Stalag Luft III

Stalag Luft III was a Luftwaffe-run prisoner of war camp during World War II, which held captured Western Allied air force personnel.The Stalag was established in March 1942 in the German province of Lower Silesia near the town of Sagan, 100mi south-east of Berlin. The site was selected because its sandy soil made it difficult for POWs to escape by tunnelling.It is best known for two escape plots by Allied POWs. One in 1943 that became the basis of a fictionalised film, The Wooden Horse, based on a book by escapee Eric Williams. The so-called Great Escape of April 1944, which was conceived by Royal Air Force Squadron Leader Roger Bushell, and was authorised by the senior British officer at Stalag Luft III, Herbert Massey. A heavily fictionalised version of the escape was depicted in a film, The Great Escape, which was based on a book by former prisoner Paul Brickhill. The camp was liberated in January 1945, by Soviet forces.