Last of Great Escape camp PoWs return for recreated long march

It is 20 degrees below freezing and the diesel in the engines of the Royal Air Force lorries is turning into jelly. To the former prisoners of war who have come to Poland to commemorate the 65th anniversary of their forced march from Stalag Luft III — scene of the Great Escape — the conditions are familiar in all but one detail.

“It was colder then,” says Andrew Wiseman, 87, one of two surviving marchers to attend the ceremony. “We had no suitable clothing and we were hungry. It was pitch dark and minus 22C. Chilly. I think it’s sufficiently British to say I was chilly.” Mr Wiseman watches as the children of Stalag Luft III PoWs assemble alongside about 100 RAF personnel to prepare for a re-creation of the Long March, which prisoners were forced to make by their German captors as Soviet forces advanced in January 1945. It will take them from Zagan, Poland, near where the camp was based, to Spremberg, Germany, 60 miles and three days away.

Last of Great Escape camp PoWs return for recreated long march - Times Online

 

Great read, Thanks.