4th Tunnel Discovered At Stalag Luft lll
 

For those who love 'The Great Escape' as much as I do...

My brother-in-law's father was a B-17 navigator on the Fightin' Bitin' 369th Bomb Sqdn 306th Bomb Grp and became a POW at Stalag Luft lll after his a/c was shot down during a raid into the heart of Nazi Germany. His diary of poetry, thoughts, and drawings by various barracks mates is interesting reading.

Richard :munchin

The classic Steve McQueen movie immortalised three tunnels at Stalag Luft III PoW camp, now astonished archaeologists have discovered a fourth called George...

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/arti...ed-fourth.html

That's awsome Richard...and yes, one of my favorite movies.

Hats off the the folks who pulled it off..

Wow, that's awesome.

Looking forward to seeing the documentary on 'George'.

:munchin

Asolutely remarkable. I love that movie. The actually history and stories behind these evnts is awe inspiring.

~Bitz

Issue of "World War II" magazine previous to current one had a great piece devoted to this, with diagrams of all the tunnels in relation to their aboveground locations. As told, the US crews were part & parcel of the pre-escape work. It's unfortunate (at the time) that the US POWs were moved to their own nearby camp shortly beforehand, and didn't go out during the actual escape. (Hindsight may regard this as fortuitous.)

Still, McQueen's bike scene was worth the tweaking by Hollywood. They seem to have gotten alot of the personalities right. Phenomenal story with a "never quit" flavor, and Richard is right, still a great movie.

Thanks for sharing your brother-in-law's Dad's story. The 306th ("Reich Wreckers") as a group has quite the legacy.

Fascinating!

Watched a really good documentary onetime about Stalag Luft III that was located in Sagan, Poland. There was a small crew there with a back-hoe that were trying to dig up the tunnel but it just kept collapsing because the ground was mostly sand.

I think British actor Richard Attenborough did an excellent job in "The Great Escape". Agree with the others that Steve McQueen's contribution was also good. His motorcycle scenes were actually shot in beautiful Southern Bavaria.

No kidding, its pretty crazy how innovative and ballsy those guys were.

A while back I did a bit of reading into the history of the Oflag IV-C camp and holy hell, talk about a group of clever individuals. I mean, they built a glider in the attic (among other things). Fascinating stuff.

Speaking of Steve McQueen, I got this from a friend..

That's nothing, here in Southern Arizona and Calif we've discovered hundreds of tunnels just last month! (and all have mexican names...)
Carlos, Luis,jose,Rodrigo,Cesar,Ricardo,Pedro,Emmanuel,Jor ge Angel,Santiago,Josue,Enrique, Hector,Rafael,Ernesto,Alfredo etc etc etc...

He used to get alot of his Triumph work largely done by Bud Ekins' Triumph shop which I recall was in Encino (or Studio City maybe) up on Ventura Blvd. Bud is the guy who did the stuntwork in Great Escape and coordinated the Mustang/bike stuntwork in Bullitt. Several of us used to hang out up there during HS (or a nearby gunshop) and the movie (with its masquerading Triumph 650) was my motivation for eventual ownership of a TT 650. So-called "stars" were alot more accessible in those pre-paparazzi days... as Jeff Cooper once said, "it was a different country then."

Movie cued up for Christmas Eve with the wife after the g-kids go home & we exhale.
:)

Your friend is a lucky dog if he got to ride one of those Vincents.

Damn fine Stories guys.....Thanks for sharing.

Still one of my all time favorite movies!!!!!

With you brother
 

TS, I think that is a SW joke.

BTW, have you purchased your official AZ State pistole yet?

MVP

Would not be shocked to hear some named Haji, etc.

RF 1