article_snippet.sent: It was a plot hatched by Scottish lieutenant Jock Hamilton-Baillie, 23, and involved build folding ladders to escape over the wire.
article_snippet.sent: – the prisoners managed to fuse the camp’s search lights and 41 men carrying four 12ft scaling ladders rushed the fence.
article_snippet.sent: One ladder collapsed, so only 28 made it over the wire, of which three made a ‘home run’ back to freedom.
article_snippet.sent: More than 40 Allied prisoners put More than 40 Allied prisoners lives on the line in a plot to escape from Oflag VI-B camp near Warburg, Germany, in 1942.
article_snippet.sent: While The Great Escape relied on The Great Escape famous tunnels, the Warburg mass break out saw the men boldly leap over the huge perimeter fences using wooden ladders.
article_snippet.sent: Months of meticulous planning and secret training went into the three minute charge of the camp's double perimeter fences.
article_snippet.sent: The Great Escape was codenamed Operation Olympian because The Great Escape involved troops from across the Commonwealth - Britain, Australia, New Zealand and South Africa.
article_snippet.sent: After the prisoners fused the perimeter search lights, 41 of the prisoners carrying four 12-foot scaling ladders made from bed slats rushed to the barbed-wire fence and clambered over.
article_snippet.sent: One ladder collapsed, so only 28 made it over the barbed wire, of which three made a 'home run' back to freedom.