Re: The U.S. War on Journalists

On May 15, 3:05 pm, Jack Linthicum <jacklinthi...@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
>
wrote:

> Well, 50 of the 73 that got out in that great escape were shot by the
> Gestapo.

76 escaped. 3 got all the way back to Britain. 50 of the 73 recaptured
were shot. Unlike in the movie, they weren't all brought together, but
killed in ones and twos by the Gestapo.

>IIRC the original "real" escapers were all Sergeants, and I
> thought they were all British.

Not all British (Polish, Norwegian, Australian, Canadian, Dutch,
etc.)  just not American.  All of the Americans had been moved to
another camp- some of them had worked on the tunnels but were moved to
another compound a few weeks before the moon was right.

As with spies, language mastery was a key for escapers. That meant
that successful escapes by native English speakers was rare. It
happened (people committed to escaping had lots of free time on their
hands to try and master a language), but it was rare.

And I think that Stalag Luft III was an officer's camp, not an
enlisted men camp. There is some distinction, IIRC, in how the
prisoners are to be treated under the GC.

Chris Manteuffel