9pm on Monday 28 November on Channel 4
This fascinating programme brings back to life the incredible story of the Great Escape, immortalised by Hollywood, and internationally famous as an extraordinary example of human courage and ingenuity. It follows a team of engineers, archaeologists, and serving RAF personnel who have assembled on the site of Stalag Luft III, the supposedly escape proof Prisoner of War camp, with an extraordinarily ambitious plan: to excavate for the first time ever the remains of “Harry”, the tunnel from which 76 allied airmen escaped on the night of 24 March 1944.
Working under the supervision of the veterans of the escape, the RAF team replicates some of the key tools, structures and inventions created by the original escapers. For Flight Lieutenant Ryan Harris, an instructor at the Search and Rescue Training Unit based at RAF Valley, the experience was very personal.
“I had always vowed that I would get out to Zagan in Poland to see the site of Stalag Luft III where my grandfather, Warrant Officer Ronald Skan, was held as a PoW after he was shot down over the North Sea returning from a bombing raid in 1941. I was able to chat to researchers and veterans about life in the camp. By carrying out the same experiments that the PoWs did, you realise the ingenuity of the guys; you understand their determination and their sense of loyalty to the Service when it would have been so easy to just sit back and admit defeat. All in all, it was an incredible experience.”
Group Captain Dave Waddington, himself an ex-PoW from the first Gulf War and now Station Commander of RAF Cranwell, was approached to co-ordinate the RAF’s involvement in the film.
“It was a tremendous opportunity for all of us to spend time with the veterans at the place where they made history. They were truly inspirational and this comes across in the determination of the team to successfully complete the challenges they were set. It was also very moving to see this respect reciprocated and the obvious pride of the veterans in their young successors of today’s RAF.”
See also:
RAF Officers Make Great Escape
Pictures:
F36 Dulag Luft.
Frank Stone tries out the trolley.
The Tunnel Trolley System.
Photography: RAF/MOD Crown Copyright 2011.
