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The Great Escape is a true story of one of the greatest mass POW
escapes of World War II. The majority of the movie takes place at Stalag Luft III, a
German prisoner of war camp. The camp has been built for Allied airmen captured in World
War II and is supposed to be more secure than other prison camps. The prisoners consist
mainly of British pilots with a few American officers mixed in. As the officers arrive at
the prison camp, they begin to familiarize themselves with their surroundings. The camp
consists of a small jail called the cooler, several watchtowers, many barracks, and the
Germans’ offices. The whole reason for the mass escape is to
cause a distraction for the German Army. The prisoners want to force the Germans to come
and look for them across the country so that the Germans cannot go and fight at the front
line. The plan for the escape is a long and strenuous process. The officer in charge of
the escape, Bartlett, calls a meeting with many of the other prisoners to plot the escape.
They decide that three tunnels, code named 'Tom, Dick and Harry', will be built
simultaneously. One tunnel is to begin under a drain in the showers, another under a stove
in a barrack, and the last one is built under the floorboards of another barrack.
The effort that they put into the preparations is heroic. Civilian
clothes are manufactured, IDs and travel permits are forged, maps, compasses and all
manner of other supplies are made. The tunnels themselves are engineering marvels. And all
this is done under the nose of the watchful and suspicious Germans.
When escape time finally comes, the beginnings of more than 200
prisoners gather in the barrack to escape through the tunnel. Unfortunately, the tunnel
turns out to be about 20 feet short of the covering woods. They have to 'pop out' of the
exit just as the sentry has his back turned. As the escape progresses, there is an air
raid that helps, since the Germans have to black out the camp. During this time, several
more men move rapidly out of the tunnel. As one of the men gets out of the tunnel, he
drops a briefcase causing the officer on the other side of the wire to see the men
escaping. Some of the men run and escape into the woods and some of the men get caught.
Once the escapers get into various towns, they all find different ways
to get around. Hilts steals a German’s motorcycle and takes his uniform also.
Bartlett and MacDonald use fake ID’s to get on a train that is patrolled by Germans.
Hendley and Blythe jump on a train. Later they jump off near a German air base. They steal
a plane, but eventually it crashes. Blythe is shot after the crash and Hendley is brought
back to the prison camp. Sedgwick escapes to Spain with the help of the French Resistance.
Hilts is caught and returned to the cooler.
The German Gestapo retaliates for the escape by transporting 50 of the
recaptured POWs to an open field and executing them. |
