Stalag Luft III Williams, the book "Stolen Journey" by Philpot and the 1950 film "The Wooden Horse". There had been escape attempts (one of which inspired the film "The Wooden Horse") and many tunnels had been started and discovered before completion. In March 1943, Royal Air Force Squadron Leader Roger Bushell conceived a plan for a mass escape from the North Compound, which took place on the night of 24/25 March 1944. He was being held with the other British and Commonwealth airmen and he was in command of the Escape Committee that managed all escape opportunities from the north compound. Falling back
Derek Hodgkinson the Dutch coast. The crew, except Hodgkinson and his navigator were killed. Wounded, Hodgkinson was taken to a hospital as a prisoner of war. He was later transferred to Stalag Luft III, where he was made responsible for security under the leader of the escape committee "Big X". Stalag Luft III was made famous by the daring mass break-out through tunnels depicted in the film "The Great Escape". After several unsuccessful escape attempts, the camp was evacuated ahead of the Russian advance of January 1945 and the prisoners marched through severe winter weather to the naval PoW camp near Bremen.