» Stalag Luft III – The Great Escape Camp Military History Tours

Stalag Luft III – The Great Escape Camp

Stalag Luft III, known to many as “The Great Escape” Camp was the vast PoW Camp for Allied Airmen cut out of a thick forest in Upper Silesia, then in the East of Germany, now located in Poland. The photo above depicts the end of the famous “Harry” Tunnel which ran from Hut 104 into the woods, just beyond the pathway. The camp was the site of hundreds of escape attempts, some of which resulted in “Home Runs”. The camp today is unspoilt and with so much to see and do it leaves little to the imagination.

All Stalag Luft III Trips are £399 per guest. Plus £30 a night single room supplement, where applicable.

Next Trip Dates:

~~Mar 24-26 2013, from £399 – SOLD OUT~~

18-20 October 2013, from £399, places available.

Guests fly to Berlin Schoenefeld where they are met in Arrivals by Nick J. From here we travel the short journey by train into the centre of Berlin (included). We go into Escapee mode from the off as Nick leads the group on a short walking tour (included) of Third Reich Berlin taking in such sites as the Brandenburg Gate, the Fuhrerbunker, Goering’s Air Ministry, Himmler’s SS HQ location, Holocaust Memorial etc. Guests then have a chance to grab brunch before heading east on the early afternoon train (included). The further east we go the darker the scenery becomes before we finally cross the modern day frontier into Poland where of course modern day Zagan is located. Back in WW2 the borders were 100 miles futher east and Sagan was in Germany. We arrive at the immpressive railway station, as so many of the POWs did, and little has changed since the war. After an initial exploration of the station we transfer to our hotel by taxi (included), a fairly short journey but a little too far to walk after a long day. After we settle into our lovely hotel – a Wehrmacht hospital in WW2 (indeed POWs were treated there) – guests are treated to a talk on Stalag Luft III before dinner. This night is the anniversary of The Great Escape and there is an opportunity for guests to accompany Nick up to the camp in the dead of night to pay their respects.

After breakfast on Day Two guests take taxis to the camp (included) where they will have an opportunity to go down a recreation of the Harry tunnel, climb up a ‘Goon’ tower and go inside a POW recreated by the RAF. We then go into a wonderful little museum (entry included) dedicated to the POWs at Sagan (Napoleonic, WW1 & 2) which mainly contains exhibits from Stalag Luft III and Stalag VIIIC, the camp located next door. Here we will see lots of artefacts dug out of the POW camp ground by the curators of the museum – guests will have a chance to discuss such finds with the curators. We then walk through VIIIC to Stalag Luft III South and West Compounds (American) before entering the North Compound, home of the famous ”Tom”, ”Dick” and “Harry” tunnel, amongst others. We see many examples of the POW huts, the canteen, sick bay, “cooler”, fire pits and the theatre. Guests will be able to really explore the woods and have a picnic (included by virtue of “Operation MHT Breadroll” ) and have camp life and various escapes – as well as The Great Escape – explained in detail. We then walk from the Harry exit hole through the woods in search of the train station, as the escapers did, before having a detailed look around the station ticket hall. We then make our way along the railway line pathway to the small cemetery where the POWs build a memorial to the 50 murdered airmen. After paying our respects we are collected by taxi and taken back to our hotel late afternoon.

Day Three we travel by taxi to the train station where we follow the initial POW route into the camp’s East Compound, seeing various WW2 objects along the way (eg machine gun posts). In the East Compound we discuss the legendary Wooden Horse Escape that took place on it’s sportfield before we walk through the Central Compound to the more leafy Kommandantur area. Nick J is a well respected archaeologist and in the Kommandatur area he will explain to guests how to approach such terrain as if it were an archaeological dig, always fascinating. Mid afternoon we leave Sagan and return to the Berlin Schoenefeld to catch our flights back to the UK.