Allied aircrew who were shot down and survived during World War II were incarcerated after interrogation in Air Force Prisoner of War camps run by the Luftwaffe, called Stalag Luft, short for Stammlager Luft or Permanent Camps for Airmen. Stalag Luft III was situated in Sagan, 100 miles south-east of Berlin, now called Zagan, in Silesia. At the time of the escape it was part of Germany, but is now in Poland. It was opened in Spring 1942 with the first prisoners arriving in April of that year, and was just one of a network of Air Force only PoW camps. The Germans treated captured Fleet Air Arm aircrew as Air Force and put them all together. There is no obvious reason for the occasional presence of a non-airman in the camps, although one possibility is that the captors would be able to spot "important" non-Air Force uniformed prisoners more readily.
RAF personnel captured whilst serving in the Air/Sea Rescue branch are also known to have been kept as PoWs at Air Force camps, including at Stalag Luft III, being treated as if they were downed aircrew.
Two main compounds were established, 'East' and 'North'. Despite starting out as an officers-only camp, it was not referred to as Oflag (Offizier Lager) like some other officer-only camps. The Luftwaffe seemed to have their own nomenclature, and later camp expansions added the 'Centre' compound for NCOs. As the number of American airmen prisoners gradually increased, the 'South' compound was added to house them.
A large contingent of PoWs sent to Sagan at the end of April 1943 had come from the camp at Schubin. It was at Sagan, that the famous "Wooden Horse" escape occurred on the night of October 29/30, 1943. Three PoWs (F/O Oliver Philpot DFC, 42 Sqdn Coastal Command, shot down December 11th 1941, Beaufort AW243), Eric Williams and R Michael Codner) having concealed themselves in a vaulting horse, had spent months digging a tunnel through which they escaped and eventually reached England via neutral Sweden.
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