The camp was established in March 1942 near the town of Sagan, Lower Silesia, in what was then Nazi Germany (now Żagań, Poland), 160 km (100 mi) south-east of Berlin.

The second breakout—the so-called Great Escape—of March 1944, was conceived by Squadron Leader Roger Bushell of the Royal Air Force (RAF) and was authorised by the senior British officer at Stalag Luft III, Herbert Massey.

The first POWs, or kriegies, as they called themselves (from Kriegsgefangene, German for "prisoner of war"), to be housed at Stalag Luft III were British and other Commonwealth officers, arriving in April 1942.

The digging of escape tunnels, in particular, was made difficult by several factors, the barracks housing the prisoners were raised approximately 60 cm (24 in) off the ground to make it easier for guards to detect tunnelling; the camp had been constructed on land that had a very sandy subsoil; the surface soil was dark grey, so it could easily be detected if anyone dumped the brighter, yellow sand found beneath it above ground, or even just had some of it on their clothing.

[5] Deputy Commandant Major Gustav Simoleit, a professor of history, geography and ethnology before the war, spoke several languages, including English, Russian, Polish and Czech.

[9] Luft III issued "non-working" German civilian rations which allowed 1,928 kcal (8,070 kJ) per day, with the balance made up from American, Canadian and British Red Cross parcels and items sent to the POWs by their families.

In this way he provided information from captured air crews regarding their experiences with the German night defenses, helping the bombing offensive from within the camp.

Box 1142 run out of Fort Hunt in Virginia, as well as a secret programme of sending escape aids into camps disguised inside care packages from two covert relief agencies.

Philpot, posing as a Norwegian margarine manufacturer, was able to board a train to Danzig (now Gdańsk) and from there stowed away on a Swedish ship headed for Stockholm, from where he was repatriated to Britain.

[18]Group Captain Herbert Massey, as senior British officer, authorised the escape attempt which would have good chance of success; in fact, the simultaneous digging of three tunnels would become an advantage if any one of them was discovered, because the guards would scarcely imagine that another two were well under way.

The metal in the cans could be fashioned into various tools and items such as scoops and lamps, the latter fuelled by fat skimmed off soup served at the camp and collected in tiny tin vessels, with wicks made from worn clothing.

As the tunnel's entrance was very well hidden, Dick was also used as a storage room for items such as maps, postage stamps, forged travel permits, compasses, and clothing.

Previously, the attempt had been planned for the summer for its good weather, but in early 1944 the Gestapo visited the camp and ordered increased effort to detect escapes.

The first group of 100, called "serial offenders", were guaranteed a place and included 30 who spoke German well or had a history of escapes, and an additional 70 considered to have put in the most work on the tunnels.

An early problem for the escapees was that most were unable to find the way into the railway station, until daylight revealed it was in a recess of the side wall to an underground pedestrian tunnel.

[4][33] Roger Bushell, the leader of the escape, was shot by Gestapo official Emil Schulz just outside what is today Ramstein Air Base near Kaiserslautern, Germany.

Two captured escapees were sent to Oflag IV-C at Colditz Castle, and four (Harry Day, Sydney Dowse, Bertram James, and Johnnie Dodge) were sent to Sachsenhausen concentration camp, where one quipped "the only way out of here is up the chimney.

[33] The Gestapo investigated the escape and, while this uncovered no significant new information, the camp commandant, Friedrich Wilhelm von Lindeiner-Wildau, was removed and threatened with court martial.

The previous visit had taken place on 26 July 1943) the new senior British officer, Group Captain Douglas Wilson (RAAF), surreptitiously passed a list of these names to an official visitor from the Swiss Red Cross.

[41] General Arthur Nebe, who is believed to have selected the airmen to be shot, was involved in the 20 July plot to kill Hitler and was executed by Nazi authorities in 1945.

Wilfred Bowes of the RAF Police Special Investigation Branch (SIB) began to research the Great Escape and launched a manhunt for German personnel considered responsible for killing escapees.

[44] Colonel of the Luftwaffe Bernd von Brauchitsch, who served on the staff of Reich Marshal Hermann Göring, was interrogated by Captain Horace Hahn about the murders.

In 1964, the West German government agreed to provide a million pounds as compensation to British victims of Nazism, which included survivors of the escape from Stalag Luft III.

However, many former British POWs, including many of those who had been imprisoned at Stalag Luft III, had their claims rejected, leading to the political controversy known as the "Sachsenhausen Affair" in 1967.

[66] The North, East and remaining West compound prisoners at Spremberg were sent either to Stalag XIII-D at Nuremberg on 2 February or to Marlag und Milag Nord at Westertimke.

[5] Kenneth W. Simmons's book Kriegie (1960) vividly describes the life of POWs in the American section of Stalag Luft III in the final months of the war, ending with the winter forced-march from the camp, ahead of the advancing Soviet troops and eventually being liberated.

[89] The POW camp was actually officially referred to as "Stalag Luft 3" by the Germans in their documentation and on the ID tags issued to inmates, and Paul Brickhill, in his early writings about the escape, also wrote it that way.

He included many details omitted in his first book, but changed his name to "Peter Howard", Michael Codner to "John Clinton" and Oliver Philpot to "Philip Rowe".

The search for those responsible for the murder of the Allied officers, and the subsequent trials, was depicted in a 1988 television film named The Great Escape II: The Untold Story.

The Apple TV miniseries Masters of the Air features Stalag Luft III in its later episodes; Majors Gale "Buck" Cleven and John "Bucky" Egan and others from the 100th Bomb Group were prisoners at the camp following the disastrous Bremen and Münster raids of October 1943, until its eventual closure.