Historically, there have been many escapes, but in the German prisoner-of-war camp during World War II, there have also been such a case, but undoubtedly increased the joyful atmosphere, they can be called the funniest fugitives of World War II, 600 prisoners of war secretly dug a tunnel for a year, but when they stretched out their heads, they found that it was 3 meters shorter, what is the matter?
During World War II, with the German and Allied battles, many Allied soldiers were also captured and imprisoned in prisoner-of-war camps. Although there is only a two-word distinction between a POW camp and a concentration camp, the treatment in the camps is very different, and the camps are under the jurisdiction of the German Wehrmacht rather than the SS of Hitler's Nazis.
As a result, allied soldiers were treated more kindly on weekdays, and even able to smoke and drink, and occasionally go to the camp to let the wind blow, of course, some people would not give up their freedom because of a short comfortable life, and the British officer Roger Buscher was one of them.
Built in 1942, Raft 3, located in a small town in the German province of Silesia, covers an area of 24 hectares and is one of the largest prisoner-of-war camps in Germany, and after its completion, it will hold more than 10,000 prisoners of war from Britain, the United States and France, most of whom are elite officers, pilots, tank pilots and so on.
As for the purpose of the Nazis building the camp, it was also to increase the bargaining chips with the Allies, so the strategic location was extremely important, with 800 heavily armed soldiers guarding the camp, surrounded by dense barbed wire. They built high watchtowers to monitor everything, and Roger Buscher, a former captain in the RAF, was captured at the Battle of Dunkirk in 1940, but Roger never gave in, he tried to escape from prison several times and was captured on the spot, so the "notorious" Roger was also transferred to the more heavily guarded Raft 3.
Here, however, Roger found many of his familiar military acquaintances and like-minded partners, so in 1943, Roger and 600 other prisoners of war secretly discussed and decided to dig tunnels to other places. This was a very challenging thing, the Nazis set up megaphones on the ground to prevent anyone from escaping, and the soil here was loose and could easily collapse. However, the solution was always more difficult than difficult, and Roger and the other prisoners of war secretly carried out this earth-shattering plan.
Among the prisoners of war who were trying to escape from prison, there were many people who were proficient in architecture and mechanics, and they designed a 100-meter-long tunnel drawing, where did the tools for the crime come from? Fortunately, the Germans did treat them, there were Western food, there were cans, so Roger and others also took the opportunity to find a lot of spoons and knives, they wrapped them in cans, in the middle of the night when no one, they began to work quietly, in order to fix the passage to prevent its collapse, Roger and others decided to use bed boards to support, this process used nearly 4,000 bed boards, and the soil excavated in the tunnel is also a big problem, Roger and others can only take advantage of the wind, quietly take it to a secret place to throw down.
The tunnel was eventually named "Harry" and after more than a year, it was finally completed, measuring 9 meters long and 110 meters wide. Fortunately, the Nazis did not even notice, and in March 1944, seeing that the war was about to burn here, Roger and the others decided not to wait any longer, believing that the tunnel had been placed in the forest as imagined, and immediately began a prison escape operation.
Roger planned to pass ten people every half hour to avoid a landslide, but the prisoners of war spent an hour and a half to open the passage but they were dumbfounded, and they were three meters away from where they were originally designed. It is at this distance of three meters that the exit becomes a clearing from the woodland covered by trees, and the searchlight can easily shine here. The prisoners of war looked at each other, how could this be good? But the arrow had to be fired on the string, and Roger and the others decided to take advantage of the blind spot of the searchlight to escape.
There was no doubt that this was risky, first of all, at one o'clock in the morning, the prisoners of war encountered the problem of landslides, and it was difficult to clear the passage, and at 4:30 a.m., a German sentry found the 77th war criminal who had drilled out of the tunnel and immediately sounded the alarm of the camp, while the 76 prisoners of war who escaped, including Roger and other 73 people, were arrested because they were wearing prison uniforms, and only 3 Norwegian and Danish pilots successfully escaped the German search and escaped. This prison break shocked the world and went down in history. Roger and the others were released with the arrival of the Allies, and a monument was erected at the exit to commemorate the brave warriors who dared to fight