Must-watchWorld War II · Film · 1963
The Great Escape
The Germans gather their most persistent escapers in one camp built to be escape-proof, so the prisoners plan the biggest breakout of the war: 250 men through three secret tunnels.
Where it happened
Follow the story across 2 places.
Stop 1: Stalag Luft III, Sagan
Key location
Forgers, tailors, tunnellers and scroungers turn the camp into a hidden factory until the night the tunnel breaks the surface a few meters short of the woods.
Stop 2: Baltic coast (Stettin)
Two of the tunnellers steal a boat, drift down to the coast and slip aboard a ship bound for neutral Sweden.
What really happened
Stalag Luft III, a Luftwaffe camp for captured airmen near Sagan in Silesia (today Żagań, Poland), was built on sandy soil to make tunnelling difficult. Under Squadron Leader Roger Bushell, the model for Bartlett, prisoners dug the tunnels Tom, Dick and Harry, and on the night of 24-25 March 1944 76 men crawled out through Harry.
Seventy-three were recaptured, and on Hitler's orders 50 of them were shot by the Gestapo, a crime prosecuted after the war. Only three reached freedom: two Norwegians who stowed away to Sweden and a Dutchman who reached Spain. The film, based on Paul Brickhill's book, adds American heroes; in reality the Americans had been moved to another compound before the escape, and Steve McQueen's motorcycle chase was invented.
Where to watch
Checking streaming services…
Full details
- Original title
- The Great Escape
- Directed by
- John Sturges
- Countries
- United States
- Languages
- English, German, French
- Released
- 1963
- Period
- –
- Theaters of war
- Western Europe
- Themes
- Prisoners of war
- True story
