RAF Hunt for Nazis

[Bill Greenwood]

In March 1944 76 Allied prisoners, mostly RAF aircrew escaped for a German prison camp, as shown in the good movie THE GREAT ESCAPE. Almost unbelievably they dug down 25 feet under their shower and then 300 feet horizontal under the fence. The movie shows that most were captured and brought back to be shot in a group of 50, but thats not accurate. Some of the men in groups of 2 or 3 made it hundreds of miles even near the border before being captured. By Geneva Convention as POWs they should have been returned to Stalag 3 for normal punishment, but Hitler was so angered by the escapes that he ordered all to be shot as soon as captured. So these men were executed alone or in small groups in various places. This was far outside the normal boundaries of even a brutal war, and the RAF was determined to find the killers and bring them to justice. They appointed Frank McKenna (sp?) a London detective and Lancaster flight engineer as head of the group. He was smart and above all determined. He eventually tracked down all but one of the men who had done the executions. The key was local police and crematoriums had kept records of the men killed.In one case he found a man in a town that he had bombed. One of the Germans admitted the killings and regretted it but said he and his family would have been shot if he refused, one of the horrors of war.
One the most famous escapers was Roger Bushel, pilot who had 2 previous escapes and was the main planner for this one. He spoke both french and german and had forged papers and made it all the way to the French border when his companion made a mistake ans spoke in English. One of the vets who lived, all old men now, said Bushell was the bravest man he ever knew.
It is a fascinating show on tv, disturbing but vital. If you believe the show, there were a number of German officers who did not believe in shooting prisoners, but not able to defy Hitler. The former comander Stalag 3 said he would not execute prisoners, and aided the search for those who did.
One question one might ask is what sacrifice should a prisoner make? Should you resist whenever possible or if the war is ending soon should you do what is necessary to survive and be released alive? Would their decision be different if the D day Normandy invasion has already happened?
These men, especially Bushell chose to continue to fight in their own way to the end.