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IN the film of The Great Escape, the prisoners of war dug just three tunnels with their makeshift tools – but archeologists at the camp have now discovered that the inmates dug a total of more than 100.

The underground workings at Stalag Luft III in Zagan, formerly in eastern Germany but now in Poland, remained undiscovered for more than 60 years.

The extraordinary scale of the earthworks are testimony to the audacity of the prisoners, who faced possible execution by firing squad if they were discovered.

Two of the three tunnels in the movie – known as Tom and Harry – were destroyed by the Germans. Of the 76 PoWs who escaped in March 1944, only three reached allied territory. The remainder were recaptured and 50 were executed by the Gestapo. The remaining tunnel, Dick, used to store materials for the escape, was never discovered by the camp authorities.

Archeologists from Keele University and University College London (UCL) used ground-penetrating radar and equipment to measure magnetic patterns in the soil to find the location of hut 122, containing the entrance shaft. Inside the tunnel was a lamp made from a cheese tin from a Red Cross parcel and a rubber stamp made from a boot heel, bearing a Wehrmacht eagle. Empty Red Cross milk cans had been used to make a basic ventilation system inside the tunnel.

An escape kit within the remnants of a wire-bound attaché case contained a civilian-style coat, buttons, thread, a blue glass marble, a draughts piece, a toothbrush and case and fragments of a German language book.

Peter Doyle, consultant geologist and visiting professor at UCL, said: “The finds we have made are hugely important because they tell us how young, bright officers with nothing to do turned their minds and hands to tunnelling.

“One-third of the inmates were actively tunnelling and another third were helping. It was a huge operation.”

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