8
A P.O.W. AT A FAMOUS PRISON CAMP
A P.O.W. AT A FAMOUS PRISON CAMP
After receiving extensive medical treatment from his German captors, Dwayne Linton was sent to Stalag Luft III in Sagan, Lower Silesia, around 150 kilometres south of Berlin. He was imprisoned here for over two years amongst thousands of air crew from the UK, the British Empire and the USA.
Stalag Luft III saw two of the most audacious P.O.W. escapes of the Second World War – the Wooden Horse escape and the Great Escape. Amongst Dwayne’s P.O.W. colleagues was William Ash, a serial escaper upon whom the Steve McQueen character is said to have been based in the 1963 film, ‘The Great Escape’.
Stalag Luft III saw two of the most audacious P.O.W. escapes of the Second World War – the Wooden Horse escape and the Great Escape. Amongst Dwayne’s P.O.W. colleagues was William Ash, a serial escaper upon whom the Steve McQueen character is said to have been based in the 1963 film, ‘The Great Escape’.
Dwayne Linton was a POW at ‘The Great Escape’ Prisoner of War Camp, Stalag Luft III, between late 1942 and early 1945. During or after the war, Dwayne Linton acquired photographs of the camp secretly taken by a fellow POW. This photo clearly shows the sandy soil on which the camp was built; the camp location was chosen especially because it was believed that prisoners would not be able to construct escape tunnels through such loose and unstable soil.
These photos of Stalag Luft III were taken by an American airman, Corporal H. E. Kious, who was a POW at Stalag Luft III for over a year. Stalag Luft III was exclusively for Allied airmen.
Originally from Oklahoma, USA, Corporal H. E. Kious smuggled a camera into Stalag Luft III and secretly took many photographs depicting daily life in the camp.
It is not known whether Corporal Kious developed and printed the films whilst a POW, or whether he kept the film rolls and developed them after the Second World War.
This is probably the boundary between one of the several compounds which comprised Stalag Luft III.
P.O.W.s listening to a radio built into a Red Cross supplies box. Many P.O.W. camps had their own secretly built wireless receiver sets, so that prisoners could stay abreast of the latest news of the war. This photograph is clearly marked ‘H.E. Kious’, the name of the photographer.
The dog-tag that Dwayne Linton wore during his incarceration at Stalag Luft III, and throughout his Second World War service.
Whilst incarcerated in Stalag Luft III, Dwayne Linton collected these signatures from his fellow POWs. Each individual box tells its own war story in miniature, most including the name of the POW, where and when they were shot down - and what aircraft they were flying.
