page_title: Dominic Bruce
section_title: Innovator of the wooden horse technique
hierarchical_section_title: Dominic Bruce / Second World War / Spangenberg Castle / Innovator of the wooden horse technique
caption_attribution_description: English: First US Army Rehabilitation Centre- Recuperation and Training at 8th Convalescent Hospital, Stoneleigh Park, Kenilworth, Warwickshire, UK, 1943 Sergeant Donald Weaver (of Beach Creek Avenue, Millhall, Pennsylvania) leaps over the vaulting horse during a Physical Training session at 8th Convalescent Hospital at Stoneleigh Park. A PT instructor is prepared to catch him if he stumbles. Sergeant Weaver is recovering from a knee operation. All gym equipment has been supplied by Britain.
context_page_description: Dominic Bruce, OBE, MC, AFM, KSG was a British Royal Air Force officer, known as the "Medium Sized Man." He has been described as "the most ingenious escaper" of the Second World War. He made seventeen attempts at escaping from POW camps, including several attempts to escape from Colditz Castle, a castle that housed prisoners of war "deemed incorrigible".
  Famed for his time in Colditz, Bruce also escaped from Spangenberg Castle and the Warburg POW camp. In Spangenberg Castle he escaped with the Swiss Red Cross Commission escape, it is also argued he co-innovated the wooden horse escape technique while serving time inside Spangenberg. In Warburg he escaped dressed as a British orderly in a fake workers party. Inside Colditz Castle, Bruce authored the Tea Chest Escape and also faced a firing squad for an attempted escape via a sewer tunnel. While held in solitude in Colditz Bruce, along with two other prisoners, became a key witness to the post war Musketoon commando raid trial.
  For his exploits, Bruce was awarded the Military Cross and is the only known person to have received both the Military Cross and the Air Force Medal.
context_section_description: It has been argued that Bruce and Tunstall are the original innovators of the wooden horse escape technique.
  Along with Eustace Newborn and Peter Tunstall, Bruce came up with the escape plan now known as "the Swiss Red Cross Commission." Tunstall, also highlights that in 1941, prior to he and Bruce planning an escape with the famed 'Swiss Red Cross Commission,' he and Bruce had been digging an escape route with a wooden horse tunnel from inside the gymnasium, the wooden horse was placed roughly four feet from the wall that separated the gym from the moat. The digging was a very slow process, it required the removal of spoil, bricks and stone work, and was aided by other prisoners distracting the guards. They were later joined by Douglas ‘Sammy’ Hoare and a syndicate who were promised a second go if they escaped undiscovered. Other members of this syndicate were also named as: Harry Bewlay, John Milner and Eustace Newborn.
  When Bruce and Tunstall noted the slow process they began examining the rest of the castle and left the digging to the other team involving Sammy Hoare. The tunnel almost reached completion but unfortunately the digging team got caught when a guard become suspicious at the large stones that were accumulating outside of the gym. The guard then called a search, and then found the escape tunnel. When the guards found the shaft they called an Appell and Hauptmann Schmidt confidently stated to the prisoners, "It is impossible to escape by tunnel or any other way."
  This wooden horse gym escape tunnel was two years prior to the famed Sagan wooden horse escape. Tunstall stated that he would like to think some of the watchers and workers who helped on their original wooden horse escape may have mentioned it from time to time; and would like to think that their idea contributed to the success of the effort at Sagan.
caption: A "wooden horse", as seen in an US Army rehabilitation centre; UK, 1943.
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