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Poster for the 1963 movie 'The Great Escape.' Image courtesy of LiveAuctioneers.com Archive and Ewbank's.

British officers march on 70th anniversary of Great Escape

Tom Hoepf
Tom Hoepf

Poster for the 1963 movie 'The Great Escape.' Image courtesy of LiveAuctioneers.com Archive and Ewbank's.
Poster for the 1963 movie ‘The Great Escape.’ Image courtesy of LiveAuctioneers.com Archive and Ewbank’s.
WARSAW, Poland (AP) – A group of 50 British Air Force officers are marching from the site of a Nazi prisoner camp to a war cemetery in western Poland to mark 70 years since the Great Escape of Allied airmen and to honor 50 of them who were caught and executed.

Marek Lazarz, director of the Stalag Luft III Museum, said Tuesday the group started in rain from the place where 76 prisoners of war emerged, one by one, from a tunnel on March 24 and 25, 1944. The 77th man was spotted by guards, who gave chase. The 1963 Hollywood movie The Great Escape, starring Steve McQueen, tells the story.

Only three airmen made it home. Fifty others were executed when caught, and 23 were sent to other camps but survived the war.

Copyright 2014 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

AP-WF-03-25-14 1108GMT

ADDITIONAL IMAGE OF NOTE

Poster for the 1963 movie 'The Great Escape.' Image courtesy of LiveAuctioneers.com Archive and Ewbank's.
Poster for the 1963 movie ‘The Great Escape.’ Image courtesy of LiveAuctioneers.com Archive and Ewbank’s.