Oflag VII - B Oflag VII - B was a World War II German prisoner - of - war camp for officer s ( " Offizierlager " ) , located in Eichstätt , Bavaria , about north of Munich . Camp history . The camp was built in September 1939 to house Polish prisoners from the German invasion of Poland . The first prisoners arrived there on 18 October 1939 . On 22 May 1940 all 1 , 336 Polish prisoners were transferred to Oflag VII - A Murnau , and were replaced with British , French and Belgian officers taken prisoner during the battle of France . In the summer of 1941 Australians and New Zealander s captured in Greece and Crete during the Balkans Campaign arrived in the camp . In Rommel ' s second offensive on Tobruk in June 1942 , most of the South African 2nd Division was captured . Many of these soldiers were interned at Oflag VII - B . On 31 August 1942 Canadian officers captured during the Dieppe Raid arrived . Soon after their arrival the senior Canadian officer , Brigadier W . W . Southam , convened a conference which compiled an after action report on the Raid . This was recorded in shorthand in a notebook labelled " Shorthand Reading Exercises . O . Henry ' s Short Stories " , which after the war was donated to the archives of the Historical Section of the Canadian Army HQ . In September 1942 , British officers from Oflag VI - B Dössel , were transferred to VII - B after a mass escape ( the " Warburg Wire Job " ) . Within months two officers from Dössel , Lieutenant Jock Hamilton - Baillie and Captain Frank Weldon , proposed digging a tunnel north from Block 2 ' s latrine to a villager ' s chicken coop about away . Work began in December 1942 , but the rocky ground made digging difficult . The Germans found spoil from the tunnel and searched the camp , but failed to find it . The tunnel was completed in May , and on the night of 3 / 4 June 1943 sixty - five men escaped . Most of them headed south , towards Switzerland , sleeping by day and travelling by night . Eventually , all 65 were recaptured , but had occupied over 50 , 000 police , soldiers , home guard and Hitler Youth for a week . After two weeks detention in nearby Willibaldsburg Castle , the escapees were sent to Oflag IV - C at Colditz Castle . In spring of 1943 American and British ( C company ) personnel captured in the Tunisia Campaign arrived . On 14 April 1945 , as the U . S . Army approached , the officers were marched out of the camp . Unfortunately , only a short distance from the camp the column was attacked by American aircraft , who mistook it for a formation of German troops . Fourteen British officers were killed and 46 were wounded . In 2003 a memorial plaque was erected by local German authorities at the site . The camp was liberated by the U . S . Army on 16 April 1945 . The POWs were repatriated to their home countries . For the British this meant a march begging for food from farmers until transport reached them . As of 2012 the site of the camp is occupied by the barracks and training school of " II . Bereitschaftspolizei abteilung " ( " 2nd Riot Police Division " ) of the Bavarian State Police . English composer Benjamin Britten wrote a short piece for male voices " The Ballad of Little Musgrave and Lady Barnard " and dedicated it to " Richard Wood and the musicians of Oflag VIIb " . The work was completed on December 13 , 1943 and smuggled into the camp on microfilm for the prisoners to sing .