“Most airmen, and particularly those who arrived in Germany at the start of the war, came from the sort of backgrounds where comfort was taken for granted. Yet one minute they are in the safe haven of their aircraft, which when thousands of feet above the ground gives exactly the feeling of limitless freedom that airmen crave, then the next they are plunged into a strange and unfamiliar land and are at the mercy of unknown people and an unknown fate.”
Tim Carroll The Great Escapers 2004
On a bitterly cold March 24th night some five months later, 76 out of 200 carefully disguised “POW’s” armed with forged documentation escaped through “Harry” before guards discovered the exit. Huts were searched immediately with lengthy “POW” roll calls in the freezing pre-dawn March 25th morning and aside from fears of immediate retribution, “POW’s” were disappointed by the disconnect between a process involving many months of concerted preparation and an incomplete result.
Hitler ordered that the 76 escapees be executed, the Camp Commandant was relieved of his post, and the Gestapo takeover nervously unpleasant for the “POW’s” particularly those who had been waiting to enter the tunnel. Capturing the escapees absorbed a disproportionate amount of manpower but despite Hitler’s order, six recaptured escapees returned to Stalag III and solitary confinement on April 6th. Five days later Stalag III’s “Senior British Officer” shared the news that 41 officers had been “shot while attempting to escape”, making an unsettled camp environment even worse.
Himmler’s “Sagan Order” resulted in the Gestapo murdering 50 recaptured escapees including Squadron Leader Roger Bushell and SAAF airmen, Lt Johannes Gous from Bultfontein in the Orange free State, Lt Clement McGarr who is remembered on the “Roll of Honour” at Glenwood High School in Durban and SACS educated Lt Rupert Stevens . The three successful escapees were not Commonwealth airmen and aside from the South Africans, those brutally murdered included airmen from Australia, Britain, Belgium, Canada, France, Greece, New Zealand and Norway.
From “Not at Home for Christmas”, chapter 8 of Jon Eagar's book. About the book.