Oflag VI-B was a World War II German prisoner-of-war camp for officers (Offizierlager), 1 km (0.6 mi) southwest of the village of Dössel (now part of Warburg) in Germany.
[1] The serial escaper Eric Foster in his autobiography explained that upon arrival he chatted to a guard to ask about the conditions of the camp.
[4] Eric Foster who was captured in June 1940[5] and up to 1942 had served time in Dulag Luft, Spangenberg, Toruń and now Warburg, made observations about camp life.
He observed three types of prisoner of war inside Warburg: the Zizzer, who would be a prisoner who was happy-go-lucky;[6] the studious type, who was always concerned he was being left behind at home and who would be catered for by the Red Cross with study classes and examinations up to first year university standard;[6] and the escapist, which included people like himself and his friend the Polish officer Danny Krol who was described as generous and a great gambler.
The sentry was not satisfied with their gate pass, so Stevens marched his party back into the camp.
This time the sentry demanded to see their Army paybooks, so the escape party fled,[8] although two, Pete Tunstall and Dominic Bruce were eventually arrested after a camp search by Major Rademacher found a piece of cloth on them that was used to create the sentry uniforms.
[9] On 30 August 1942 the camp was the scene of "Operation Olympia", also known as the "Warburg Wire Job", another mass escape attempt.
Skelton ("Skelly") Ginn fused the perimeter floodlights,[10] 41 prisoners carrying four 12-foot (3.7 m) scaling ladders made from bed slats rushed to the barbed-wire fence and clambered over.
[13][14][15][16]: 36 British prisoners were taught by one officer, Major Alexis Casdagli, to sew with unravelled jumpers and needles and threads from Red Cross parcels, and they made bookmarks or embroidered letters home with symbols of freedom such as butterflies.
[17] On the night of 27 September 1944 British aircraft attacking the nearby railroad junction in Nörde, dropped some bombs on the camp, killing 90 officers.