On the night of March 24-25, 1944, 76 Allied POWs escaped through a tunnel code-named Harry from Stalag Luft III, a prisoner-of-war camp in Nazi-occupied Poland. The escape was the largest in POW history, involving a network of three tunnels (Tom, Dick, and Harry) dug over the course of a year. The prisoners had manufactured everything they needed: 4,000 bed boards for tunnel shoring, 1,700 bed bolsters, 635 tables, 34 chairs, 161 stool cases, 121 knives, 76 spoons, 1,000 light bulbs, and fake identity documents — all smuggled through the camp's drainage system.
But the tunnel emerged approximately 30 feet short of the tree line. The first out, Roger Bushell and Bernard Scheidhauer, were spotted by German guards. Only three men made it to safety: two Norwegians and a Dutchman. Seventy-three were recaptured.
Hitler was furious. He ordered that 50 of the recaptured men be executed. The order came from the highest levels — Heinrich Himmler himself — and specified that the executions be carried out by the Gestapo, not the regular German military. On April 6, 1944, the 50 men were taken to various locations across Germany and shot. The remaining 23 who were not executed returned to Stalag Luft III.
The men shot included British, Canadian, Australian, New Zealand, South African, Polish, and Norwegian airmen. Group Captain Harry Day, who had led the escape, was among those who were shot. The executions shocked the German military establishment: Generalmajor Gustav Noske reportedly said: This will cost us the war.
After the war, 18 of the Gestapo officers responsible for the executions were tried and convicted. Sixteen were sentenced to life imprisonment or death. The Great Escape became the subject of the famous 1963 film, but the film downplayed the horror of the executions and the true scale of the Gestapo's involvement.