The Greatest Escape in History

0:01 this is stala glft 3 constructed over the course of 2 years between 1942

0:08 and 1944 in the dense forests of Sagan 145 km southeast of Berlin it

0:15 became one of the largest prisoner of war camps of its kind in Europe

0:21 designed specifically for the officers of Allied

0:23 air Crews shot down over access occupied

0:26 territories this sprawling high security complex which

0:30 comprised five separate compounds would house between

0:34 10 to 12,000 prisoners at its peak but what it's really famous for is

0:41 not what you see above ground but what you're not seeing below it

0:49 the secret Subterranean tunnel that facilitated the greatest

0:54 Escape in history but before we get

1:01 into the story behind it I'd like to thank this video's sponsor call

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2:09 to the video as far as prison counts

2:14 were concerned stagl 3 was a relatively comfortable

2:18 place to be hold up due to their status as officers prisoners were afforded

2:23 significant privileges over the average conscript

2:26 the northern compound the site of the Escape

2:29 both Ed a well stocked Library a swimming pool a sports field and a makeshift

2:34 Theater which occasionally hosted movies and live music the fact that the camp

2:39 was operated by the luffer the German air force meant that there was also

2:43 a degree of respect and camrad between

2:46 captors and captives of course such positives

2:51 did little to dissuade prisoners from wanting

2:53 to escape they could never know how

2:56 long they'd remain captive how long the war would drag on or what the outcome

3:00 would be to sit idly by and accept their imprisonment would be like

3:05 consigning themselves to a limbo of uncertainty

3:08 where they had no autonomy and no

3:11 purpose so they would make escaping their purpose not only did it give them

3:17 something to occupy themselves and allow them

3:19 to defy their captors but it aligned

3:22 with their sense of Duty to the Allied war effort any escape attempt

3:27 that forced the Germans to allocate more

3:29 manpower and equipment to prevent a prison break

3:32 or conduct a Manhunt Drew vital resources

3:36 away from the axis front lines and damaged

3:39 their war machine there was just one problem the prison was said to be

3:45 escape prooof the compound was surrounded by a set of fences spaced 1.5 M

3:52 apart their tops bristling with barbed wire

3:56 between them lay even more even getting to the fences was difficult if someone

4:01 stepped over nearby warning wire while approaching

4:03 them they'd be shot on S side if by some miracle you were able

4:08 to climb over or cut through them

4:10 without disemboweling yourself you'd have to cross

4:13 another 30 or so met of no man's land before you reached the sanctuary

4:18 of the tree line this was all the while hoping that the guards stationed

4:22 in the Camp's Towers went spontaneously blind

4:25 and became hard of hearing because if

4:27 you were spotted there was nothing to Shield you from the machine gun

4:33 fire okay so brute forcing an escape over the fence wouldn't work fine just

4:39 dig a tunnel the Germans supposedly had that covered too every Hut was built

4:47 a few inches off the ground to make it harder for inmates to hide

4:50 their digging beneath the buildings in addition

4:54 the compound had been built on a Sandy silt likee soil that was EXT

4:59 extremely difficult to Tunnel through without causing

5:02 a collapse finally sensitive microphones were placed

5:07 underground all around the perimeter of the camp

5:09 to detect the sound of tunneling so how did they do it how did

5:15 the prisoners of stagl 3 build not just any tunnel but a tunnel

5:20 that could bypass all of the security

5:25 precautions for this massive undertaking the prisoners

5:28 of the north compound established one

5:30 of the most sophisticated and organized Escape industrial

5:33 complexes ever conceived over the course of more

5:37 than a year between April of 1943

5:39 and March of 1944 a group of around 600 American British and other European

5:44 prisoners would furnish materials for and construct

5:48 three separate tunnels beneath the compound hoping

5:51 that if the Germans found one or two they would not think to look

5:55 for a third to avoid detection in the first place these tunnels would be

6:00 disguised with inconspicuous pieces of furniture

6:04 the main tunnel we'll be focusing on nicknamed

6:06 Harry was hidden under a metal cooking stove that had been placed over

6:10 a wooden trap door each tunnel would be built roughly 7.6 M underground

6:17 as to avoid microphones picking up the sound

6:19 of digging to prevent any tunnel collapses

6:22 at this depth they would need to be reinforced with support beams which

6:27 of course was a bit of a problem it was nearly impossible to smuggle materials

6:32 into the camp especially not on the scale

6:35 required for Tunnel construction the solution to this was to get the Germans

6:40 to unwittingly provide prisoners with the very materials

6:43 needed for their escape items such as bed boards chairs tables and benches would

6:50 mysteriously disappear or be reported as defective

6:55 the Germans were encouraged by neutral third-

6:58 party inspectors such as the the Red Cross and the Swiss to provide

7:01 a minimum standard of living for inmates

7:04 so they would often replace these items when

7:07 they went missing providing a steady stream

7:11 of construction Goods naturally the heavy rate

7:14 of turnover for certain items was a point of confusion for the styler glft

7:19 Administration the Camp's Commander Colonel Fred V

7:23 Linder noted that quote the material required

7:26 by the camp amounts to five times the amount M which would be used

7:30 for German troops using the same accommodation

7:34 of course the occupants of vermar facilities

7:37 weren't fashioning their bed boards into support

7:40 columns and stealing screws from light fittings

7:43 to AIX table legs to make shift rails that's right rails to speed up

7:50 the digging process the inmates would construct

7:52 a rail and cart system that stretched along the entirety of the tunnel

7:56 shuttling tools materials and people towards one

7:59 end and sand back to the other that was another problem though the sand

8:06 digging a tunnel required displacing a lot of it and it couldn't Simply Be

8:11 piled up outside of one of the Huts

8:13 because that would immediately arouse suspicion

8:16 to make it worse the sand below ground was yellow and the sand above

8:22 was gray to address this more than a 100 men known as Penguins would

8:27 store sand in bags in another their coats and covertly release it in the Camp's

8:32 Courtyard kicking it as they did so to blend it with a gray

8:37 top soil in the process they looked a bit like penguins to further ensure

8:44 the project wouldn't be discovered the inmates

8:46 employed a constantly rotating roster of Watchmen

8:50 that would alert the tunnelers to approaching

8:52 guards allowing them to cover up tunnels

8:55 before any inspection this was just as well

8:59 since the the camp employed specialist anti-escape

9:01 Personnel known as ferrets whose sole purpose was to sniff out any tunnels

9:08 and spy on the prisoners they were only ever one misstep away from Discovery

9:14 and utter failure to punctuate that point one of the three tunnels being worked

9:20 on by the name of Tom was discovered by ferrets amidst height and vigilance

9:25 in September of 1943 unfortunately f

9:29 in this discovery the American prisoners in the northern

9:32 compound were relocated as it was deemed that the Brits and the Yanks

9:37 were getting along far too well with each other after this incident a decision

9:42 was made to focus all efforts on to Tunnel Harry so that it might be

9:47 ready for an escape attempt when the weather improved in the New Year

9:52 in the meantime a Detachment of the involved

9:55 inmates busied themselves with the creation of Escape

9:57 kits containing every anything a prisoner would

10:00 need once outside the compound this included

10:04 civilian clothes compasses forged identity papers

10:08 and Maps the materials required for the creation

10:11 of these items were often procured by bartering with some of the more

10:15 sympathetic Camp Personnel who might be convinced

10:19 to part ways with some pens papers

10:22 magnets cloth and cash in exchange for some chocolate and coffee after months

10:29 of careful preparation the tunnel which had grown to a length of 111 M was

10:35 deemed ready the prisoners of Styler glof 3's Northern compound would carry out

10:41 their escape on the night of the 24th of March 1944 around 200 prisoners were

10:48 set to make the attempt but only those determined to have the best chance

10:52 of remaining undetected would go first 30 men fluent in German would be given

10:58 what little money had been accumulated as well as a head start to try

11:02 and make it to the nearby Sagan train station before the last train left

11:07 the night most of the remaining prisoners would have to travel by foot each

11:14 individual had separate travel plans but most

11:17 hoped to reach Allied territory via neutral

11:21 countries the mood in the compound was tense the movement of each guard was

11:27 being tracked and relayed to the Escape

11:29 committee and each man made his preparations

11:33 for the long road ahead at roughly 8:45 that evening a number of prisoners

11:41 took up positions at various points inside

11:43 the tunnel lying in crammed conditions they

11:47 would pull escapes up along the rails at around 9:30 one of the men

11:53 began removing the boards obscuring the entrance to the Escape shaft at the end

11:57 of the tunnel but they were water logged and jammed it took until 10:15

12:03 to finally wrench them loose this was

12:07 a significant delay night fell around 9:00 p.m.

12:10 and the sun came up at 5:30 in the morning they

12:14 had just wasted 45 minutes of Darkness just trying to get

12:18 the exit open to make matters worse the escape hatch which

12:23 had been planned to come out within the tree line was

12:26 actually a few meters into no man's land despite this setback

12:32 the inmates resolved to continue with their escape anyway they just

12:36 have to be more careful to avoid the German sentries that regularly

12:40 patrolled the perimeter of the compound with this in mind they

12:45 placed a Watchman at the edge of the tree line hidden

12:48 in a spying Nest set up by the Germans to surveil

12:51 the camp from a distance this person would periodically tug a rope

12:57 that led into the exit hatch to signal and all clear

13:02 from 10:30 onwards a steady stream of men made their way

13:05 through the tunnel slipping out into the darkness of the night

13:09 between the gaps and the patrols over the course of the next

13:13 6 hours 76 men escaped stagl 3 but at 4:55 a.m.

13:20 just over half an hour before Dawn's first light disaster

13:24 Struck One of the escapes misinterpreted a rope tug to mean

13:28 that he was clear to emerge from the tunnel when he

13:31 did he came up right in front of one of the patrolling

13:35 sentries who after an initial shock collected himself fired a warning

13:40 shot blew his whistle and detained the man at gunpoint

13:45 the Escape had been [Applause] busted unfortunately most of the men

13:53 that had successfully escaped Stalag Glo 3 that fateful evening

13:56 would end up being captured some even before they'd left

14:00 the town of Sagan a nationwide search involving 60 to 70,000

14:05 vermar troops and gapo Personnel was launched making it almost impossible

14:11 to travel through Germany undetected the tunnel's discovery had doomed them

14:18 ultimately only three of the 76 men would evade capture entirely

14:24 two Norwegians who managed to sneak their way to neutral Sweden

14:28 viatin and one Dutchman who linked up with resistance forces

14:32 in the Netherlands before traveling discreetly to the Spanish border and then

14:37 jalter the vast majority of the other escapes were not

14:42 so lucky over the course of the next few months they

14:45 would virtually vanish off the face of the Earth only

14:49 to turn up back in the town of Sagan in burial ears

14:53 as nothing more than Ash until the end of the war

14:58 no one knew for sure what had happened to them

15:04 a royal Air Force investigation conducted following Germany surrender found

15:08 that 50 of the 73 recaptured prisoners had been shot in roadside

15:13 summary executions that is to say illegally interviews conducted with the gapo

15:20 Personnel present for these executions show that the escapes were

15:24 informed that they were to be returned to stagl 3

15:29 in transit they would be invited to leave the car to quote

15:33 relieve themselves at the side of the road once the handcuffed

15:37 prisoners began to do so his captors would shoot him

15:41 in the back of the head at which point he would

15:44 fall into the ditch in front of him a truly undignified

15:50 death the scenery and the Weaponry changed but the methods

15:54 rarely did most would be executed in this fashion it helped

16:00 the Gestapo construct the myth that the prisoners had been killed

16:04 while trying to escape but ultimately this did little to conceal

16:08 their true actions a Swiss inspector at stagl 3 was immediately

16:14 suspicious of the explanation and reported his findings to the British

16:18 government many of the Gusto men responsible for the extrajudicial

16:23 killings of these PS would be judged guilty of war crimes

16:27 and sentenced to harsh prison sentences or death at the nurenberg

16:33 trials while the flight from stag GL 3 may not

16:37 have been the largest by numbers prison escape during World War

16:40 II it was certainly the most impressive given the obstacles faced

16:45 the complexity of the planning and the resulting Fallout the prisoners

16:49 of that camp had set out to escape die trying

16:52 or inconvenience the Germans to such a degree that it would

16:55 affect the war effort it's safe to say day they succeeded

17:01 for a month they occupied tens of thousands of German

17:04 troops and led them on a wild goose chase diverting resources

17:09 that would have been more effectively used in the fight against

17:12 the Allies the Stalag of three Escape did not end well

17:17 it ended in a war crime born of the want

17:20 to dissuade others from following in its footsteps Escape is no

17:26 longer a sport echoed like a shrill Tempest through every camp

17:30 in Europe Escape at your own Peril was the Nazi message

17:36 the threat didn't work it never would have almost as soon

17:42 as the remaining Stalag glov three prisoners were informed of the deaths

17:45 of their comrades they began yet another tunnel in a bid

17:49 to escape the desire for Freedom overrode even the strongest

17:55 instincts of self-preservation thanks again to call of War for sponsoring

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