Return to hell: British veterans re-enact the infamous Long March from the Great Escape prison camp 65 years ago

 

 

By Anny Shaw

Last updated at 4:57 PM on 27th January 2010

 

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A group of British veterans who were herded out of a Nazi prisoner-of-war camp and forced on a 60-mile death march 65 years ago relived their ordeal today.

 

Six of the original band led a group of more than 100 current RAF personnel, who are retracing the journey, out of the camp gates at Stalag Luft III.

 

In January 1945, Allied servicemen were ordered to leave the war prison in Poland - where the legendary Great Escape was made the year before - and began the Long March in biting cold and snow.

 

 

Charles Clarke (left) and Andy Wiseman, who were forced on the Long March 65 years ago, revisit the Stalag Luft III prisoner-of-war camp in Poland

 

Some 10,000 soldiers went on the march, with many hundreds of them dying in the -25c temperatures, their bodies abandoned where they fell at the side of the road.

Servicemen slept in barns and sheds along the way before they were shipped off in cattle trucks to Germany.

The six survivors yesterday returned to western Silesia, near the present-day Polish town of Zagan, to join the RAF marchers and share their memories.

Andy Wiseman, 87, was a 21-year-old warrant officer serving as a bomb aimer in a Halifax squadron when he was shot down over France in April 1944.

 

'It brings back memories of cold and hunger,' he recalled. 'It is now roughly the same temperature as we had in 1945. I remember the camaraderie and esprit de corps.

'But it was a good lesson. You learn that cometh the hour, cometh the man. You learn that nothing is impossible.

 

'We weren’t trained to go on the Long March, we were trained to fly. But if you come to a barrier there’s no way out but to get over it. It’s no good turning round and pretending it’s not there.'

He added: 'You also learn a lot about friendship. You learn that you can rely on people and they will help you as much as they can.'

 

Allied prisoners-of-war on the Long March from Stalag Luft III in January 1945

 

 

Following three years of research, Cambridge historian Dr Howard Tuck has now recreated the route and designed a new march as a training exercise for today's RAF servicemen, who covered 20 miles today.

 

The group were led out by the World War Two veterans - some of whom participated in preparations for the Great Escape - from the original site of Stalag Luft III where 76 PoWs broke out in 1944. Tragically on three of the escapees avoided recapture and 50 were later executed by the Nazis.

'One of the most memorable parts for the current generation is when they’re marching the long-deserted moss-covered roads, with the wind whipping across the plains and little protection,' Dr Tuck told The Express.

 

'You’ll have a gentleman of 95 and a trainee of 18 and they will be sharing a moment

in history. Time stands still.'

The veterans are being driven most of the route and are being dropped off at various landmarks.

 

Even 65 years on most still recognise some of the churches as well as the barn at the Polish village of Leippa where they spent a night.

 

 

Some 10,000 soldiers went on the march, with many hundreds of them dying in the -25c temperatures

 

Father-of-four Mr Wiseman, a widower from Bray, Berkshire, said: 'The experience of the Long March varied tremendously. Some people had a very, very tough time with dysentery, frostbite and diphtheria.

 

'You just followed in the footsteps of the guy in front of you. You bowed your head because snow was falling and somebody said if you bowed your head as you walked or shuffled you’d be less affected by the wind coming at you.

'You didn’t talk because that was an effort. You concentrated on walking. You concentrated on putting your foot into the foot-mark in the snow of the person in front. You didn’t think.

 

The Long March: The 60-mile trek from the site of the Stalag Luft III camp to Spremberg in Germany

 

'The first two nights we had nothing to eat and what little food we had was frozen solid. We slept out in the open air, cuddling together in the snow.

'It was called the Long March but it was more of a long shuffle to be honest because the snow was about a foot deep.'

Another RAF veteran due to lead the marchers out of Stalag Luft III this morning is Air Commodore Charles Clarke, 86, who was a bomb aimer on a Lancaster when his plane was shot down in 1944.

'There were a lot of false starts. Then at 2am on January 28 we left the camp in thick snow,' says the father-of-one from Richmond, West London.

'I had a sledge. We were carrying our blankets, our cooking pots, what little food we had. The first stop was after 36 hours.

 

 

 

 

Frank Day (left) was a spitfire fighter pilot who became a prisoner-of-war after being shot down over Crete; his son, Michael, is taking part in the re-enactment

 

 

'There was no provision for food or accommodation en route. We stopped by a barn, where we were herded in and the barn is still there to this day.

 

'The RAF personnel walking the Long March this week will be spending their first night there.'

Mr Clarke, president of the RAF ex-POW Association, adds: 'The worst of it was the uncertainty of not knowing what was going to happen to us.

 

'After the Great Escape, when the Germans shot 50 escapers from Stalag Luft III, anything was possible. We didn’t know if we were being marched off to be executed.'

The original march travelled over 62 miles during one of the coldest winter months of the 20th century when Hitler ordered that all prisoners be moved westward in a bid to escape the Russians to the east.

The men left the camp in what is now Zagan and were forced to march for three days under German guard before they were dispersed via cattle trucks from Spremberg, Germany to other locations.

 

Iconic: Steve McQueen in the 1963 film The Great Escape

 

The recreation of the march, believed to have claimed some 300 lives, will follow the exact same route with the young RAF personnel sleeping in the same barns along the way.

Dr Tuck, 40, of Cambridge, added that veteran Eric Foinette, who spent three years in Stalag Luft III after being shot down in Denmark, will be leading the exercise.

Dr Tuck added: ''We're privileged to have Eric Foinette lead us off. He departed for the original Long March on his 30th birthday, and now he's marching us out on his 95th.'

Joining the marchers is Michael Day, 63, whose father Frank Day was a spitfire fighter pilot before being shot down over Crete on a photo reconnaissance mission.

Michael, who is writing a book on his father's war experiences and POW letters, said: ''I'm following in my father's footsteps.

'This is a march by the living in respect of those who died. It is a memorial to the stoicism, courage and resourcefulness of those young RAF officers in World War Two.'

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1246442/British-veterans-forced-gruelling-Long-March-Poland-enact-journey-65-years-later.html#ixzz0dpzO6uRe

On a related note, I enjoy reenacting all my horrific life experiences.

 

The time I asked out the pretty girl to the school dance, and she slapped me.

 

The time I peed my pants in front of an auditorium full of cruel eyes.

 

It's so much fun!