Peter Butterworth beyond the camp grounds. He was subsequently sent to Stalag Luft III, near Sagan, the scene of "The Great Escape". Whilst at Stalag Luft III he met Talbot Rothwell, who later went on to write many of the Carry On films in which Butterworth was to star. Rothwell and Butterworth formed a duet and sang in the camp shows, where booing and catcalls covered the sounds of an escape tunnel being dug by other prisoners. Butterworth was one of the vaulters covering for the escapers during the escape portrayed by the book and film "The Wooden Horse". Butterworth later auditioned
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.