Canucks?

[sidako71]

Like most of you, I have seen The Movie. I have yet to research The Great Escape, bit I do find it quite fascinating...

I have one question...Were any Canadians at Stalag Luft III? (okay 2 questions...) What was their contribution to The Escape?

Thanks!

[Ebob]

Just about every nationality was represented at Stalag Luft III - Polish, Australians, Canadians, Americans, British, French.

The 'Americans' (and that may include Canadians, I'm not certain) did contibute whole heartedly in the construction of the 3 tunnels, however, they were not involved in the actual escape as all Americans were moved to a new compound some weeks before the escape.

[sidako71]

Thanks Ebob...Canadians in WW2 were considered British, as we fought under the 'Commonwealth' banner.

I'll take a look through our Library and see if I can find anything out...

[Ebob]

Here we go... you're quite right, some Canadians are on the roll call of the 50 shot following the escape - so these guys made it out of the tunnel. 6 out of 50 would imply more than 10% of the guys involved in the excape plan (some 300 or more) may have been Canadian.

F/L Henry J Birkland, Canadian
F/L Gordon A Kidder, Canadian
Patrick W Langford, Canadian
F/L George E McGill, Canadian
F/L James C Wernham, Canadian
F/L George W Wiley, Canadian

[Ebob]

I didn't mean to be ignorant by the way in my earlier post, I just wasn't sure how the Germans would have catagorised the prisoners.

[sidako71]

No offense taken at all. Sometimes it's hard for Canadians to classify Canadians ...

Glad to see we were able to help out...too bad so many paid the price...

[okiered]

Get a copy of "The Longest Tunnel" by Alan Burgess, in it you'll find that a Canadian prisoner named "Wings" Day was one of the most important people on the escape committe.

[Anonomous]

The Canadians were classed as British prisoners i belive, as they were under the commonwealth banner.

[mr73]

Check out www.rcafmuseum.on.ca/great_escape.htm You'll find lots of info

[Silmir]

'Wings' wasn't Canadian was he? I always thought that Wally Floody was but now I'm not sure

[arethusa]

I believe 'Wings' Day was British.

Yes, Walter (Wally) Floody was Canadian. My father, who was also a prisoner at Stalag Luft III, introduced me to Wally in the mid 60's when the movie came out.

Floody learned how to build tunnels while working at the Inco mines in Sudbury, Northern Ontario, before the war.

My father was one of the 'scroungers' at Sagan as he had learned a little bit of German and was good at talking the conning the guards into trading what they thought were inconsequential little things for treats like chocolate and cigarettes from the Red Cross parcels.

He used his persuasive abilities to become a lawyer after the war.

Canadian prisoners were classified as British by the Germans, mainly because they were the same uniforms (but with different insignia) and flew on the same squadrons. For instance, my father, a dual citizen, (Canadian and Scottish) was a Lancaster/Halifax pilot who joined the RAF. One member of his crew was Canadian RCAF while the remainder were all British RAF (one Scottish, the rest English)

[1904wood]

Hey, I'm excited, there are new people out there! I checked this site out last summer when I was inspired by the cold winter layout photos. Collected the figures, painted and snow flocked them, and am now getting back into building the layout/terrain board. We have finally had our first real snow of the winter, which is unusually late for Michigan, so I have lots of real inspiration outside.

Back to work. But just wanted to say hi!
Michael
PS: And do read the Great Escape book, it really gives you alot of detail and gives you a real appreciation for how much detail they put in the movie.