Of all the daring wartime escape attempts, the great escape, fictionalised in the classic film starring Steve McQueen, is among the most famous.
Eighty years after that audacious breakout from Stalag Luft III on 24 March 1944, means of escape – physical and mental – by prisoners of war and interned civilians in the UK, Europe and east Asia during the second world war, are being told in an exhibition.
The stories of 30 individuals highlighted include actor Peter Butterworth, of the Carry On films fame and a prisoner in Stalag Luft III. He participated in the Wooden Horse escape, daily exercising with others on a vault horse built with a false bottom to conceal the digging of a tunnel in 1943. Three prisoners escaped, with the story told in a 1950 film of the same name.
About 200,000 record cards of those incarcerated by the Germans have finally been catalogued and made available to the public through the National Archives in Kew, which is staging the exhibition Great Escapes: Remarkable Second World War Captives, from February.
The previously unsorted cards, some with photographs, include most of the 76 prisoners of the famed great escape, during which all but three were recaptured and 50 escapers executed on Hitler’s personal orders.
Exhibits include the intelligence report of the attempt written by Bertram “Jimmy” James, an RAF officer, who managed to avoid execution.
A report by the army lieutenant Airey Neave, the first to escape Colditz Castle, will be displayed alongside a map of Colditz he later drew from memory for army intelligence.
After Colditz, Neave, later an MP who was assassinated in a car bomb for which the Irish National Liberation Army claimed responsibility, joined MI9, the military intelligence section of the secret service. An MI9 bulletin, described as the “bible of escape and evasion”, and a drawing of an MI9 example of military battledress revealing secret pockets and compartments for concealing escape aids, will also be on show.
Alongside documents and photographs, a deck of cards with a concealed map, a shoe brush concealing a compass, and a warm flight boot, with a zip out sheepskin lining to convert it into a civilian shoe to help someone blend in, are among the exhibits.
One special story of a liver and white pointer dog named Judy, a ship mascot shipwrecked off China, captured in Singapore, who survived a crocodile attack and became the companion of British prisoner of war Frank Williams in a camp in Indonesia, is also highlighted.
On display will be the Dickin medal – the animal equivalent of the Victoria Cross – that Judy, the only dog officially registered as a prisoner of war, received for countless acts that helped save lives, including finding fresh water, foraging for food and, crucially, distracting camp guards.
Dr William Butler, the curator of the exhibition and co-author of the associated book Captives: Prisoners of War and Internees 1939-1945, said: ‘It’s quite incredible some of the things that we’re researching. You look at what MI9 is able to smuggle in and out of camps, compasses hidden in board games, coded letters sewn behind photographs … the exchange of information that’s going in and out, both secretly and not, of these camps.”
One of the most exciting discoveries, he said, was found in a mundane-looking file. “A hidden letter was found behind a photograph, sewn into the back, and sent to a prisoner’s mother, then sent on to British intelligence.
“He’s talking about other individual PoWs and how suitable they would be for intelligence work, talking about their characters and whether they would be up to the job of passing on intelligence or carrying out secret work within the camp.”
With very few people managing to physically escape their situation, the exhibition also covers how people found escape in other ways, through escape committees, choirs, theatre, art, even in some cases taking correspondence degree courses. Details of government initiatives for those returning to “Civvy Street” are found in booklets, advising men not to drink too much or eat very rich food.
“In particular you have a lot of men who haven’t been around many women for years, so that is a really big part – it’s a serious consideration the authorities are trying to deal with,” said Butler.
“Many of these stories are about hope despite the incredibly difficult circumstances prisoners and internees faced during the second world war.”
Great Escapes: Remarkable Second World War Captives runs from Friday 2 February 2024 to 21 July 2024 at the National Archives and is free.
