Angus Lennie: Ives 'The Mole' Jump to: Photos (8)
Twenty-three were reincarcerated. Only three made it all the way to freedom—a Dutchman and two Norwegians, all flyers with the British Royal Air Force. Here's their remarkable story, which begins at the Sagan railway station. For locations of relevant towns, consult our map.
On the night of March 24, 1944, 76 men crawled out of one of the tunnels (named Harry) and made their bid for freedom. Three made it back to England, 23 were recaptured and locked up again, and 50 were executed by the Gestapo, on direct orders from Adolf Hitler. It was a shattering end to the ultimate boy's own tale.
Climactic Moment: The fifty captured prisoners, including Roger, are shot by the Gestapo. Subplot: Hilts crashes his stolen motorcycle into the barbed wire and is re-captured. Resolution: Hendley, Hilts, and the other surviving prisoners are returned to camp. Willy, Danny, and Sedgewick are shown escaping.
Through his association with McQueen, Ekins began a career as a film stuntman. Ekins is best known as the actor who jumped the fence on a motorcycle in the 1963 film The Great Escape, and one of the stuntmen who drove the Ford Mustang 390 GT in the car chase scene in the 1968 film Bullitt.
In a pivotal sequence in the film, desperate to escape and despondent at the Germans' discovery of another tunnel, he races to the camp's barbed-wire enclosure in full view of the guards and is gunned down as he tries to climb over it.
He appeared in long-running ITV soap Crossroads, as well as films 33 Squadron, The Dambusters and Tunes of Glory.
Although his age is mentioned in films based on John Steinbeck's book, Lennie's age is never given in Of Mice and Men. It can be assumed that he is an adult who has not reached middle age or advanced years. Most sources estimate that he is in his late 20s to early 30s.
Only 76 of the Planned 200 Prisoners Escaped
The Nazis eventually discovered the tunnel Tom and summoned photographers to chronicle their find before its demolition.
The last surviving member of the real-life Great Escape team has died. Former squadron leader Dick Churchill was one of 76 airmen whose escape from the Stalag Luft III camp in Nazi Germany in 1944 was immortalised in the Hollywood film starring Steve McQueen.
The Great Escape plays as much like a heist as a prison break. For the most part, however, it's a broadly accurate retelling of how, in March 1944, 76 POWs tunnelled their way out of Stalag Luft III.
During the night of 24 March 1944, 76 airmen escaped from the Prisoner of War camp Stalag Luft III. Only three made it home and, of the remainder, 50 were murdered on Hitler's orders. Alan Bowgen explains what really happened in the so-called Great Escape, one of the Second World War's most infamous incidents.
The great escape
Seventy-six prisoners got away, but the Gestapo recaptured and murdered fifty, including five Australians. Of the 76 escapees, only three reached Allied lines. The Sagan escape was the largest planned breakout of Allied prisoners in the war.
Of the 76 who escaped from Stalag Luft III, 50 were handed over to the Gestapo and shot dead. In this blog, former PoW Charles Clarke tells us how The Great Escape film has helped ensure that these men are never forgotten.
At the end of Of Mice and Men , George spares Lennie from Curley's wrath by shooting Lennie in the back of the head after reciting their shared dream of owning a farm one final time.
As Lennie falls to the ground and becomes still, George tosses the gun away and sits down on the riverbank. The sound of the shot brings the lynch party running to the clearing. Carlson questions George, who lets them believe that he wrestled the gun from Lennie and shot him with it.
At the end of the book Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck, George, a main character in the novel shoots his best friend, Lennie, after Lennie accidentally kills a woman. The woman's husband, Curley, has a fit of rage and wants to kill Lennie, who has ran away.
Blythe finds he's going blind due to progressive myopia, and Hendley takes it upon himself to be Blythe's eyes during the escape. The last part of the tunnel is completed, but when they break the surface the end is 20 ft short of the treeline, well within sight of the guards.
Revealing mistakes
As they go by, the sidecar on the German motorcycle is on the wrong side of the bike. After the escape... throughout the train stations, towns, etc. there are only two Nazi flags (Swastikas) shown, one an armband and one on the side of a locomotive.
Tom was dug in hut 123 and extended west into the forest. Its length eventually reached 140 feet beyond the perimeter and the escapees were about to start digging vertically to the surface when it was found by the Germans and dynamited.
Personality… impetuous and insolent, but mentally tough as nails. Hilts takes great pleasure in aggravating the German guards, and his disruptive antics often end up with them throwing him in solitary confinement, or “the cooler” – hence his nickname.
There are also plenty of accounts claiming Steve McQueen would get into Nazi costume during these chase sequences. Why? Because he wanted to ride. And yes, that means during The Great Escape, McQueen is essentially chasing himself at specific points.
Squadron Leader Dick Churchill, who has died aged 99, was the last survivor of the “Great Escape” from Stalag Luft III. From the time he was shot down and captured in September 1940, escape was never far from his thoughts.