British prisoners of war at 'Great Escape' camp built second tunnel weeks after breakout

Stalag Luft III gained infamy arsenic the German captive of warfare campy 76 Allies escaped from which featured successful classical movie the Great Escape, and caller drawings person been unveiled

Stalag Luft III volition beryllium everlastingly remembered arsenic the Great ­Escape camp aft the iconic movie astir 76 PoWs who fled, lone for astir of them to beryllium rounded up and ­executed by the Gestapo.

Previously unseen sketches person revealed different passageway was already being built not agelong aft the 76 allied airmen broke out. One drafting shows PoWs sitting connected chairs made from aged Red Cross crates that were utilized to conceal the enclosure entrance.

A transverse conception of the ­underground transition reveals it led towards the bound fence. Men adhd to the ruse by innocently played chess implicit the tunnel.

The drafting is dated September 1944, 5 months aft the legendary wide flight from Stalag Luft III by crawling to state successful a 111-yard tunnel. Those heroics were immortalised successful the 1963 movie starring Steve McQueen and Richard Attenborough. But lone 3 men made it beyond the clutches of the Nazis.

The different 73 were captured and 50 gunned down connected the orders of Hitler, who was furious a supposedly escape-proof PoW campy was breached. According to historians, the caller passageway was apt to person been dug to fell from the SS amid fearfulness the Nazis would execute the remaining PoWs arsenic the tide of the warfare turned.

The sketches supply a caller penetration into beingness astatine the notorious campy successful Sagan, Poland. Other drawings amusement PoWs listening to a makeshift radio, a antheral preparing ­breakfast with a steadfast database of rations aft ­liberation and the camp’s cat, nicknamed Heinkel, which mocks the Germans by saying it prefers prisoners arsenic they ever person much food.

They were created by Lancaster bomber navigator Terence Herbert Francis Entract. Historian and writer Guy Walters said: “This medium of sketches is simply a humanities gem.

“Not lone does it amusement the mundanity of mundane beingness successful the camp, but ­excitingly it besides reveals the beingness and determination of a passageway dug by the ­prisoners of warfare adjacent a artifact house. Although the Germans ne'er recovered the tunnel, it was ne'er used, arsenic the weather by the extremity of the summertime of 1944 made flight conditions excessively treacherous… a acquisition the PoWs had learned during the Great Escape erstwhile the upwind was peculiarly brutal.”

Further drawings amusement campy buildings, including the theatre, sleeping quarters – dubbed Sagan Slum – and sick bays. Talented creator Entract was the lone subordinate of his unit to past being changeable down implicit France successful August 1943. He was turned implicit to the Germans by a husbandman and sent to Stalag Luft III. In the postulation of drawings and pictures, determination is simply a achromatic and achromatic photograph showing inmates performing Noel Coward’s play Hay Fever successful May 1944.

Entract worked arsenic the acceptable decorator successful their “Belaria Theatre”. There is besides a missive from campy Commandant Friedrich-Wilhelm von Lindeiner-Wildau to General Charles Goodrich, successful complaint of the PoWs, rebuking him aft they played the British nationalist anthem astatine the extremity of a concert.

In November 1944, arsenic the Soviet forces made gains successful the east, the PoWs were force-marched 200 miles westbound to Luckenwalde camp. One sketch shows guards ­patrolling the barbed ligament obstruction during a large-scale aerial raid connected March 15, 1945.

There is besides a first-person drafting of Entract’s furniture and belongings, which see a hat, uniform, towel and pot, astatine Luckenwalde arsenic good arsenic 1 of the soldiers sunbathing extracurricular their huts. The campy was liberated by the Soviets connected April 22 that year. After the war, Entract worked arsenic an creator successful the advertizing industry. He sold his medium of drawings successful 1946 truthful helium could bargain a scooter.

They were aboriginal acquired by the historiographer Michael Booker, who became an adept connected the Colditz PoW camp. His archive, including the Entract sketches, was precocious enactment up for merchantability astatine Wellers Auctions of ­Guildford, Surrey. Entract’s grandchildren tried to bargain the medium backmost but were outbid and it sold for £6,500.

“The item successful the collection, particularly the sketches, is conscionable amazing," said the auction house. Entract, primitively from Woking successful 1917, joined Irene successful 1950 and they had 2 sons and 5 grandchildren. He died successful 1999.

Stalag Luft III opened successful March 1942 successful modern-day Poland. Its ungraded was meant to beryllium excessively hard to passageway in. It is present location to the Stalag Luft III Prisoner Camp Museum.