Can You Dig It?

This is interesting - The Great Escape tunnels greater than thought.

It seems that Tom, Dick and Harry were just one component of the underground activity among the prisoners of war at Stalag Luft III:

Far from just the three tunnels - Tom, Dick and Harry - made famous in the classic film, archeologists at Stalag Luft III in Zagan, Poland, have found more than 100 attempted escape routes. The discovery is powerful evidence that Allied prisoners, led on the big screen by Richard Attenborough and Steve McQueen, consistently refused to accept their incarceration.

Prisoners, the majority of whom were bright young air force officers aware of their importance to the Allied war effort, faced execution if they were caught trying to escape.

In March 1944, of the 76 Allies who did get out of the camp in the escape that inspired the film, only three made it to safety. The rest were recaptured and 50 were executed by the Gestapo.

Guards discovered two of the three tunnels, Tom and Harry, prompting the prisoners to concentrate their efforts on the third, which eventually came up just short of the forest that would provide vital cover.

But the full extent of how many underground escape routes were being created has remained undiscovered for 60 years until now, after archeologists from Keele University and University College London (UCL) used ground penetrating radar on the site.

The scientists are excavating the remains of Dick, after locating the entrance shaft to the famous tunnel.

Inside they found remnants of an escape kit featuring an attaché case containing a civilian coat, fragments of a German language book, buttons, thread, a toothbrush, a marble and a draughts piece.

Empty Red Cross milk cans had been used to construct a basic ventilation system in the shaft.

Peter Doyle, a consultant geologist and visiting professor at UCL, said the camp at any one time could have contained up to 10,000 men. Around one third of them would have been digging tunnels, and another third helping, he said.

"It was a huge operation. There are different types of tunnels. There are deep, extensive tunnels which are obviously aimed at getting out a large number of men.

"But there are also shorter, more opportunistic tunnels.

"It really was a hotbed of escape activity. It was a continuing battle against the Germans."