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The Geology of Prisoner of War Escape Tunnels

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Peter DOYLE (United Kingdom)

Geology of World War II Allied Prisoner of War

Escape Tunnels
Keywords
POW (prisoner of war) Camp, Prisoner of War escape, tunnels, spiling, Second World
War, Wehrkreis
Abstract
Tunnelling has been a popular method of escape from captivity for centuries. Tunnels
may be categorised as simple and opportunistic shallow scrapes below wire barriers or
walls, or may be highly orchestrated affairs requiring a great deal of technical expertise
and practical know-how. This paper examines the importance of geology in controlling
Prisoner of War (POW) tunnel escape during the Second World War, with an emphasis
on the Allied experience whilst in captivity in Germany. Spread across the German
Reich, POW camps were located in military districts (Wehrkreise), with widely differing
geology; those camps situated on glacial sediments provided the greatest opportunity
for escape; harder rocks presented a more significant challenge.

1 Introduction
During the Second World War, the exact numbers of prisoners of war (POW) captured
by Nazi Germany is open to discussion. At least 1.8 million French and 0.4 million
Polish prisoners were captured in the opening campaigns in 1939 - 40. As the war
progressed, 164,000 Commonwealth soldiers, sailors and airmen became prisoners
of Germany, later to be joined by 95,000 Americans (S. P. MACKENZIE, 2004; P.
DOYLE, 2008). These figures would be dwarfed by the estimated 5 - 6 million Soviet
prisoners captured, many of whom would not survive the war.
The Third Geneva Convention of 1929 provided protection for prisoners of war, with
the exception of Soviet prisoners, whose Government had neither signed nor ratified
the treaty. The Geneva Convention laid down the basic parameters for prisoner of war
camps. Commonest were the large hutted compounds housing other ranks known as
“Stammlager” or Stalags. Officers’ camps, ”Offizierslager” (Oflags) were usually more
varied in type; from hutted camps to castles and regional palaces pressed into use (S. P.
MACKENZIE, 2004). For this study, it is convenient to classify camps as either Schloss
(castle) camps, generally used for officers’ accommodation – such as Laufen, Spangen-
berg and Colditz; or hutted camps, comprising large expanses of specially-constructed
wooden accommodation. In general, hutted camps were located in specially cleared
ground, Schloss camps were located on traditionally locations of defence. All camps
were usually surrounded by a double, 2.5 metre-high barbed wire fence with coiled
wire at its centre (S. P. MACKENZIE, 2004; P. DOYLE, 2008). The wire would be
patrolled by soldiers on foot, sometimes with dogs, and observation towers with static
guards would be placed at strategic points to cover the wire.

140 International Handbook Military Geography

2 Camps and Escape
Camps were numbered according to military district, or Wehrkreis, of which there were
17 at the start of the Second World War, each assigned a Roman numeral (Figure 1).
Camps in each district would all bear the same numeral, but would be differentiated
individually by a letter of the alphabet, as well as by type (Oflag, Stalag, etc), and would
also usually have the name of the local town or village in parentheses. Later, camps
would be more simply numbered as the system became overloaded.

Figure 1: Wehrkreise (military districts) of the German Reich, 1939–45 (Source: Wikimedia Commons)

Escape from most POW camps required ingenuity, luck, hard work and planning. The
factors controlling escape and the desire to escape were varied; achieving a ‘home run’
– getting back to Allied territory – was the ultimate aim of any escaper (P. R. REID
& M. MICHAEL, 1984). Tunnelling out is seen as a classic form of escape, and it was
attempted in most camps. The success of tunnelling was at the mercy of the ground
conditions as well as the vigilance of the security staff. In some cases, escapers were
lucky to have men with expertise, such as Lt Jim Rogers of the Royal Engineers, a
tunnelling engineer who end up in Oflag IVC, Colditz Castle following his failed at-
tempt at tunnelling out of Oflag VIIC at Laufen, Bavaria (D. J. ROGERS, 1946, 1986);
another was Pilot Officer ‘Wally’ Floody, a Canadian aviator who had been a miner
in Ontario, and who was instrumental in the design of the ‘Great Escape’ tunnels in
1944 (P. BRICKHILL, 1951). Finding a means to dig through the surface undetected,
combat the ground conditions – whether they be the tough volcanic rocks of Colditz
or the soft yellow sands of Stalag Luft III, and then successfully dispose of the waste,
were major pre-occupations for these men.

International Handbook Military Geography 141

 For their part, the Germans were not minded to sit back and wait while tunnel-
ling took place; instead, specially trained security officers – usually referred to as
‘ferrets’ after their ability to ‘sniff out’ a tunnel – were detailed to investigate any
suspicious activities that could lead to a suspected tunnel. The sub-surface yellow
sands of Stalag Luft III were a particular giveaway when spilled on the grey surface
soils of the camp (P. BRICKHILL, 1951; P. DOYLE et al., 2010). Anti-tunnelling
measures, such as building huts on raised piers, and the use of buried listening
devices, were also prevalent – it is not surprising therefore that in air force camps
alone, only one in 35 escape tunnels were successful.

3 Lessons from Holzminden, 1917 - 1918

The tunnellers of the Second Word War drew heavily on the experiences of those
active in the first, providing advice for tunnel escape (P. R. REID, 1952). One of
the most useful of these is the classic escape story written between the wars by
Captain Durnford, who was incarcerated in Holzminden POW Camp, in Nieder-
sachsen, northern Germany (H. DURNFORD, 1920).
Situated on the right bank of the River Wesser, Holzminden camp re-deployed
some brick-built cavalry barracks (Kaserne A and B) located on Quaternary ter-
race deposits.
Late nineteenth century geological maps of the locality illustrate the barracks in
place on a set of loess and gravels of c. 20 - 30 metres thick, overlying Triassic
Buntsandstein bedrock. H. DURNFORD (1920) outlined the basic principles that
would influence the escapes carried out in the Second World War. Though the ‘Tun-
nellers of Holzminden’ could not necessarily claim to be the initiators of tunnel
escape, Durnford’s account would be very influential.
The tunnel itself was constructed under cover of a disused stairwell, which acted
as both a shield to the tunnel activity, as well as a void for the disposal of the in-
evitable spoil generated from the diggings (Figure 2). Unlike some tunnels in the
later war, this was a shallow one, sufficient to provide supportive headcover and
avoid tunnel failure. Dug in loess with hand tools, the tunnel required the use of
wooden shoring. The timber used were wooden bed slats, known as bed boards,
which according to H. DURNFORD (1920), were 2 feet 4 inches (0.71 m) long.
These bedboards would be used similarly in soft sediments during the Second
World War, and provided a limited square-section tunnel of around 18 inches. Spoil
disposal, a significant problem in all tunnelling, was to influence the length and
extent of the tunnel itself, the tunnellers’ expectations being that the spoil would
be stored and packed beneath the stairwell.
The tunnel would eventually reach almost 200 yards (approximately 182 metres),
and as such ventilation was to be an issue. This was handled through another staple
of tunnel escape in the Second World War, the use of conjoined food tins to provide
an airline, ventilation provided by a bellow fan. The tunnel would be deployed
in 1918, with 29 officers escaping, ten of who made the ‘home run’, a 30 percent
success rate. The Holzminden experience provided many lessons that were to be
deployed in the tunnels of the Second World War.

142 International Handbook Military Geography

Figure 2: The tunnel at Holzminden, dug 1917–18. Several basic principles would be developed here
that would be reused in the tunnel escapes of the Second World War (After H. DURNFORD, 1920).

4 Wehrkreis and Geology, 1939 - 1945

During the Second World War, Prisoner of War camps in the German Reich, were
organised according to military district, or Wehrkreis. Nineteen Wehrkreise existed
across the Reich, based on pre-existing regional geographical and political bounda-
ries. From a comparison of the Wehrkreise with the geological map of Germany, at
this scale it can be demonstrated that camps fall into two basic categories: ‘soft rocks’
here defined as Palaeogene-Quaternary soft sediments; and, ‘hard rocks’, here defined
broadly as all other substrates. The rationale for this distinction lies with the concept
that hutted camps were mostly developed on low-lying plains composed of Quaternary/
glacial deposits, with the existing Schloss camps having been developed on sites more
likely to provide a defensive setting.
A survey of camp location, type and underlying broad geology for those camps situated
in the western part of the German Reich is given in Table 1, and illustrated in Figure
3. Through crude, this demonstrates some simple relationships. It is not surprising
that hutted camps were developed in the Central European plain developed on thick
Quaternary deposits in northeastern Germany. Wehrkeis VIII had some of the largest
of these, with Stalag VIIIA at Görlitz (30,000 Allied prisoners, plus large numbers of
Soviets), Stalag VIIIB at Lamsdorf (now Lambinowice in Poland; 100,000 Allied prison-
ers with 300,000 Soviets housed in nearby Stalag VIIIF), Stalag VIIIC (50,000 Allied,

International Handbook Military Geography 143

including Soviet, prisoners) and Stalag Luft III (11,000 Allied airmen) at Sagan (now
Zagan); Stalag VIIID at Teschen (10,000 Allied and 50,000 Soviet prisoners); Stalag
VIIIE Neuhammer (100,000 Soviet prisoners).
Usually based on easily cleared forest areas, these camps were specially built for their
task, though in some cases, such as at Stalag VIIIB and Stalag VIIIC, they were based
on historical antecedents. The importance of this type of geology for the captors was
the ease of construction and drainage, the availability of rail and road transport links
(while being sufficiently far distant from neutral countries to deter would-be escapers).
The advantage to the captives was the possibility of tunnelling after the Holzminden
model, a camp itself located within similar geology – whilst actually being based in
pre-existing brick-built buildings.

Figure 3: Wehr-
k reise (m i l itar y
districts from Fig-
ure 1) of the Sec-
ond World War su-
perimposed on the
national geologi-
cal map of modern
Germany (Source:
postcard map of
Germany, Bunde-
sanstalt für Geow-
issenschaften und
Roh-stoffe). Those
Wehrkreise situ-
ated in the north
and east (includ-
ing territory now
no longer within
Germany), would
contain more hut-
ted camps bu i lt
on Quaternary
sediments.

144 International Handbook Military Geography

 CAMPS ON ‘SOFT ROCKS’ (37%)
Broad geology Wehrkreis Camps
Quaternary II–IV, VIII, X, XI 29 Stalags, 28 Oflags, 8 others
Tertiary VII 2 Stalags, 5 Oflags
CAMPS ON ‘HARD ROCKS’ (63%)
Broad geology Wehrkreis Camps
Mesozoic IV–VI, VIII, IX, XI 30 Stalags, 20 Oflags, 2 others
Palaeozoic IV, VI, XII 22 Stalags, 11 Oflags
‘Crystalline’ IV, V, IX, XII, XIII 24 Stalags, 15 Oflags, 1 other
Based on comparison of camp locations with summary geological map; camp numbers give general
indication only, from [Link]
Table 1: Wehrkreise of the German Reich and geology.

Conversely, Schloss-type camps, usually officer-only, were located in historic castles

in adequate defensive positions. Typical locations are Colditz, Oflag IVC (in Saxony)
based on a sill and adjacent to a river; Oflag VII Laufen (in Bavaria), based on a river
meander on the Salzach; and Oflag VIIID Titmoning (in Bavaria), based on a hill
location dominating the town; and Oflag IXA–H Spangenberg (Hesse) located on a
prominent volcanic hill. The importance of this type of geology for the captors was
the availability of strong, secure fortresses within formidable positions, often based on
fairly impenetrable geology (both potentially deterring would-be escapers). The advan-
tage to the captives were the historic loopholes in the defensive structures associated
with centuries of remodelling.

5 World War II Camps, Geology and Tunnelling

There are numerous examples of escape from ‘soft rock’ or ‘soft sediment’ camps.
Given the dominance of the hutted camps, (predominantly Stalags) situated on the East
European plain, it is not surprising that tunnelling would be favoured as a means of
escape. Although there were many accounts of individual escape attempts published
after the war, it is not possible to document the total number of escapes made, though
some indication is given in post-war accounts by C. B. FLOCKHART (n.d.), A. J.
EVANS (1945) and A. CRAWLEY (1956). Of these accounts, one escape attempt has
been documented by D. J. ROGERS, (1946, 1986), who pre-war was a mining engineer
familiar with the perils of tunnelling into soft ground, and competent to advise on the
use of the technical method of ‘spiling’. Spiling involves the driving of roof boards
forward in order to prevent ingress of soft or wet running sediments, and is a technique
that saw military use in the First World War, when tunnelling through the sand dunes
of the Belgian coast, published by Rogers’ professional body, the Institute of Mining
and Metallurgy (H. TATHAM, 1919).
Rogers was involved in the design and construction of a tunnel at Laufen (Oflag VIIC),
an ancient Schloss that was nevertheless build on soft sediments on a river meander
of the Salzach, on the border between Bavaria and Austria (Figure 4). The tunnel, dug
between September 1940 and May 1941, commenced in a timber-framed theatre building,

International Handbook Military Geography 145

its entrance shaft hidden beneath the stage (a ploy that was used in several other tun-
nels in other camps). The bedboard-shored tunnel was driven through thick Pleistocene
sediments associated with both the floodplain of the Salzach, and with the glacial and
periglacial deposits associated with the region. Tunnel construction therefore depended
upon the exploitation of sand and gravels of variable quality for tunnelling consistent
with their geological position. These included clay-rich gravels, loose gravels and sands,
and water-saturated gravels. Having constructed a shaft 1.5-metres-deep, the tunnel was
driven forward using spiling. The spiling method employed wooden bedboard frames
(sets) were fixed in place and roof (or spiling) boards driven forward and upwards to
enable tunnellers dig away at the face without the roof collapsing. Following up this
procedure, the tunnel was then fully lined with timber to prevent collapse.

Figure 4: The tunnel at Laufen, designed by tunnel engineer, Lt Jim Rogers, in 1940 (After D. J.
ROGERS, 1946).

The final tunnel was 66 metres long; unusually ventilation depended on exploitation
of the natural slope of the ground (rather than the construction of a tin-can airway), with
the tunnel descending several metres to its exit point, a retaining wall at the channel
bank of the Salzach River (Figure 4). This used natural convection, with incoming cold
air descending the slope, and warmer, used air rising to the exit – a factor that was
mitigated by the ever-lengthening tunnel. Spoil was removed from the tunnel using
socks and other containers, drawn from the tunnel by a ropeway, and stored beneath the
stage. Though well designed, the tunnel was discovered at the moment of breakthrough;
its remains were observed when its architect, Jim Rogers, visited the site in the 1980s.

146 International Handbook Military Geography

 The tunnels of the ‘Great Escape’ have achieved some element of notoriety since figur-
ing in a best selling book (P. BRICKHILL, 1952), later made into a Hollywood movie
by John Sturges in 1965. The Great Escape is the popular name given to the attempt
at a mass escape from a hutted camp (Stalag Luft III) for airforce prisoners situated on
the east European Plain in Silesia (Wehrkries VIII). This camp saw some of the most
famous tunnel escapes, those that have passed into legend, includes the shallow tunnel
constructed under a wooden vaulting horse (‘The Wooden Horse’; Williams 1949) in
the East Compound of Stalag Luft III in 1943 (100 per cent successful, with three home
runs); and the ‘Great Escape’ of March 1944, in which three ten-metre-deep tunnels
were dug in 1943.-.44 (C. B. FLOCKHART, n. d; A. CRAWLEY, 1956; P. DOYLE et
al. 2007; J. PRINGLE et al., 2007).

Figure 5: Excavations in 2004 to reach the level of the ‘Great Escape’ tunnels. Exposed in one of
them, ‘Dick’, undiscovered for 60 years.

Archaeological investigations in 2004 (P. DOYLE et al., 2007; J. PRINGLE et al.,

2007), which involved a deep excavation to access the tunnel ‘Dick’, undiscovered
during the operational life of the camp, demonstrated the nature of the conditions met
by the tunnellers (Figure 5). Learning from the Holzminden escape, and the escapers’
own recent history, the Great Escape tunnellers developed a sophisticated solution to
getting a large number men out of a well-guarded POW camp. Three tunnels were
selected in order to reduce the possibility of total failure if one of the tunnels was to
have been discovered. The tunnel shafts all exploit the presence of brick foundations
as both piers, and underlying washrooms, as a blind to prevent discovery of shafts.
The shafts themselves were each 30 feet (~10 metres) deep, the expectation being that

International Handbook Military Geography 147

this would be below the limit of German ‘listening devices’, presumably some form of
geophones. At the base of each shaft was a pumping station to provide the air required
for the underfloor, conjoined tin, airline necessary given the length of the tunnels
(Figure 5). The pumping station also included a workroom for storage and preparation,
the tunnels lit both from tallow lamps and electricity tapped from the German mains.
Closely boarded with timber derived, once again, from bedboards, an immense amount
of raw materials. Again given the length of the tunnels, a trolley railway system was
put in place, with passing stations along the way.
As with all ‘soft rock’ tunnelling, spoil disposal was a major issue, especially given
the fact that the surface soils were humic and dark in colour; quite unlike the bright
yellow glacial sands at depth (P. DOYLE et al., 2010). As is well known, the surface
soils of the camp were organic-rich, contaminated by leaf litter from the former, cleared
forest. Approximately 10 centimetres below this, is an almost indeterminate depth of
dry, medium glacial sands and rarer gravels with iron horizons. Though providing an
ideal tunnelling medium, the dry sand provided its own problems, the tunnellers expe-
riencing collapses and running sands, requiring the use of shoring and close boarding.
However, in this case, there is no evidence that spiling techniques were used.
Though tunnel ‘Tom’ was discovered in 1943, and ‘Dick’ abandoned shortly after,
‘Harry’, was operated on the evening of 23 March 1944, with 76 men emerging into the
night; three would get home, twenty-three sent back to the camp, and fifty murdered,
in ones and twos, by the Gestapo. There were to be many other, less celebrated, tunnel
escape attempts from this camp (A. J. EVANS, 1945; A. CRAWLEY, 1956).
For the most part, large, hutted POW camps were newly constructed during WW2,
usually based on cleared forest areas within those Wehrkreise situated in the central
and eastern parts of the German Reich, on mostly Quaternary deposits associated with
the East European plain. With the large number of centuries-old castles and fortified
buildings within Germany, it was likely that these would be transformed into POW
camps, many of them for officers given their limitations of space – as well as the
desire for increased security to contain officers. As these buildings were constructed
originally for defence, or to dominate a geographical region, many of them are built
on prominent hills and other distinctive topographic features, often underlain by ‘hard
rock’ prominences.
Notable in all these is Colditz Castle, an ancient fortress that dominates the small
town of Colditz within Saxony, Wehrkreis IV. Colditz was built on the bank of the River
Mulde, upon a prominent outcrop of Rochlitzer Quartz Porphyry – a Permian welded
tuff that has been used in this region of Saxony for building stone, since at least the
fifteenth century. The castle itself is also constructed in the same material. Used as a
POW camp (Oflag IVC) for officers from the opening days of the war, it attained noto-
riety as a high-security Sonderlager for committed escapers and high-profile prisoners
(P. R. REID, 1952; H. CHANCELLOR, 2001; Figure 6). The camp had a low prisoner
to guard ratio, and was widely considered to be ‘escape-proof – largely because of its
position and the unfavourable ground for tunnelling.
Colditz was constructed from solid ashlar blocks of tuff built directly upon the promi-
nent outcrop of tuff itself, with only thin soils and/or made ground beneath. Though
the POWs investigated many different means of tunnelling out – with the hope of us-

148 International Handbook Military Geography

Figure 6: Colditz, a sonderlager or ‘bad boys’ camp. Located on hard welded tuff, Le Métro was an
innovative French tunnel that was discovered at the last moment (After P. R. REID, 1952).

ing existing drains and other infrastructure, or terraces built on made-ground, these
‘tunnels’ were of limited extent and were largely ineffectual. The majority of escape
attempts involved deception and opportunity, as well as considerable ingenuity (the
most famous example being the construction of a glider in the attic roof space; P. R.
REID, 1952; H. CHANCELLOR, 2001). The largest tunnel attempt was that French
prisoners, who constructed an ingenious 44-metre-long tunnel from March 1941–Janu-
ary 1942 – named, appropriately enough, Le Métro (Figure 6, 7).
Ingeniously, to avoid detection, the tunnel commenced high up within a disused clock
tower, employing the space of the pendulum drop. Most of the digging was through the
masonry and masonry-foundations of the castle itself, through the route of the tunnel
exploited the floor space of the Chapel – the tunnellers having to cut through ancient
oak-beams.
Where the workers encountered the tuff outcrop, they exploited naturally occurring
joint sets, using metal tools stolen from German workers who visited the Castle. The
tunnel was discovered as the French officers worked on the exterior wall of the castle,
at its structural weak point where the external wall met the solid tuff of the outcrop.
Throughout the tunnel, there was little need for either shoring, or extra ventilation.
However, spoil removal and disposal was a significant issue, and here, it was a major
one, given that the spoil comprised not only finer materials (mortar, soil remnants), but
also large blocks of both ashlar masonry and angular fragments of bedrock (Figure 7).
Special sacks and haulage ropes were manufactured and the strongest members of the

International Handbook Military Geography 149

team employed to haul the waste materials back up and along the tunnel, to be stored
in the attic space – putting considerable strain on the supporting timbers.

Figure 7: Le Métro at Colditz, showing the last stages of the tunnel, working through the solid foun-
dation of Rochlitzer Porphyry Tuff. Inserts show the spoil sacks and lighting rigged by the diggers.

6 Conclusions
Tunnelling has been a significant method of escape for centuries, but it was in the
First World War that an escape methodology was developed, with the published ac-
count, The Tunnellers of Holzminden being a major influence on the tunnellers of the
Second World War, establishing that:
1. Digging, tools and rate are dependant on soil type;
2. Noise detection was an important consideration, as hammering often detected;
3. Spoil dispersal and removal is a major issue on long tunnels;
4. Ventilation could be maintained using improvised airlines; and
5. Shoring is necessary dependant on soil type; bedboards were the usual resource,
providing a frame less than 0.7 m wide.
With the large number of prisoners of war captured by Nazi Germany during the
Second World War, it was inevitable that there would be a large number of new POW
camps to hold them. Though spread across the Reich, many were located in the northern
and eastern part of what was then termed ‘Greater Germany’, exploiting the Quaternary-
based flat-lying and well-drained soils (here termed ‘soft-rock’ camps). This location
meant that prisoners were kept remote from mist neutral or Allied countries, but pro-
vided the perfect soil conditions for the development of tunnelling as a primary escape

150 International Handbook Military Geography

means, and there the Holzminden experience had the greatest influence. This experi-
ence had limited value, however, in escape attempts from ‘hard-rock’ camps – mostly
ancient Schlösser or castles built on prominent outcrops, often of igneous origin. Here,
tunnelling was arduous, the workers having to attack hard, uncompromising, bedrock
with primitive tools. Shoring was less of an issue here; but spoil disposal, consisting
of large rocks and rubble, was a major concern.

Glossary
Geneva Convention:
International Convention governing the treatment of Prisoners of War.
Oflag:
Offiziers-Lager, main POW camp for officers.
Spiling:
Method of tunnelling in soft ground where wooden frames (sets) provide the support,
and boards are driven forward to allow the tunnel to progress.
Stalag:
Stammlager, main POW camp for non-officers.
Stalag Luft:
Stammlager-Luftwaffe, main POW camp for airforce personnel.
Wehrkreis:
Military district in the German Reich during 1939–45.

Bibliography
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The Great Escape. Faber & Faber, London.
CHANCELLOR, Henry (2001)
Colditz. Hodder & Stoughton, London
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Escape from Germany. A History of R.A.F. Escapes during the War. Collins, London.
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Prisoner of War in Germany, 1939 - 1945. Shire, Oxford.
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International Handbook Military Geography 151

 REID, Pat R. (1952)
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Author

Dr. Peter DOYLE

1978: BSc (Geology), University of London
1981: PhD (Palaeontology), University of London
1981 - 1990: Postdoctoral positions at the British Antarctic Survey, Natural History
Museum, London and Nature Conservancy Council, Peterborough
1990 - 2003: Lecturer, Reader and then Professor of Geology, University of Greenwich.
2003 - to date: Visiting Professor in Geology, University College London, and consult-
ant geologist.

152 International Handbook Military Geography

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