen emerged from a tunnel named "Harry" beyond the wire of Stalag Luft III, veterans from the German prison camp have returned to remember their comrades.
The escape from the camp in Poland – German ter
ritory at the time – was the single greatest break for freedom attempted by prisoners of war during the Second World War.
The plot – dramatised in the 1963 film starring Steve McQueen and Richard Attenborough – saw prisoners spend more than a year plundering the camp to construct the 348ft tunnel from Hut 104, through which 76 men crawled to freedom.
But the tunnel stopped seven feet short of the safety of the treeline and at dawn the last of the escapees were spotted by their German guards.
Of those who made the break for freedom, only three – two Norwegians and a Dutchman – made it back to Britain.
The remainder were recaptured and 50 of them executed with a shot to the back of the head as an example to others.
Among those who travelled back to the camp yesterday was John Morrison, a former RAF sergeant, originally from Aberdeen.
Captured in Norway after his Halifax bomber went down while attacking the German battleship the Tirpitz, he spent more than a year at Stalag Luft III before being transferred before the escape bid.
"Coming back here has been very emotional; it's the first time I've been back since the war," said the 87-year-old, who now lives near Darlington, County Durham.
"We had a wee dram last night to remember the escape and those killed. They were officers and they were carrying out their duty."
Mr Morrison recalled the day when the news came through about the murders of the 50 recaptured escapees.
"
The senior non-commissioned officer said that he had some news and that we had to stand to attention while he read it. And it's good that he did, otherwise there would have been some trouble with the Germans."
Mr Morrison voiced his regret that the tunnel fell a few yards short of the tree line, so prisoners had to make a perilous dash across open ground under the noses of the German guards.
Another who returned to remember the momentous events was Frank Stone, 86, from Derbyshire.
He recalled: "During the actual digging one of my jobs was to get rid of the sand that was dropped in the hut.
"I was never busier with a broom in my life. I was given a chance to go on the escape but the priority was given to those men who had the best chance – German speakers and the like.
"The night of the escape I didn't sleep a wink. The tunnel was underneath a stove and the stove was lifted up and all these men disappeared one by one into the shaft. I envied them but knew I wouldn't be among them.
"The tension was electric all night long. And then around dawn I heard a shot and barking and I knew it was all over. The Jerries moved in then and tore the hut to pieces."
"Coming back here has brought back all the old memories. They were great men."
Alfie "Bill" Fripp, 95,
said: "I feel privileged to come back here now. The huts are all gone but the ghosts of all those boys are there, among the trees and the old foundation stones of the hut."
Reginald Cleaver, 84, from Brinklow near Rugby, scavenged and stole items from the Germans to aid in equipping all the escapers with proper papers and uniforms.
"When it was hot the German guards would take their belts off and leave them lying around," he said. "I would go with a bar of soap and make an impression of a buckle. Then we would use clay to make a reverse impression and fill that mould up with molten solder. They were very good forgeries!"
