The prisoners of war who escaped from a Nazi camp in the Second World War may have been betrayed by English informants.
Seventy-three of the 76 escapees from the Stalag Luft III camp were recaptured, many of them very quickly, and 50 were executed.Their exploits were made into the Great Escape, the famous film starring Steve McQueen and Richard Attenborough.One of the survivors, RAF pilot Flt Lt Desmond Plunkett, said after his release from the camp at the end of the war that English informants betrayed the escapees, who made their bid for freedom on March 24 1944.
He was sent to Stalag Luft III in modern-day Poland, where he met Roger Bushell, the leader of the escape effort, who was played by Richard Attenborough in the 1963 film.Bushell put Plunkett in charge of a team making maps. He was the 13th to escape out of the 'Harry' tunnel - a placement no one else wanted - and got into Czechoslovakia, making it as far as the Austrian border before being arrested.
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