Stalag Luft III, Sagan
excerpted from website by Rob Davis, UK
http://www.elsham.pwp.blueyonder.co.uk/gt_esc/
The Tunnels : 'Tom', 'Dick' and 'Harry'
The tunnel entrances were masterpieces of deception. All barrack huts were elevated from the ground but each had stoves set on a brick and concrete plinth. 'Tom' (the 98th tunnel to be discovered at Luft III) in Hut 123 and 'Harry' in Hut 104 both exited through the centre of these pierced foundations. The entrance to 'Dick' is still there - concealed in a drain on the floor of the shower room in Hut 122, and when closed and sealed was under several feet of water. The Germans never found it and it probably still contains much contraband and escape material. (Anyone got an accurate plan of the camp, a passport, and a shovel? Time Team, where are you??)
Sudden pounces by the ferrets were a constant nightmare and precision practice was required by the distraction and camouflage teams. In one close shave, F/L Pat Langford (16 OTU, shot down 28/29-7-1942, Wellington IC, R1450), replaced and fully camouflaged Harry's trapdoor in twenty seconds, leaving no sign of a tunnel entrance. German security was headed by Hauptmann (Captain) Broili and Oberfeldwebel (Warrant Officer) Hermann Glemnitz. The latter, aged 44 (in 1943) and with a good sense of humour, was usually referred to as "that bastard, Glemnitz" was both feared and respected by the prisoners as a dedicated discoverer of escape plots. (After the war, Glemnitz was discovered living in West Berlin and was flown to the 1965 PoW Reunion in Dayton, Ohio and the 1970 event in Toronto, Canada. On arrival in Toronto, he declared "“I am here to make sure that you people aren't trying to tunnel out of Toronto"”.)
Sand dispersal was effected by 'Penguins', prisoners filling long thin bags which were slipped inside their trousers and walking about the compound, losing the sand from the bottom of the bags. One penguin was careless and the ferrets spotted him trailing sand; they then knew a tunnel was in progress, but they did not pounce, wanting to find out where it originated.
Tunnelling was dangerous - both below ground and above it. The sand was treacherous, and would come crashing down with only the ghost of a warning. Many diggers had only time to protect their heads with their arms as the roof suddenly caved in, and hope that their No.2 could dig them out. No-one was killed, but several were forced to take days off after almost being suffocated. A fall left a large dome above the working face, and after clearing up, the damaged roof was shored and the sand packed back above it. The diggers found that sand dug out occupied thirty percent as much space again as it did normally, placing extra burdens on the disposal teams.
4,000 bed boards were removed to form the shoring, and prisoners became used to sleeping on the barest of supports - often a string semi-hammock, with only two or three real bed boards. The tunnel size was therefore dictated by the width of the boards, almost exactly two feet square, allowing a little for the alignment of the wood at each corner of the square. "Cookie" Long suffered concussion when a bed board fell the full height of the entrance shaft - 30 feet - and hit him square on the head. Another prisoner received a similar direct hit from a German-issue metal water-carrier, being used to bring sand up from the working to the surface.
The teams dug out large chambers at the foot of the entrance shafts for the air pump and storage, and took it in turns to operate the manual pump. As the tunnel progressed, empty dried-milk tins were laid under the floor, and caulked with tape or waxed string, provided very effective ventilation, with the flue being camouflaged into the genuine stove's chimney. A wooden railway carried small trucks for sand removal along the bed of the tunnel, the trolleys being pulled from haulage points at intervals along the length. Red Noble spotted an 800 foot coil of electrical flex unattended by German workmen and 'liberated' it; the tunnel was then wired for electric light. The workmen didn't report the theft and were later executed by the Gestapo when the tunnel was discovered. (Joe "Red" Noble stayed with the RCAF after WW2 and ended up as a Group Captain. He lived on Lake Huron, Canada, and died some years ago.)
The Germans were aware that something major was going on but all attempts to discover tunnels failed. As a desperate move, 19 top suspects, including 6 key men, were transferred with no warning to the nearby Stalag VIIIC at Belaria, only weeks before the escape was scheduled to take place. Bushell's part in the Escape Committee was well camouflaged and the Germans left him behind. Deputies took over from the missing prisoners, and work went on.
Even when the Luftwaffe removed all the increasing number of American airmen to their own, separate compound, work on the tunnels did not stop. (Communication between the separate compounds was forbidden, but the British placed a semaphore expert well inside one hut which faced the US airmens' compound. He was concealed from the guards, but visible on the other side of the wire. The US airmen soon spotted him, and communications were quickly resumed.)
'Dick' was abandoned when the area in which it was to have surfaced was suddenly cleared of trees and a new compound built there. However, the abortive short tunnel proved an ideal place for concealing the growing amount of false clothing and general contraband, as well as providing a workshop for the manufacturers. Later, when sand disposal fell well behind the digging, much of the surplus sand was shovelled down 'Dick'.