The Real Great Escape, by Simon Read — review

The scene is chilling. Four men stand in the snow, all in uniform. The men are in pairs, one in each pair holds a pistol to the head of the man in front. Behind them two parked cars, 1940s models; in front a snow-filled ditch. What happens next?

The right answer depends on which scene you are watching. The one reproduced in both these books (and above) occurred in February 1946, and was a reconstruction staged by RAF police hunting for the killers of two men, Flying Officer Gordon Kidder and Squadron Leader Thomas Kirby-Green. Afterwards, all four participants and the man who took the picture got back in the cars and drove off. In the original scene, which had taken place two years earlier, there was no photographer. Two men toppled forward into the ditch and only their killers returned to the cars.

The facts that led to the murders were simple enough. A week before their deaths, the two officers were among 76 prisoners- of-war who had escaped through a tunnel from the camp, Stalag Luft III, where they were being held; just three of them made it back to Britain, and 23 more were returned to captivity.

There had been other mass escapes, notably by 43 Polish officers from a camp in 1943. What made the one from Stalag Luft III different was Hitler’s enraged reaction, ordering that all those recaptured be shot, and only modifying the number to a maximum of 50 after being warned that the crime could not be concealed.

A constant regression affects every account of the Great Escape. First came the event, then the investigation into the mass execution, next the stiff-lipped heroism of Paul Brickhill’s book that gave it its name, followed by a dozen others in similar vein, and, skewing the view irredeemably, the motor-biking romance of Steve McQueen’s 1963 film.