And I ain't got nobody
I get two PBS channels up in this bitch. The one was having this cool archaeological excavation of Stalag Luft 3, where it is rumored that the never-discovered by the Germans tunnel was. The archaeologists found the trick sewer that was rumored to be the entrance, and invited three former POWs from the camp to come look at it. Hearing these guys who are all about 80 swearing in wonder like "Kiss my ass, you found it!" and "Son of a bitch, it's still here" were pretty cool.
In all they dug three tunnels, one of which was discovered and the Germans were all happy they had foiled an escape. Meanwhile they were running out of places to hide the sand and needed a safe place to hide forged paperwork, so they turned the third tunnel "Dick" into storage. I believe it was "Tom" that was discovered and "Harry" that carried 76 of them into freedom.
The camp was located in an area that was on sand, and the Germans buried microphones in the ground to detect digging. This forced the POWs to dig 30 feet down to get out of range, and to dig through effing SAND. They used bed slats, stolen chairs, tables, and joists from their huts to shore up the tunnels. One guy said it was miracle the huts didn't collapse. They had to improvise tools, lights, and even rigged an air circulation system so they could stay conscious that far away from fresh air. Jesus that is so bad-ass. They even made candles out of tin cans, and the fat skimmed from the tops of their bowls of soup. Wick was courtesy of whoever donated the string from their pajamas. At one point they even hacked into the camp's power lines!
The sand underground was a good choice for the Germans in many ways. One, it was almost impossible to dig through, and two, it was much lighter than the dark topsoil. If at any time the dark soil started getting lighter, the Germans would know there was digging going on. The tunnel they used to escape was around 300 feet long, and it was 2 feet wide by two feet tall. They were limited in size by the length of the bed slats. That is 1200 cubic feet of sand to dispose of unseen, and that is just one tunnel. They said all in all 600 people had some hand in making it.
The end of the film is the kick in the stomach. 76 men got out of the tunnel. The powers-that-were were so embarrassed they ignored Geneva convention rules and executed 50 of them. Three escaped home or to a neutral country. 23 were sent back to camps.
Just to hear all of these stories first-hand from some people who were there, to see corroborating evidence from the researchers, and then to see it all was pretty intense. And it of course reminded me of my best friend's grandfather who was stationed in Germany in World War Two and whose unit discovered Buchenwald. I enjoyed hearing about the technical difficulties inherent in the project, and how they had to improvise solutions that were primarily carried out with clever uses of "Kim Tins". Craziness!
In all they dug three tunnels, one of which was discovered and the Germans were all happy they had foiled an escape. Meanwhile they were running out of places to hide the sand and needed a safe place to hide forged paperwork, so they turned the third tunnel "Dick" into storage. I believe it was "Tom" that was discovered and "Harry" that carried 76 of them into freedom.
The camp was located in an area that was on sand, and the Germans buried microphones in the ground to detect digging. This forced the POWs to dig 30 feet down to get out of range, and to dig through effing SAND. They used bed slats, stolen chairs, tables, and joists from their huts to shore up the tunnels. One guy said it was miracle the huts didn't collapse. They had to improvise tools, lights, and even rigged an air circulation system so they could stay conscious that far away from fresh air. Jesus that is so bad-ass. They even made candles out of tin cans, and the fat skimmed from the tops of their bowls of soup. Wick was courtesy of whoever donated the string from their pajamas. At one point they even hacked into the camp's power lines!
The sand underground was a good choice for the Germans in many ways. One, it was almost impossible to dig through, and two, it was much lighter than the dark topsoil. If at any time the dark soil started getting lighter, the Germans would know there was digging going on. The tunnel they used to escape was around 300 feet long, and it was 2 feet wide by two feet tall. They were limited in size by the length of the bed slats. That is 1200 cubic feet of sand to dispose of unseen, and that is just one tunnel. They said all in all 600 people had some hand in making it.
The end of the film is the kick in the stomach. 76 men got out of the tunnel. The powers-that-were were so embarrassed they ignored Geneva convention rules and executed 50 of them. Three escaped home or to a neutral country. 23 were sent back to camps.
Just to hear all of these stories first-hand from some people who were there, to see corroborating evidence from the researchers, and then to see it all was pretty intense. And it of course reminded me of my best friend's grandfather who was stationed in Germany in World War Two and whose unit discovered Buchenwald. I enjoyed hearing about the technical difficulties inherent in the project, and how they had to improvise solutions that were primarily carried out with clever uses of "Kim Tins". Craziness!