I embarked on this photographic journey 70 years later to document the route my Uncle Douglas and 2,000 fellow POWs, from the infamous North Compound, (location of The Wooden Horse escape October 1943 and The Great Escape March 1944), took on The Long March from Stalag Luft III, Sagan to their point of liberation 3 months later in Lubeck, North Germany. What has changed? What has remained for me to literally walk in his footsteps and see what he saw? The extreme cold of that 1945 winter could not be replicated by Mother Nature 70 years later. Travelling the route would be a way for me to get as close to the Uncle I sadly never met.

The march from Stalag Luft II in Silesia began on 27th January 1945 and lasted over nine days. The march was in two stages. The first by foot, when over 10,000 prisoners from all five compounds were force-marched west along icy roads for around 100km from the prison camp in Poland to Spremberg railway station, in eastern Germany. This leg took six-and-a-half days approximately (times varied according to where in the column each group was) with the destination reached in the afternoon of 2 February. It would seem that, because Sagan station was not connected to the main German rail network, the prisoners had to trek west in order to access a railhead linked to the Reich system which could transport them north-east.

 The second stage was effected by rail in French cattle trucks. These contained more then 40 men each and they rolled out of Spremberg at around 23.00 hrs on the 2nd, finishing their journey at around 16.30 hrs on 3rd February, after between 41 and 48 hours travelling (estimates varied, some groups arriving later than others). The trip had taken place in appallingly unsanitary conditions, the only hygiene facility being a bucket in the centre of each wagon. The total distance covered was around 620km. This was to Tarmstadt, the station for a German Marlag naval camp, 96 km north of Hannover.