Saw this on the Yahoo website………. look like a great project to honor the 50 who were killed during the escape…..
BlueNoser352!
New Great Escape War Memorial Teaches Project Managers an Important Lesson Thu Aug 21, 3:01 AM ET
A new memorial opened on August 16th commemorating one of the most dramatic projects conducted during World War II.
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Oshawa, Ontario (PRWEB) August 21, 2008 — More than 60 years after the end of WWII, a memorial was opened on August 16, 2008 that commemorates the heroic men who tunneled out of a German prison camp in the famous Great Escape. The memorial is a reconstruction of Hut 104, the start of the tunnel, and will be opened with ceremonies commemorating the prison camp (Stalag Luft III) and the story of incredible ingenuity and organization that made the Great Escape possible. This event is of particular interest to project managers who want to learn how to manage an “impossible” project.
Mark Kozak-Holland, author of Project Lessons from The Great Escape (Stalag Luft III) says, “The Great Escape was a project that shows the principals of project management in action. With very limited resources and under oppressive conditions, the POWs in Stalag Luft III organized a project of staggering proportions. Roger Bushell, the leader of the escape committee, assembled and led a team to a dramatic conclusion.”
Bushell had been disappointed with the number of successful escape attempts, saying “We’ve all dug tunnels in PoW camps scattered all over Germany. In East Compound we dug, lost or abandoned at least 50 tunnels.” Bushell was determined to change this losing situation.
The relocation of POWs to the north compound at the prison camp would give them a chance to rethink their escape strategy. Bushell delivered the following impassioned speech to the escape committee, which created an informal project charter: “In North Compound we are concentrating our efforts on completing and escaping through one master tunnel. No private-enterprise tunnels allowed. Three bloody deep, bloody long tunnels will be dug – Tom, Dick, and Harry. One will succeed.”
Bushell was laying out the scope of a project on a scale that had not been tried before. In today’s world, project scope management can be defined as the sum total of all products and or features – the totality of work needed to complete a project. Bushell asked the escape committee for a remarkable number of project deliverables: 200 forged passes, 200 civilian suits, 200 compasses, 1000 maps, and much more.
The preliminary project scope was very much influenced by the availability of scarce resources. The conditions inside the camp made the project very dynamic and this had to be considered by Bushell when defining the scope. Their captors could be somewhat unpredictable and take actions on a whim. For example, POWs could end up in the “cooler” (prison), they could be moved out to another camp, and certain privileges could be removed like access to Red Cross parcels. Even routines were changed frequently to try and catch POWs off guard.
The scope was also influenced by the seasons. Tunneling in the winter was a challenge, as any sand dug up could not be dispersed on top of the snow without attracting immediate attention. Also, the spring thaw could have a significant impact, collapsing or flooding tunnels. Summer was the traditional escape season, as escapees would not likely survive the harsh winter conditions without shelter.
Bushell and the escape committee were well aware of these factors. They knew the unpredictability within the camp increased risk and so did the large scope of the project. In the end, however, the committee approved Bushell’s approach and the project began.
In hindsight, it is not a question of whether an escape project should have been launched, but rather whether an escape project of this scope and proportions should have been launched. The answer is complex. These were hardened men with a history of escaping from camps all across Germany, who had suffered years of oppression. Through the school of hard knocks, they had seen countless escape attempts fail, had learned their lessons, and had honed their skills. They were ready to adapt to the changing circumstances and accepted Bushell’s bold vision. With so much skill and motivation on the team, it comes as no surprise that the project was able to proceed despite the overwhelming obstacles.
The memorial stands as a testament to the will and ingenuity of these men and their personal sacrifices. Today’s project managers can learn much from studying how Bushell launched and managed the escape project through tremendous adversity.
ABOUT THE BOOK
Project Lesson from The Great Escape (Stalag Luft III) by Mark Kozak Holland. Published by Multi-Media Publications Inc. (http://www.mmpubs.com). ISBN 1895186830. 276 pages. Paperback: $29.95 USD.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Mark Kozak-Holland is a Senior Business Architect/Consultant with HP Services. Mark has many years of international experience working with organizations in formulating projects and initiatives for developing and integrating solutions that leverage emerging technologies. He has been working with mission-critical solutions since 1985. Mark delivers seminars for project manager, business executives, and decision makers. Mark has been invited to speak to organizations, businesses, at major project management conferences including ProjectWorld, and PMI chapters. Find out more about him at http://www.lessons-from-history.com.
ABOUT THE GREAT ESCAPE MEMORIAL
More information on The Great Escape Memorial can be obtained from The Great Escape Memorial Project at http://www.thegreatescapememorialproject.com.
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Multi-Media Publications Inc.
KEVIN AGUANNO
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By: Jim_Harley - 23rd August 2008 at 19:34
http://rides.webshots.com/album/534955237pBAzHJ?start=36
We paid a visit to Sagan a few years ago. It is quite moving, not to mention it was horribly cold and snowing the day we were there. I can’t begin to imagine being stuck in POW camp like this.
Jim Harley
By: Pete Truman - 23rd August 2008 at 11:31
Now this has raised a question.
I mentioned Peter? Greenaway’s involvement in all this. He was my lecturer in building construction at Basford Hall College of Education Nottingham during the 70’s.
From memory, he was a joiner by trade, a very likeable chap, but we weren’t given any hint of his past.
My father sent me a newspaper cutting in the 80’s written on his retirement, where he admitted to being involved in many well known escape attempts, had built the wooden horse and designed the air replenishment system for the Great Escape tunnels. I gathered at the time that his skills involved him volunteering to remain a prisoner in order that others could take advantage of his ideas and general building knowledge.
Does anyone have any further knowledge of him, I must admit I haven’t Googled, perhaps I should, it’s a good job we didn’t know any of this at the time, we would have never learnt anything, apart from what Steve McQueen had for breakfast every morning, as he apparently acted as an advisor on the film.
How silly of me, THE Peter Greenaway is a famous avant garde film producer, how do we get through his infinite number of postings on Google and find the details of someone worth considering.
By: Creaking Door - 23rd August 2008 at 01:06
I was about to make a silly comment myself, it’s hard to resist isn’t it.
The Great Escape is a film that we’ve all become used to watching, snuggling up comfortably on the sofa on Boxing Day…..and forgetting what it was really all about.
I thought long and hard about making such a flippant post…..and was careful to make it about the film and about the use of the Great Escape as a subject for a book about project management.
I also took the trouble to find out from which hut (123) the first tunnel ‘Tom’ was dug and which direction it went (west); the film is wrong on the hut numbers (except 104) and the direction that the tunnels went (the tunnel ‘traps’ are also mixed up).
Much of the rest of the film is incredibly close to the actual events, although there is understandable ‘condensing’ of people, time and space, but this is not really surprising as the technical advisor for the film was ‘Wally’ Floody who built the original tunnels (and who found the filming experience so real he started having nightmares).
Perhaps the great success of ‘The Great Escape’ film is that it has managed to bring this brutal piece of history out of obscurity into our comfortable living rooms every Christmas…
…although few of us realise that the actual escape was made with snow on the ground!
By: EN830 - 22nd August 2008 at 20:16
I wonder if the usual mistake has been included in the book/s, that Bushell was shot down in a Hurricane instead of a 92 Sqn Spitfire. I believe this reoccurring error comes from so many researchers using Jonathan Vance’s book A Gallant Company as research material and duplicating his mistake.
By: Pete Truman - 22nd August 2008 at 18:01
The Great Escape is a film that we’ve all become used to watching, snuggling up comfortably on the sofa on Boxing Day with a glass or two of vino, enjoying the performances of our Hollywood heroes, particularly our Steve, enjoying the jolly music, having a good laugh and forgetting what it was really all about. It’s a fantasic achievement in the business of making money out of lifes real tradgedies, but we love it all the same, just as we do The Battle of Britain, The Dambusters, and all the rest of them, but if it had been made in all it’s nasty reality, it would probably have gone nowhere, a film noir to be avoided at all costs. At least a small spark of what really happened has been put across to the great and good, lets hope they understand and appreciate that.
By: CSheppardholedi - 22nd August 2008 at 16:14
Indeed, it is important to remember the “real” people, the courage and the sacrifice. My mother worked with a gentleman who had been in a Luft Stalag and when the TV series “Hogan’s Heros” came out he was mortified and quite angry at the entertainment business making light of such things!
By: stuart gowans - 22nd August 2008 at 16:09
I presume you are referring to “the one that got away” with Hardy Kruger; a typical British black and white film; had they wanted to portray his escape as funny they would have had Norman Wisdom play the lead role, as it was, the film makers were probably still mindfull, that showing German success stories, was not good box office business, and portraying them having a laugh at us, was one script too far.
The Great Escape, on the other hand is very flippant in its view of the Germans Guards (goons), and compresses so many escape attempts into the first 10 minutes, that its hard to take it seriously.
However, we are brought down to earth with a bump, upon hearing (and seeing) that the Germans, were not in fact “goons”, but cold blooded killers, and unfortunately not an untypical act of brutality, hither to reserved for civillians of the occupied countries.
By: Pete Truman - 22nd August 2008 at 15:50
It’s terrible how we’ve all been tainted by a relatively fictional Hollywood movie, ‘alledgedly based on fact though’, to the point where we are making a joke of this.
I was about to make a silly comment myself, it’s hard to resist isn’t it. Unfortunately, so many men in that escape were brutally murdered, who’s only crime was to do what any self respecting POW, Axis or otherwise, would have done under the circumstances. Interesting how the only German to escape from British captivity, was treated with respect in a British film, yes, a few liberties were taken, but he wasn’t shown for example turning up at Hucknall Airfield on a BSA motorbike and jumping the fence on Watnall Road.
One of my college lecturers in Building Construction was a chap called Mr Greenaway, I learnt years later that he was one of the planners of ‘The Great Escape’, he was also responsible for constructing the famous Wooden Horse and was involved in advising on ‘THAT’ film.
Whether he is alive or not, I don’t know, perhaps we should respect those that still are, and remember the one’s that unfortunately didn’t make it.
By: Arabella-Cox - 22nd August 2008 at 14:04
If my director were the project sponsor he’d want air-conditioning, lighting with emergency back-ups, concrete tunnel-lining (all at no extra cost) and as much of the digging as possible out-sourced to India.
By: Ant.H - 22nd August 2008 at 13:43
I think the Health & Safety commitee would have a fit…
By: stuart gowans - 22nd August 2008 at 08:33
Would it get beyond the risk assessment?
By: Mondariz - 22nd August 2008 at 05:55
While I can’t fault the memorial…..I’m not so sure about the book.
I can just see the 2008 remake of ‘The Great Escape’:
Bartlett: “The first tunnel will go out due west from hut 123.”
MacDonald: “Sorry Roger, did you say the first tunnel?”
Bartlett: “Yes, we’re formulating a project with an initiative for developing and integrating solutions that leverage emerging technologies working with mission-critical solutions for a number of project deliverables utilising scarce resources in a dynamic and unpredictable environment!”
Sorry, couldn’t resist. 😮
Good to start the morning with a laugh 😀
By: Creaking Door - 21st August 2008 at 23:24
While I can’t fault the memorial…..I’m not so sure about the book.
I can just see the 2008 remake of ‘The Great Escape’:
Bartlett: “The first tunnel will go out due west from hut 123.”
MacDonald: “Sorry Roger, did you say the first tunnel?”
Bartlett: “Yes, we’re formulating a project with an initiative for developing and integrating solutions that leverage emerging technologies working with mission-critical solutions for a number of project deliverables utilising scarce resources in a dynamic and unpredictable environment!”
Sorry, couldn’t resist. 😮
By: DazDaMan - 21st August 2008 at 23:05
Funnily enough, I’m not far off finishing the book “War Pilot of Orange”, by Bob van der Stok, one of the three guys to make it home after the Great Escape.
Bloody brilliant stuff.
By: BlueNoser352 - 21st August 2008 at 22:52
Great Escape poster !
http://www.thegreatescapememorialproject.com/
April 2008
There have been some very important developments to the Great Escape Memorial Project. Please click here to view a letter to all our donors and supporters.
During the Second World War, 76 prisoners of war escaped through a 323-foot man-made tunnel from Stalag III, Luft Waffe Camp in Sagan, Germany (now Zagan, Poland). All but three of the escapees were recaptured and 50 were executed contrary to the Geneva Convention. Stalag III housed over 10,000 prisoners of war from around the world.
July 2008 Update
Memorial Huts to be unveiled Aug, 16, 2008
at Stalag Luft Camp, Sagan, Poland
For more information go to:
http://www.raf.mod.uk/project104/index.html
Click on the image above to open a full sized description.
March 2008
Stalag Luft III – Tunnel Martyrs
Limited Edition Print, signed and numbered by artist ( unframed)
Large – 39” x27.5” – $100
Small – 34”x22” – $100
Contact Shannyn Scarff de Kruyff at (403) 245-6693 or [email]media.works@telusplanet.net[/email] to order
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August 21, 2008 at 10:49 pm