page_title: The Great Escape (film)
section_title: Historical accuracy
hierarchical_section_title: The Great Escape (film) / Historical accuracy
caption_attribution_description: Stalag Luft III, Poland. Harry Tunnel. Scene of the "Great Escape" by allied POWs in March 1944.
context_page_description: The Great Escape is a 1963 American epic war film starring Steve McQueen, James Garner, and Richard Attenborough and featuring James Donald, Charles Bronson, Donald Pleasence, James Coburn, and Hannes Messemer. It was filmed in Panavision.
  The film is based on Paul Brickhill's 1950 nonfiction book of the same name, a firsthand account of the mass escape by British Commonwealth prisoners of war from German POW camp Stalag Luft III in Sagan, in the province of Lower Silesia, Nazi Germany. The film was based on real events but deviated significantly from the historical record, depicting a heavily fictionalized version of the escape, including numerous compromises—such as featuring Americans among the escapees—in order to boost its commercial appeal.
  It was made by The Mirisch Company, released by United Artists, and produced and directed by John Sturges. The film had its Royal World Premiere at the Odeon Leicester Square in London's West End on 20 June 1963. The film became very popular and emerged as one of the highest-grossing films of the year, winning McQueen the award for Best Actor at the Moscow International Film Festival, and is now considered a classic.
context_section_description: The film was largely fictional, with changes made to increase its drama and appeal to an American audience, and to serve as vehicle for its box-office stars. Many details of the actual escape attempt were changed for the film, including the roles of American personnel in both the planning and the escape. While the characters are fictitious, they are based on real men, in most cases being composites of several people. The screenwriters significantly increased the involvement of American POWs; the real escape was by largely British and other Allied personnel, with the exception of Johnnie Dodge, who was naturalized British but retained US citizenship. (He married an American.) He served in the Royal Navy, British Army and (by manipulating records) the RAF. A few other American officers in the camp initially helped dig the tunnels and worked on the early plans. However, they were moved away seven months before the escape, which ended their involvement.
  The film omits the crucial role that Canadians played in building the tunnels and in the escape itself. Of the 1,800 or so POWs, 600 were involved in preparations: 150 of those were Canadian. Wally Floody, an RCAF pilot and mining engineer who was the real-life "tunnel king", was engaged as a technical advisor for the film.
  The film shows the tunnel codenamed Tom with its entrance under a stove and Harry's in a drain sump in a washroom. In reality, Dick's entrance was the drain sump, Harry's was under the stove, and Tom's was in a darkened corner next to a stove chimney.
  Ex-POWs asked film-makers to exclude details about the help they received from their home countries, such as maps, papers, and tools hidden in gift packages, lest it jeopardise future POW escapes. The film-makers complied.
  The film omits to mention that many Germans willingly helped in the escape itself. The film suggests that the forgers were able to make near-exact replicas of just about any pass that was used in Nazi Germany. In reality, the forgers received a great deal of assistance from Germans who lived many hundreds of miles away on the other side of the country. Several German guards, who were openly anti-Nazi, also willingly gave the prisoners items and assistance of any kind to aid their escape.
  The need for such accuracy produced much eyestrain, but unlike in the film, there were no cases of blindness. Some, such as Frank Knight, gave up forging because of the strain, but he certainly did not suffer the same ocular fate as the character of Colin Blythe in the film. In fact, no one in the film says that Colin Blythe's blindness is the result of eyestrain. He identifies his problem as “Progressive myopia” suggesting that he has not only heard of the condition but has also been diagnosed.
  The film depicts the escape taking place in exceptionally fine weather, whereas at the time it was freezing, and snow lay thick on the ground.
  In reality there were no escapes by aircraft or motorcycle: McQueen requested the motorcycle sequence, which shows off his skills as a keen motorcyclist. He did the stunt riding himself (except for the final jump, done by Bud Ekins). The movie shows the murders of the fifty prisoners as a single massacre; in reality, they were shot individually or in pairs.
  In addition, the film says the three prisoners who escaped to freedom were British, Polish, and Australian; in reality, they were Norwegian (Jens Müller and Per Bergsland) and Dutch (Bram van der Stok).
  In 2009, seven POWs returned to Stalag Luft III for the 65th anniversary of the escape and watched the film. According to the veterans, many details of the first half depicting life in the camp were authentic, e.g. the death of Ives, who tries to scale the fence, and the actual digging of the tunnels.
  The film has kept the memory of the 50 executed airmen alive for decades and has made their story known worldwide, if in a distorted form.
caption: End of the real "Harry" tunnel (on the other side of the road) showing how it does not reach the cover of the trees
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