They converted more than 1,400 powdered milk tin cans provided by the Red Cross into digging tools and lamps in which wicks fashioned from pajama cords were burned in mutton fat skimmed off the greasy soup they were served.
They stuffed 1,700 blankets against the walls to muffle sounds. Scavenging and stealing materials for the operation, the prisoners stripped some 4,000 wooden bed boards to build ladders and shore up the sandy walls of the two-foot-wide tunnels to prevent their collapse. The captives excavated at least 100 tons of sand, which they stuffed into concealed socks and discreetly sprinkled and raked into the soil of the small gardens tended by the prisoners. Working in claustrophobic conditions, diggers stripped to their long johns or took off all their clothes so that the bright golden sand wouldn’t stain them and raise the suspicions of the German guards. From a trap door concealed below a heating stove always kept lit to discourage the Nazi guards from getting too close, they burrowed down more than 30 feet to be out of the range of the microphones. Inside Hut 104, the prisoners building the Harry tunnel toiled for days chipping away at the building’s support columns to avoid being seen working underneath the barracks. The plan called for each tunnel to stretch for more than 300 feet to the protective cover of the forest outside the camp’s perimeter fence.
SONG IN ESCAPE THE UNDERGROUND JAIL CODE
In the spring of 1943, Bushell and over 600 prisoners of war began building three tunnels with the code names of Tom, Dick and Harry. The secret operation was led and organized by Roger Bushell, a Royal Air Force pilot who had been shot down over France while assisting with the evacuation of Dunkirk. They Built Three Escape Tunnels: ‘Tom,’ ‘Dick’ and ‘Harry’
SONG IN ESCAPE THE UNDERGROUND JAIL FULL
WATCH: Full episodes of Great Escapes with Morgan Freeman online now and tune in for all-new episodes Tuesdays at 10/9c. For the aviators, the penalty for being caught trying to escape-generally 10 days in solitary confinement under the rules of the Geneva Convention-was worth the risk. The Nazis, however, didn’t account for the daring and ingenuity of the British, American Canadian and other Allied flyboys who toiled for nearly a year to construct a tunnel that would allow them to flee from captivity.
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