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The Great Escape – When 76 Allied Airmen Dug Their Way to Freedom
Picture this: The American POWs in Stalag Luft III were moved weeks prior to the ‘Great Escape’ attempt and were not able to participate. What followed was one of the most audacious breakouts in military history.
The Nazis thought the Stalag Luft III camp was escape-proof, but 76 Allied airmen proved them wrong. Led by Squadron Leader Roger Bushell, known as “Big X,” In 1943, under the leadership of Squadron Leader Roger Bushell, known as Big X, the prisoners started digging three large tunnels known as ‘Tom’, ‘Dick’ and ‘Harry’, all emanating from huts in the compound. Dug to a depth of 30ft to stay out of range of the microphones, the narrow tunnel stretched 336ft towards the woods on the northern edge of the camp and was shored up by some 4,000 wooden boards taken from the prisoner’s beds. Around 10:30 pm. on the frigid, moonless night of March 24, 1944, British bomber pilot Johnny Bull slowly traversed the tunnel more than 30 feet below the oblivious Nazi guards and peeked his head out of the snowy ground beyond the camp’s fence. As he breathed in the glacial air and filled his lungs with freedom, the sweat-soaked prisoner discovered that the tunnel had stopped feet short of the protective cover of the forest. Despite the setback, Within two weeks, the Germans had recaptured 73 of the escapees. Only three men successfully fled to safety—two Norwegians who stowed away on a freighter to Sweden and a Dutchman who made it to Gibraltar by rail and foot.
Harriet Tubman’s Underground Railroad – The Moses of Her People
They called her Moses, and for good reason. It’s from this area that she first escaped slavery, and where she returned about 13 times over a decade, risking her life time and again to lead some 70 friends and family members to freedom. To carry out the dangerous missions, she used the Underground Railroad, a secret network of places and people.
Harriet Tubman was born around 1820 on a plantation in Dorchester County, Maryland. Her parents, Harriet (“Rit”) Green and Benjamin Ross, named her Araminta Ross and called her “Minty.” Araminta later changed her first name to Harriet in honor of her mother. Harriet stepped between the enslaved person and the overseer—the weight struck her head. She later said about the incident, “The weight broke my skull … They carried me to the house all bleeding and fainting. I had no bed, no place to lie down on at all, and they laid me on the seat of the loom, and I stayed there all day and the next.” This traumatic injury left her with lifelong seizures and visions that she believed were divine guidance. Over the next 10 years, Harriet befriended other abolitionists such as Frederick Douglass, Thomas Garrett and Martha Coffin Wright, and established her own Underground Railroad network. It’s widely reported she emancipated 300 enslaved people; however, those numbers may have been estimated and exaggerated by her biographer Sarah Bradford, since Harriet herself claimed the numbers were much lower. Nevertheless, it’s believed Harriet personally led at least 70 enslaved people to freedom, including her elderly parents, and instructed dozens of others on how to escape on their own.
Alcatraz Breakout – The Vanishing Act That Stumped the FBI
On a foggy June night in 1962, something impossible happened. The escape from Alcatraz in 1962 involved three inmates: Frank Morris and brothers Clarence and John Anglin, all of whom were bank robbers. On June 11 they staged an elaborate escape that included papier-mâché dummy heads (complete with real human hair)—which they placed in their beds—as well as life vests and a raft made from more than 50 raincoats and other stolen items.
Frank Morris was considered highly intelligent by federal officials, with an I.Q. of 133. He was born in Washington and orphaned at the age of 11. Moving between foster homes, he was convicted of his first crime at the age of 13 and continued to add to his record after with many more charges for robbery and possession of narcotics. The sons of poor Georgian farmers, the Anglin brothers were 2 of 14 children. The brothers had a proclivity for burglary, landing themselves in jails throughout Alabama, Florida, and Georgia. They often attempted escapes and ultimately found themselves at Alcatraz after a 1958 bank holdup in Alabama. What makes this escape so haunting is that it is unknown if the three men reached the mainland. While there were alleged sightings of the escapees, none of the reports were considered credible. The FBI closed its investigation in 1979, concluding that Morris and the Anglin brothers had drowned. Yet In January of 2018, CBS San Francisco published an extract of a letter addressed to the FBI that told an altogether different story—and claimed that the criminals had been at large since the 1960s. “My name is John Anglin,” it read. “I escape[d] from Alcatraz in June 1962 with my brother Clarence and Frank Morris. I’m 83 years old and in bad shape. I have cancer. Yes, we all made it that night but barely!” The letter was sent to the San Francisco Police Department’s Richmond station in 2013, the broadcaster reported but had been kept under wraps during a long investigation.
Colditz Castle – The Prison That Bred Ingenious Escapers
Colditz Castle wasn’t just any prison – it was where the Nazis sent their most troublesome Allied prisoners. The irony? By concentrating the most creative escape artists in one place, they created the perfect storm of ingenuity and determination.
This medieval fortress perched on a cliff in Saxony became home to officers who had already proven their escape skills at other camps. The prisoners turned the castle into an escape factory, complete with workshops hidden behind false walls and elaborate tunnel systems. One of the most ambitious plans involved building a working glider in the castle’s attic chapel, designed to fly over the walls to freedom. The two-man aircraft was constructed from floorboards, sheets, and whatever materials the prisoners could scavenge. Though the war ended before the glider could be tested in an actual escape, post-war investigations proved it would have worked.
Dieter Dengler’s Jungle Survival – Against All Odds in Laos
Some escapes happen in broad daylight, others in the dead of night. Dieter Dengler’s escape happened in the middle of a tropical hell that would have killed most men within days.
The young German-American pilot was shot down over Laos in 1966 during a secret bombing mission. Captured by the Pathet Lao, Dengler endured months of torture and starvation in a bamboo prison camp deep in the jungle. When he finally escaped with fellow prisoner Duane Martin, the real nightmare began. For 23 days, Dengler crawled through dense jungle, eating insects and drinking his own urine to survive. Martin was killed by villagers, leaving Dengler alone in a green maze where every step could be his last. When rescue helicopters finally spotted his emaciated frame, he weighed just 98 pounds and was covered in leeches and infected wounds. His survival story became legend and inspired the film “Rescue Dawn.”
Casanova’s Venetian Caper – Romance and Rooftops
Who else but history’s most famous lover would pull off one of the most audacious escapes from one of Europe’s most secure prisons? Giacomo Casanova didn’t just escape from the Doge’s Palace in 1756 – he did it with style.
Imprisoned for “public outrages against the Holy Religion,” Casanova spent 15 months plotting his breakout from the infamous Piombi prison beneath the palace’s lead roof. Using a sharp piece of iron, he painstakingly dug through the marble floor of his cell over months. On the night of his escape, he crawled through the hole, climbed across the treacherous lead rooftops of Venice, and broke into another part of the palace. Then came the masterstroke – he calmly dressed in fine clothes and walked out the front door, pretending to be a high-ranking official attending a meeting. Guards even held doors open for him as he strolled to freedom across St. Mark’s Square.
King Charles II’s Great Hide – From Throne to Tree
Picture a king hiding in a tree while enemy soldiers search below. That’s exactly what happened when Charles II became one of history’s most unlikely fugitives after his crushing defeat at the Battle of Worcester in 1651.
With Cromwell’s forces hunting him with a massive bounty on his head, the young king spent six weeks on the run across England. His most famous hiding spot was inside the hollow trunk of an oak tree while Parliamentary soldiers literally searched beneath his feet. He disguised himself as a servant, dyed his hair, and even learned to speak with a common accent. The future king chopped wood, served in taverns, and slept in barns – all while wanted posters offering £1,000 for his capture (equivalent to millions today) were nailed to every tree. His escape network included dozens of loyal Catholics and royalists who risked their lives to help him reach France. The adventure took him from farmhouses to safe houses, and even onto a fishing boat that nearly capsized in the English Channel.
The Maze Prison Mass Breakout – Europe’s Most Secure Prison Breached
September 25, 1983, became the day that shattered the myth of the “escape-proof” prison. Thirty-eight IRA prisoners pulled off the largest prison escape in British history from what was supposedly Europe’s most secure facility.
The Maze Prison in Northern Ireland was built like a fortress, with watchtowers, electronic surveillance, and multiple security perimeters. But the prisoners had been planning for months, smuggling in pistols piece by piece and studying guard routines down to the minute. They seized control of an entire prison block, overpowered guards, and commandeered a food delivery truck. The breakout was so well-coordinated that most of the prisoners were already miles away before alarms even sounded. Nineteen escapees were eventually recaptured, but the psychological impact was enormous – if prisoners could break out of the Maze, nowhere was truly secure.
Antoine de Tounens – The Self-Proclaimed King’s Escape
Sometimes truth is stranger than fiction, and the story of Antoine de Tounens proves it. This French lawyer didn’t just escape from prison – he escaped while claiming to be the rightful king of an entire country he’d invented.
In 1858, Tounens traveled to Chile and convinced local Mapuche tribes to crown him “King of Araucanía and Patagonia.” Chilean authorities, understandably skeptical of this European monarch appearing in their backyard, imprisoned him as a madman in 1862. But Tounens wasn’t finished with his royal delusions. He escaped from custody and fled back to France, where he continued to “rule” his imaginary kingdom from his apartment, issuing decrees and even minting coins. He made several more attempts to reclaim his “throne,” each ending in capture and escape. Chilean newspapers called him everything from a dangerous revolutionary to a harmless lunatic, but they couldn’t keep him locked up.
The Libby Prison Tunnel – Civil War’s Greatest Breakout
February 9, 1864, started like any other miserable day at Richmond’s Libby Prison. It ended with Confederate guards scratching their heads, wondering where 109 Union officers had vanished to.
Under these circumstances, it is not surprising that one of the largest of a number of escapes from Libby Prison occurred in February 1864, when 109 inmates tunneled their way to freedom. After three failed attempts, a small group of officers, working in three five-man shifts, labored for several weeks to dig the fifty-to-sixty-foot-long passageway out from the cellar. The kitchen area was infested with them—its nickname was “rat hell”and the rodents made tunneling an especially harrowing task, as they crawled over the prisoners in the pitch dark, squealing in their ears. After reaching a tobacco shed out of the sight lines of Confederate sentries on February 8, the large group of Union officers escaped the prison on February 9. The tunnelers organized into three relief teams with five members each. After 17 days of digging, they succeeded in breaking through to a 50-foot vacant lot on the eastern side of the prison, resurfacing beneath a tobacco shed inside the grounds of the nearby Kerr’s Warehouse. When Col. Rose finally broke through to the other side, he told his men that the “Underground Railroad to God’s Country was open!” In the end, fifty-nine reached Union lines, possibly relying on some help from Van Lew and her spies. Two men drowned in the James River and forty-eight were recaptured. The escape was so successful that it prompted Confederate authorities to threaten blowing up the entire prison if another breakout was attempted.
The Legacy of Great Escapes
These ten stories share something remarkable beyond their audacity – they prove that the human spirit refuses to be caged. Whether driven by duty, desperation, or sheer stubbornness, these escapees pushed the boundaries of what seemed possible.
Each escape changed history in its own way. The Great Escape led to the execution of 50 brave airmen but also exposed Nazi war crimes. Harriet Tubman’s journeys helped fuel the abolitionist movement that ended slavery. The Alcatraz breakout remains an unsolved mystery that captures imaginations decades later. From Colditz’s ingenious contraptions to Libby Prison’s underground railroad, these stories remind us that walls and bars can imprison bodies, but they can never truly contain the human desire for freedom.
What would you have done in their place? Sometimes the most ordinary people find themselves capable of the most extraordinary things when freedom calls.
Christian Wiedeck, all the way from Germany, loves music festivals, especially in the USA. His articles bring the excitement of these events to readers worldwide.
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