Description
In March 1944, Allied airmen imprisoned at Stalag Luft III carried out one of the most organized prisoner escapes of World War II. This documentary follows Tunnel Harry, the secret underground route that sent 76 men into the snow from a camp designed to stop tunneling. The escape became famous for its planning and courage, but its aftermath was defined by pursuit, recapture, and the murder of 50 escapees by the Gestapo.
Built beneath the sandy soil near Sagan, now Żagań in Poland, Tunnel Harry required diggers, forgers, tailors, lookouts, mapmakers, and prisoners who protected a secret many would never use themselves. More than 200 men prepared to escape, but delays, a frozen hatch, the tunnel exit falling short of the trees, and the limits of the night meant only 76 got out. The Great Escape remains a story of courage under captivity, planning under pressure, and the human cost behind one of World War II’s most remembered prison breaks.