Stalag Luft III

Stalag Luft III was a Luftwaffe-run prisoner-of-war camp during the Second World War, which held captured Western Allied air force personnel.

The camp was established in March 1942 near the town of Sagan, Lower Silesia, in what was then Nazi Germany, 160 km south-east of Berlin. The site was selected because its sandy soil made it difficult for POWs to escape by tunnelling.

It is best known for two escape plots by Allied POWs. One was in 1943 and became the basis of a fictionalised film, The Wooden Horse, based on a book by escapee Eric Williams. The second breakout—the so-called Great Escape—of March 1944, was conceived by Squadron Leader Roger Bushell of the Royal Air Force and was authorised by the senior British officer at Stalag Luft III, Herbert Massey.