The Great Escape

These are probably the best reference points on the web for all things to do with the Escape and how it relates to the film. Great Escape The Movie

Good luck and as and when you do have corroborative information please share it with us.

There was certainly some information about the activities of MI9 in ‘The Last Escape’ (which is about POWs being marched out of the camps) by Tony Rennell and John Nichol (who knows a thing or two about being a POW) but I fear my copy went to the charity shop in an over-zealous clear-out. I’ve just googled and notice that the same authors have written another book about POWs called ‘Home Run’.

If you’ve got an hour or two see the site below about the other ‘great escape’. I keep meaning to post something about it on the forum and have just missed the anniversary this year!

http://www.islandfarm.fsnet.co.uk/

Below is a link to the Channel 4 documentary “The Great Escape: The Reckoning” first broadcast in November last year.

http://www.youtube.com/show/thegreatescape

This all makes the whole incident sound even better than the film made out! I did have a strong feeling that some of what is shown in the film whilst maybe not being complete bull**** certainly wasn’t 100% truth but I will definitely be keeping my eyes open for any recommended books.

Great name! The line between truth and fiction on the internet is hazy at the best of times! Good luck and as and when you do have corroborative information please share it with us.

I’m not really sure how it is possible to distinguish the two on the internet but I have read it on several different sites. I think the film only hints at the amount of assistance given to POWs by organisations such as MI9 for example and portrays ‘X’ as an organisation working in isolation within the POW’s numbers.

I’ve still got a bit of reading to do, particularly the book ‘Lie in the Dark and Listen’ by Flight Lieutenant Ken ‘Shag’ Rees.

Your last paragraph is intriguing. Is that actually true, or just heresay?

…and did one of the guards really supply a camera and other items for the escapees?

Yes, I think that is absolutely true. Try getting hold of the book by Paul Brickhill who was inside the camp at the time of the escape; it makes for very interesting reading.

‘Wine’ was made with raisins and sugar, when these could be spared; food was always short with prisoners losing a lot of weight during captivity.

The things that the prisoners managed to ‘persuade’ the guards to do for them is incredible, for example, one guard sent letters home to his wife to be typed-up (bearing in mind that these were ‘official’ documents clearly intended to be used as identification during an escape attempt). I wonder how much expert psychological pressure the prisoners were able to exert on their captors.

The film is a strange mix of absolute fact and ‘Hollywood’ bull**** and one of the strange things is that when the film was being made the real prisoners advising the script writers refused to divulge some of the most effective ways around the guards as at the time there were ‘allied’ POWs in captivity (Vietnam) and they didn’t want the ‘secrets’ that could help them given away!

There’s a proper documentary on it. IIRC the parade was hyped for the movie as was the motorbike stunts. But I think they did get the stuff from a Guard.