March 21, 1942 - Sagan, Lower Silesia (Żagań, Poland) - The first compound of Stammlager Luft III, a Luftwaffe-run prisoner-of-war camp, is established near Sagan, under the command of Oberst (Colonel) Friedrich Wilhelm von Lindeiner-Wildau. The site is selected because its sandy soil made it difficult for prisoners-of-war to escape by tunneling =(START)
April 1(?), 1942 - Sagan - Prisoners begin to arrive to the camp, at first, british and commonwealth officers
April 11, 1942 - Sagan - Center compound opened
May 20(?), 1942 - Sagan - Squadron Leader Roger Bushell, organizer of several escape attempts from prisoner camps, arrives at the camp
June(?) 1(?), 1942 - Meanwhile in Berlin - Roger Bushell is taken to Berlin for questioning by the Gestapo, who suspected his involvement in the killing of Reinhard Heydrich
June 19, 1942 - Sagan - RAF norwegian flyer Jens Einar Müller is shot down and taken to Stalag Luft III
July 14, 1942 - Sagan - Dutch RAF Flight Lieutenant Bram van der Stok is shot down by messerschmitts. He is taken prisoner and taken to Stalag Luft III
August 19, 1942 - Sagan - RAF norwegian flyer Per Bergsland is shot down over Dieppe and taken to Stalag Luft III
October 1(?), 1942 - Sagan - Roger Bushell is returned to Stalag Luft III
March 1(?), 1943 - Sagan - Roger Bushell conceives a plan for a mass escape from the North Compound. Three tunnels would be dug for the escape, "Tom", "Dick" and "Harry"
March 29, 1943 - Sagan - North compound opened
July 4, 1943 - Sagan - 4th of July celebrations organized by american prisoners. Meanwhile, Lieutenant Michael Codner and Flight Lieutenant Eric Williams build a wooden vaulting horse, like the ones that were used in schools, but with the real intention of using it in an escape attempt
July 8, 1943 - Sagan - The wooden horse emerges from the block by four carriers and taken to a prearranged spot five yards from the trip wire
August 1(?), 1943 - Sagan - "Tom" is discovered. Construction on "Harry" is halted
September 1(?), 1943 - Sagan - A Southern compound for USAAF personnel is opened
October 29, 1943 - Sagan - First escape: Lieutenant Michael Codner, Flight Lieutenant Eric Williams and Flight Lieutenant Oliver Philpot escape Stalag Luft III after digging over 30m of tunnel. They take the train at Sagan and reach Frankfurt an der Oder by daybreak
October 30, 1943 - Meanwhile in Frankfurt an der Oder - Williams and Codner catch the train to Kustrin (Kostrzyn, Poland). Philpot also catches other slow train to Kustrin. There, he boards the express to Königsberg (Kaliningrad, Russia)
October 31, 1943 - Meanwhile in Stettin and Danzig - Williams and Codner reach Stettin by train in the morning. Philpot arrives at Dirschau and boards the express to Danzig, where he arrives on the same day
November 1, 1943 - Meanwhile in Danzig - Philpot stealthily climbs to a swedish coal ship and hides himself until the he is far from the german coast
November 3, 1943 - Meanwhile in Södertälje, Sweden - Philpot arrives in Södertälje, Sweden, and completes his escape
November 11, 1943 - Meanwhile in Strömstad, Sweden - Williams and Codner arrive at Strömstad in a small danish ship, completing their escape
January 1(?), 1944 - Sagan - Construction on "Harry" resumes
February 20, 1944 - Sagan - Bushell decides that 200 men were going to attempt the escape through "Harry". The Escape Committee receives 510 requests, so all the names were put in a hat for a draw. However, the Escape Committee decides to give the first 30 places in the tunnel to the men who had the best chance of escaping. The following 20 places would be taken by those who had done the most work on the tunnel
March 25, 1944 - Meanwhile in Saarbrücken, Stettin and Dresden, Germany - Roger Bushell and his partner Bernard Scheidhauer are caught at Saarbrücken railway station. Bergsland and Müller arrive in Stettin by train. In Dresden, Bram van der Stok purchases a ticket to Alkmaar in the Netherlands
March 26, 1944 - Hanover | Oldenzaal, Netherlands | Meanwhile in Sagan and at the Berghof, Berchtesgaden - During a meeting with Heinrich Himmler, Hermann Göring and Wilhelm Keitel, Adolf Hitler receives a report about the mass escape from Stalag Luft III. In a bad mood, Hitler orders the fugitives to be summarily shot. Himmler and Göring try to persuade him from that decision, believing the killings would create an international outcry. In the end, they agree to a compromise: half of the allied officers would be shot. In Stalag Luft III, two Luftwaffe officers arrive to relieve Commandant Von Lindeiner for incompetence. Bram van der Stok changes trains in Hanover and arrives in the Dutch town of Oldenzaal, where he nervously passes a Gestapo inspection without arousing suspicion.
March 27, 1944 - Meanwhile in Utrecht, Netherlands - Van der Stok reaches Utrecht and seeks the help of a couple of his former professors. After several hours of conversation, they arrange a safe house for him in Amersfoort
March 29, 1944 - Meanwhile in Ramstein, Germany - 50 of the escapees, including Roger Bushell are executed. Of the remainder 26 escapees, 23 are caught by the germans. Per Bergsland and Jens Müller are smuggled into a swedish ship and four hours later reach Gothenburg, completing their escape
April(?) 25(?), 1944 - Meanwhile in Maastricht | Uccle, Brussels - After almost a month in Utrecht, Van der Stok is given directions to a safe house in Maastricht and smuggled across Maas River into Belgium. There, with the help of a rich uncle living in Antwerp, he finds himself spending the next few weeks in comparative luxury in the Brussels suburb of Uccle
June(?) 1(?), 1944 - Meanwhile in Paris | Toulouse | St-Gaudens - Bram van der Stok uses his last money to travel to Paris, from then to Toulouse and finally to the small town of St-Gaudens, near the Pyrenees, where he would contact the french resistance.
July 1(?), 1944 - Sagan | Meanwhile in Spain - West compound opened for US officers. Bram van der Stok reaches Spain through a Pyrennes pass and from there he heads for the British Embassy in Madrid, completing his escape
July 8, 1944 - Meanwhile in Gibraltar - Bram Van der Stok arrives in Gibraltar
July 11, 1944 - Meanwhile in Bristol, England - Bram Van der Stok is flown to Bristol, England
October 5, 1944 - Colonel Von Lindeiner is court-martialled and sentenced to 12 months in prison. He avoids the penalty by feigning mental illness and is admitted to an army hospital
December 4, 1944 - Sagan - Memorial service for the 50 victims, including senior officers of the Luftwaffe and an honour guard made up of german soldiers
January 27, 1945 - Sagan - The camp is liberated by soviet forces =(END)
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