The Great Escape..

[vetran]

From memory British pilot PoWs in the movie (and presumably original story) were treated far more gallantly than average PoW in German hands, wasn't it Luftwaffe who guarded them rather than SS?



Tried to escape from german prison == death if caught, those prisons must have also been under direction of Luftwaffe with special privileged status for prisoners.

It could therefore be argued that attempted escape in such conditions was breach of trust and ungentelemen-like thing to do.

Either way it was a massive failure with vast majority of escapees shot dead (being shot during escape from PoW is a normal sane expectation).

Crap war movie all in all, a far better one (true story or not) is "Where the Eagles Dare"

Many of the prisons were guarded by the main Army, Navy or Air force not the SS or Gestapo. Whilst they were hardly compassionate they tended to obey the Geneva convention, escape did not mean death just segregation as shown in the film.

The camps were monitored by neutral countries and charities like the red cross, randomly killing inmates would have brought international disdain and possibly other nations joining the war against the Axis powers this is the power behind the Geneva convention.

The Geneva convention does not prohibit escape it just expects humane treatment of POWs on all sides.

The NAZIs already separated the captured Jews and others they saw as sub human and sent them to concentration camps before they got to a Stalag. They were then murdered.

In this instance few POWs were shot while trying to escape the reality is 50 of the 73 escapees were taken to a field in groups of two and murdered, a completely different thing and not something a POW should expect.

Stalag Luft III murders - Wikipedia

It is officially designated as a war crime. Many of the perpetrators were tried and hung after the war.

It was a massive success as not only was a propaganda victory, additional guards were needed and fortifications were needed. As you can see from the list of Gestapo officers involved a massive manhunt was launched. While the Gestapo were pursuing the escaped Airmen they weren't hunting resistance fighters, you can imagine many more soldiers were deployed as the news of the escape got to Adolf Hitler who ordered the murders.

Like Dunkirk & Stalingrad it may have been a sad victory but it was a significant one.

I like where eagles dare but there is a reason this one of the most admired war movies.

[AtW]

The fact they knew their enemy were psychotic murderers who would ignore the Geneva convention to machine gun 50 prisoners after their capture made their bravery more impressive.

From memory British pilot PoWs in the movie (and presumably original story) were treated far more gallantly than average PoW in German hands, wasn't it Luftwaffe who guarded them rather than SS?

You realise the POWs in Stalag Luft III were transferred there because they had all tried to escape in their existing prisons

Tried to escape from german prison == death if caught, those prisons must have also been under direction of Luftwaffe with special privileged status for prisoners.

It could therefore be argued that attempted escape in such conditions was breach of trust and ungentelemen-like thing to do.

Either way it was a massive failure with vast majority of escapees shot dead (being shot during escape from PoW is a normal sane expectation).

Crap war movie all in all, a far better one (true story or not) is "Where the Eagles Dare"

[BR14]

As it was based on a true story and it was the POWs way of helping the war effort by tying up German soldiers and resources whilst maybe getting highly trained pilots etc back into the war it was a massive success.

The fact they knew their enemy were psychotic murderers who would ignore the Geneva convention to machine gun 50 prisoners after their capture made their bravery more impressive.

You realise the POWs in Stalag Luft III were transferred there because they had all tried to escape in their existing prisons, it was designed to be impossible to escape from and all the guards were expected to be on high alert.

They managed to forge papers, dig tunnels and escape from the camp in quantity.

The Great Escape film was riddled with fiction. Here'''s what really happened - ABC News.

I suppose Stalingrad's 2 million casualties make it a bit of a flop in your opinion not the incredible story of bravery we all understand it to be?

AtWat has no concept of this word, remember?

[vetran]

Lots of people got machine gunned in the Great "Escape", hardly a success

As it was based on a true story and it was the POWs way of helping the war effort by tying up German soldiers and resources whilst maybe getting highly trained pilots etc back into the war it was a massive success.

The fact they knew their enemy were psychotic murderers who would ignore the Geneva convention to machine gun 50 prisoners after their capture made their bravery more impressive.

You realise the POWs in Stalag Luft III were transferred there because they had all tried to escape in their existing prisons, it was designed to be impossible to escape from and all the guards were expected to be on high alert.

They managed to forge papers, dig tunnels and escape from the camp in quantity.

The Great Escape film was riddled with fiction. Here'''s what really happened - ABC News.

I suppose Stalingrad's 2 million casualties make it a bit of a flop in your opinion not the incredible story of bravery we all understand it to be?

[AtW]

Lots of people got machine gunned in the Great "Escape", hardly a success

[vetran]

That's exactly why he isn't safe. The more law abiding you are, the more likely you'll be kicked out on a technicality.

indeed sadly true.

[ladymuck]

Hope not, we can't deport serial rapists and murderers so he is probably safe.

That's exactly why he isn't safe. The more law abiding you are, the more likely you'll be kicked out on a technicality.

[vetran]

He'll be deported next week.

Hope not, we can't deport serial rapists and murderers so he is probably safe.

[ladymuck]

see boys and girls there are plenty of places worse than the UK. Got to admire his guts, first he exposes FGM abuses, child marriage and gets used as a pawn, then gets locked up so he walks trough mountains to escape. Sounds like an excellent addition to the UK.

He'll be deported next week.

[vetran]

see boys and girls there are plenty of places worse than the UK. Got to admire his guts, first he exposes FGM abuses, child marriage and gets used as a pawn, then gets locked up so he walks trough mountains to escape. Sounds like an excellent addition to the UK.

He believes he was taken by Revolutionary Guards partly due to his research work and also because Iran was looking for British assets to seize as a reprisal for the British marines helping to seize an Iranian ship, Grace 1, off Gibraltar on 4 July 2019. The ship was suspected of breaching EU sanctions by taking oil to Syria.He was formally accused of trying to secure socio-cultural changes in the Islamic Republic by lobbying to raise the age of child marriage, promoting homosexuality and maintaining contact with foreign powers.
“By the first week of the interrogation, the British ship was released, but I had no access to media. I was in solitary confinement. So the only source of information I had was the interrogators. And one day, this guy just came and he was so happy. He said, ‘Thank you. Thank you very much. We got our ship back. And I think you made a difference here. So thank you for this, but we still really have a long way to go with you.’
“And I said, ‘So what’s that got to do with me?’ He said, ‘Wow, come on. You are British, you are worth a lot. Britain is the cradle of human rights so of course you are worth a lot to them.’”
Ahmady said he had been harassed for long time prior to his arrest after he became a target of the Revolutionary Guards which started to object to his research into FGM, child marriage, temporary marriage, ethnicity, and lesbian, bisexual and gay relationships.

[SueEllen]

It is possible to escape Iran if you know the mountains..


Academic jailed in Iran pulls off daring escape back to Britain | Iran | The Guardian

A British Iranian dual national sentenced to nine years and three months in jail in Iran for co-operating with “a hostile state power” has smuggled himself out of Iran, escaping over the country’s treacherous mountainous border, and is now living in London.

In an interview with the Guardian, Kameel Ahmady explained he felt had no option but to flee after spending nearly 100 days in Evin prison, including a brutal spell in solitary confinement while he was being interrogated.

“Once I had been sentenced I had a choice of whether I would stay and not see my family and four-year-old child until he was 14, or to risk fleeing,” he said.
British dual national Kameel Ahmady detained in Iran

Ahmady, a social anthropologist whose research revealed the extent of female genital mutilation (FGM) in Iran, was found guilty of conspiring with hostile foreign powers in November 2020, among other charges, but was released on bail pending his appeal.

He said given how Iranian courts normally confirmed the first judgment and because of the political motivation for the trial, he had not held much hope his appeal would succeed – a view that was confirmed when it was rejected in absentia on Monday.

Ahmady said he did not yet know whether Iranian officials realised he had escaped the country.

He escaped carrying only his laptop and copies of the books and articles he had published, crossing the border through snow 1.5 metres deep and fog, evading Iranian border patrols. Border security has been heightened ever since the assassination of the Iranian nuclear scientist Mohsen Fakhrizadeh in Tehran last year.

“I am Kurdish by ethnicity and I know some of the routes, but it was very dangerous. I had to try several times,” he said.

Ahmady followed the paths used by mountain porters evading US-imposed sanctions to carry alcohol, car parts, medicine, cigarettes and contraband from Iraq and Turkey. But the routes are hazardous: one smuggler carrying four tyres on his back was recently shot by border guards, while several others have frozen to death.

He said he feared if he had been caught he would have faced more years in jail, but he had to take the risk. “I smuggled myself out of Iran out of despair,” he said. “I felt I had no other choice or option to leave. I was banned from travelling. I had this bounty and this sentence.”