{"id":201719,"date":"2016-10-28T08:44:40","date_gmt":"2016-10-28T06:44:40","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wereldwyd.co.za\/great-escape-sa-pilots\/"},"modified":"2016-10-28T08:44:40","modified_gmt":"2016-10-28T06:44:40","slug":"great-escape-sa-pilots","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wereldwyd.co.za\/en\/great-escape-sa-pilots\/","title":{"rendered":"The Great Escape \u2013 The SA Pilots"},"content":{"rendered":"

On the 1st of November Poles celebrate All Souls\u2019 Day. Here in Pozna\u0144, Poland I will go to the Citadel Park and visit the Old Garrison Cemetery. Victims of both World War\u00a0I and World War II were finally laid to rest there. I will specifically pause at the graves of victims who were killed by the German SS and Gestapo in 1944 after they tried to escape from the Stalag Luft III camp. Stalag Luft III was opened by the German Luftwaffe in 1942. Mainly air force officers of countries such as Britain, the US, Australia and Poland were detained there. The camp was located near the town of Sagan, today as part of Poland \u017baga\u0144, about 160\u00a0km from Berlin. The location was chosen because of the sandy nature of the soil, which would have prevented any effort to escape. The camp and the escape story became famous after the publication of two books: The Wooden Horse<\/em> (1949) by Eric Williams and The Great Escape<\/em> (1950) by Paul Brickhill. The American film The Great Escape<\/em>, with John Sturges as director, which was released in 1963, was based on an adaptation of these two books.<\/p>\n

But I will especially turn my attention to the graves of four South Africans. Roger Bushell was born in Springs on 30\u00a0August\u00a01910 but emigrated to England at the age of 14. He was the master mind behind the \u201cgreat escape\u201d. During the spring of 1943 he motivated the group who planned to escape with the following words:<\/p>\n

\u201cEveryone here in this room is living on borrowed time. By rights we should all be dead! The only reason that God allowed us this extra ration of life is so we can make life hell for the Hun… In North Compound we are concentrating our efforts on completing and escaping through one master tunnel. No private-enterprise tunnels allowed. Three bloody deep, bloody long tunnels will be dug \u2013 Tom, Dick, and Harry. One will succeed!\u201d<\/p>\n

The word \u201cHun\u201d comes from the First World War, referring to a German soldier or officer. So then they built three tunnels to offer 200 men a chance at freedom. Tunnel \u201cTom\u201d was discovered by the Nazis and \u201cDick\u201d later served as warehouse for fake identity documents, clothes and for the excess sand.<\/p>\n

So \u201cHarry\u201d had to come to the rescue. The tunnel was 102\u00a0m long and almost 9\u00a0m deep. Wooden planks were used to keep the sand out of the tunnel, a pump was built to breathe fresh air into the tunnel and a rail with a trolley was installed. Tools, ventilation pipes and candle holders were made of the metal containers of Klim powdered milk. (Klim is \u201cmilk\u201d spelled backwards; it was provided by the Red Cross.) A considerable amount of negotiation occurred between the \u201ckriegies\u201d and German soldiers and so the refugees could eventually install electric wires with bulbs in Harry. \u201cKriegies\u201d comes from the German word \u201cKriegsgefangene\u201d \u2013 prisoner of war.<\/p>\n

Below is a verse that was found in Leland Potter\u2019s journal while he was in captivity:<\/p>\n

It\u2019s in the cards<\/strong><\/p>\n

You may belong to many Clubs,
\nYou may have a big Heart,
\nYou may wear many Diamonds,
\nBut it takes more than a Spade,
\nTo dig out of a Kriegie camp.<\/p>\n

On a somewhat moonless night, Friday\u00a024\u00a0March\u00a01944, \u201cthe great escape\u201d began. A combination of factors caused a delay: during air raids on the camp the electricity was turned off for a while; the escape exit was frozen solid; and Harry did not extend far enough for its opening to be in the dense forest near the camp, which made the situation extremely dangerous. On Saturday morning 25\u00a0March at 04:55, the 77th fugitive, Leonard Henry Trent of New Zealand, was detected. The 76 refugees struggled to find the train station\u2019s entrance in the dark. On top of that March\u00a01944 was the coldest March in 30 years, so they had to avoid the snowy forests. In the end only three managed to escape successfully: Per Bergsland and Jens M\u00fcller of Norway made it safely into Sweden and the Dutchman Bram van der Stok fled via France to Spain where he found safety at the British consulate.<\/p>\n

Hitler ordered that 50 of the refugees had to be killed.<\/p>\n

Below is a verse by an anonymous prisoner:<\/p>\n

One has gone<\/strong><\/p>\n

We drink to him as comrades must
\nBut it is still the same old story
\nA coward goes from dust to dust
\nA gunner from dust to glory.<\/p>\n

The remaining prisoners were sent back to their respective camps.<\/p>\n

Below is another verse of an anonymous air force soldier who was trapped in a camp (\u201cUncle Joe\u201d was the name given to Stalin of the Soviet Union):<\/p>\n

The Underground Army Air Corps<\/strong><\/p>\n

With our hands on the Klim can
\nAs we dig thru the mire,
\nWe will go eight feet down men,
\nAnd then head straight for the wire,
\nAnd when the good work is finished
\nAnd we leave one hour hence.
\nYou can bet the way is clear men,
\nFrom the barracks to the fence.<\/p>\n

As I sit in the cooler
\nFilled with dust, dirt and grime,
\nJust two weeks to sweat out man,
\nBet I\u2019ll escape for sure next time
\nWith no food or zigaretten
\nThe time does move so slowly
\nSo t\u2019hell with the diggin\u2028I\u2019ll just wait for Uncle Joe.\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

The \u201ccooler\u201d referred to in the poem was a small room in which soldiers were kept in isolation as a form of punishment.<\/p>\n

And so I will pause at the graves of the three South Africans who fought on behalf of the South African Air Force. Lieutenant John S. Gouws was born on 13\u00a0August\u00a01919. He was arrested at Lindau in Germany and killed at age 24 by Gestapo member Peter Schneider on 29\u00a0March\u00a01944. Rupert J. Stevens was born on 21\u00a0February\u00a01919. He was arrested in Rosenheim and also killed by Schneider on 24\u00a0March\u00a01944, only a little more than a month after his 25th birthday. Both were cremated in Munich.<\/p>\n

Lieutenant Clement A.N. McGarr was born on 24\u00a0November\u00a01917. He was arrested near Sagan and was seen alive for the last time on 6\u00a0April\u00a01944. It is suspected that he was murdered by Gestapo member Lux and was cremated in Breslau.<\/p>\n

The funerary urns of 49 of the 50 victims were moved to the Old Garrison Cemetery in Pozna\u0144 after the war.<\/p>\n

For the South African pilots
\n(Stalag Luft III)<\/p>\n

Op vreemde grond agter skokdraad
\nvoor geweerlope en blaffende honed.
\nWie het saam met julle oor Suid-Afrika gevlieg?
\nMaande en maande ondergronds gegrawe
\nom eindelik weer bogronds te sweef.
\nKoudmoedig het jul braaf deur herinneringe
\nopgestyg om tydelik te ontsnap.<\/p>\n

Op vreemde grond tydelik op vrye voet
\ngeweerlope en blaffende honde ontsnap.
\nWaar in Suid-Afrika wou julle land?
\nEtlike dae en minute op vlug
\neindelik tot stilstand voor \u2019n doodloop.
\nKoelbloedig het jul braaf opgestyg
\nen vir ewig tydelikheid ontsnap.<\/p>\n

Bibliography: (accessed during October 2016)<\/p>\n

http:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Stalag_Luft_III<\/a><\/p>\n

http:\/\/therealgreatescape.com\/<\/a><\/p>\n

http:\/\/www.b24.net\/pow\/greatescape.htm<\/a><\/p>\n

http:\/\/www.elsham.pwp.blueyonder.co.uk\/gt_esc\/<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

On the 1st of November Poles celebrate All Souls\u2019 Day. Here in Pozna\u0144, Poland I will go to the Citadel…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":214,"featured_media":201720,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"","_seopress_titles_title":"","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","_kad_blocks_custom_css":"","_kad_blocks_head_custom_js":"","_kad_blocks_body_custom_js":"","_kad_blocks_footer_custom_js":"","_kadence_starter_templates_imported_post":false,"_kad_post_transparent":"","_kad_post_title":"","_kad_post_layout":"","_kad_post_sidebar_id":"","_kad_post_content_style":"","_kad_post_vertical_padding":"","_kad_post_feature":"","_kad_post_feature_position":"","_kad_post_header":false,"_kad_post_footer":false,"_kad_post_classname":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1114],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-201719","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-blog-en"],"taxonomy_info":{"category":[{"value":1114,"label":"Blog"}]},"featured_image_src_large":["https:\/\/wereldwyd.co.za\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/10\/great-escape-sa-pilots.jpg",496,372,false],"author_info":{"display_name":"Sue-Ann de Wet","author_link":"https:\/\/wereldwyd.co.za\/en\/author\/sue-ann-de-wet\/"},"comment_info":0,"category_info":[{"term_id":1114,"name":"Blog","slug":"blog-en","term_group":0,"term_taxonomy_id":1114,"taxonomy":"category","description":"","parent":0,"count":1093,"filter":"raw","term_order":"0","cat_ID":1114,"category_count":1093,"category_description":"","cat_name":"Blog","category_nicename":"blog-en","category_parent":0}],"tag_info":false,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/wereldwyd.co.za\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/10\/great-escape-sa-pilots.jpg","fimg_url":"https:\/\/wereldwyd.co.za\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/10\/great-escape-sa-pilots.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/wereldwyd.co.za\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/201719","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/wereldwyd.co.za\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/wereldwyd.co.za\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wereldwyd.co.za\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/214"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wereldwyd.co.za\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=201719"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/wereldwyd.co.za\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/201719\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wereldwyd.co.za\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/201720"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/wereldwyd.co.za\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=201719"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wereldwyd.co.za\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=201719"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wereldwyd.co.za\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=201719"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}