![]() “They were not discovered until the next morning when the commandant of the camp ran in to the last two officers who came out of the tunnel covered in dirt he physically ran into them, and that’s how the Germans first discovered the escape and the tunnel. “The tunnel started to collapse, so only 29 made it through, and the rest of them had to crawl backwards to the tunnel entrance to get out as others were still trying to come through. “The plan was for 86 officers to escape into a neighbouring field, but when they were making their way through the tunnel, an officer got stuck and brought down part of the roof as he struggled to free himself,” Norberry said. This time, the men concealed the entrance to the tunnel under a staircase in the orderlies’ quarters and used biscuit tins with the ends punched out to form an air shaft. There had been numerous escape attempts, but virtually all escapees were recaptured within a matter of days. The camp commandant, Karl Niemeyer, had a reputation for cruelty, and conditions were particularly severe. “It became famous after the war as a ‘boys-own adventure’ type story, but it hasn’t lasted in public memory as well as the Great Escape has.”ĭubbed “Hellzminden” by the prisoners of war, the camp held between 500 and 600 British and Dominion officers, and 100 to 160 orderlies. ![]() “Holzminden very much parallels Stalag Luft III in the Second World War in that it was a camp that was created for people who had attempted to escape previously. “People tend to think of mass tunnel escapes as a Second World War thing, but they happened in the First World War as well,” said exhibition curator Jennie Norberry. Their story is told at the Australian War Memorial as part of the Great escapes exhibition, which features stories of Australians who attempted to escape captivity during the First and Second World Wars. Of the 29 men who escaped, 19 were caught and 10 reached Holland on foot. The prisoners took more than nine months to dig an 80-metre tunnel using sharpened cutlery and bowls before escaping in July 1918. In 1918, a group of 29 British officers escaped under the noses of heavily armed guards at Holzminden prisoner of war camp in Germany. Less well known is that the original escape attempt was inspired by an equally daring escape that took place during the First World War. One of the most well-known stories of the Second World War, the Great Escape from Stalag Luft III in 1944 was popularised by the 1963 film starring Steve McQueen, James Garner, and Richard Attenborough.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |