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Battleground

139. Battleground 44' - The Great Escape

Battleground

Goalhanger Podcasts

History

4.6703 Ratings

🗓️ 6 March 2024

⏱️ 42 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

The 1963 film The Great Escape immortalised the audacious real-life mass escape of 76 Allied airmen in March 1944 from the German Luftwaffe prisoner of war camp Stalag Luft III in eastern Germany, now Poland. But what was the reality of the escape, who were the characters involved, and was it worth it? To help Saul and Patrick dig deeper into the story they are joined by Journalist, Historian, and author of the book The Real Great Escape. If you have any thoughts or questions, you can send them to - [email protected] Producer: James Hodgson X (Twitter): @PodBattleground Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0

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entrepreneurs like you. Sign up for your $1 a month trial at Shopify.com slash setup. Hello and welcome to another episode of Battleground 44 with me Saul David and Patrick Bishop.

0:49.0

Today we're talking to historian and journalist Guy Walters about the great escape of prisoners of war from

0:54.6

Stalag Luft 3 in Sagan, East Germany, now Poland, that took place 80 years ago this month.

1:01.6

Guy is the author of a number of books on the Second World War and Nazi Germany, including

1:05.6

The Voice of War, Hunting Evil, and most relevant to today's subject, the real great escape. Guy, thanks so much for

1:13.9

coming on the podcast. It's an absolute pleasure. I'm a big fan. But Battleground 44 is a slightly new one

1:20.3

for me. So yeah, very happy to be here. Yeah, well, you have two hats, journalist and historian,

1:25.4

and we're really using the historian hat this time.

1:28.7

And we're going all the way back to almost 80 years ago this month.

1:32.0

Well, it is 80 years ago this month.

1:33.8

The Great Escape.

1:35.5

Most Brits know about it, of course, from the classic war film starring Steve McQueen and Richard Attenborough.

1:40.9

And we'll come on to the film, no doubt, and how historically accurate

1:44.6

it is. But first, tell us a little bit about the location, Starlag Luft 3. When and why was it

1:51.3

selected as the site of a POW camp and how big did it become by the events of 1944?

1:57.8

Starlag Luf 3 became a very, very big POW camp by 44 around the time of the Great

2:02.4

Escape.

...

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