this way he provided information from captured air crew regarding their experiences with the German night defenses, and thus aided our offensive even from behind the barbed wire." Secret assistance into Stalag Luft III from the USA There were secret efforts, not exclusively American (since they learned the 'need for' and the 'how to' from British programmes), to train aircrew in secret letter writing home from the POW Camps. In the US, these were MIS_X and P.O. 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. These went to American prisoners in many camps, including Stalag Luft III. However, the American POWs in Stalag Luft III were moved weeks prior to the ‘Great Escape’ attempt and were not able to participate. Escape and Evasion Program Even more secret than the strategic interrogation programme was Fort Hunt’s escape and evasion (E&E) program (MIS_X). Even the fort’s commandant was unaware of this mission to prepare US servicemen to evade capture and, if captured, to escape, modelled on the existing British programme. One mission of the E&E programme was to create maps of areas where bombers were going so downed airmen could use them to find their way back. Silk maps created at P.O. Box 1142 were distributed to the Air Force, and five million uniform buttons were created containing hidden compasses. For five months prior to the escape of March 1944, MIS-X had been sending escape aids to the camp. First escape (1943) The first escape occurred in October 1943 in the East Compound. Conjuring up a modern Trojan Horse, kriegies (prisoners) constructed a gymnastic vaulting horse largely from plywood from Red Cross parcels. The horse was designed to conceal men, tools and containers of soil. Each day the horse was carried out to the same spot near the perimeter fence and while prisoners conducted gymnastic exercises above, a tunnel was dug. At the end of each working day, a wooden board was placed over the tunnel entrance and covered with surface soil. The gymnastics disguised the real purpose of the vaulting horse and kept the sound of the digging from being detected by the microphones. For three months three prisoners, Lieutenant Michael Codner, Flight Lieutenant Eric Williams and Flight Lieutenant Oliver Philpot, in shifts of one or two diggers at