Tin can bomber made by POW in Stalag Luft III......

[Swoop]

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1107802/Pictured-The-amazing-tin-bomber-British-pilot-Great-Escape-POW-camp.html


check it out.

[ROX]

That article was great!  Thanks for the link!   





ROX

[druski85]

Yea I enjoyed it a great deal.  Kind of makes you wonder though what else (perhaps more productive?) he could have created had he spent his time and effort doing so... 

[Treize69]

You still see a lot of inmates in modern prisons doing art projects like that to pass the time and keep their sanity, especially in mximum security prisons. I used to have one on my old company who was writing a novel, and theres another in one of the dorms I work now who is a very talented painter. Spends all his time either sleeping, reading, or painting, with time out for meals.

Its amazing what some people can do to keep themselves from going bananas.

[MiloMorai]

Yea I enjoyed it a great deal.  Kind of makes you wonder though what else (perhaps more productive?) he could have created had he spent his time and effort doing so... 

Like what?

[druski85]

Depends on how much he/others wanted to escape, I suppose.  If he had no intention, then sure make planes all day long -- try and keep your mind sharp.

What suprised me most about that article though was that he was imprisoned not longer after the "great escape," so security was tight at the prison.  However, he still managed to scrap together enough material to make that thing?  I can't imagine the guards being ok with that much potentially lethal material being in the hands of prisoners...but I don't know. 

[Babalonian]

Depends on how much he/others wanted to escape, I suppose.  If he had no intention, then sure make planes all day long -- try and keep your mind sharp.

What suprised me most about that article though was that he was imprisoned not longer after the "great escape," so security was tight at the prison.  However, he still managed to scrap together enough material to make that thing?  I can't imagine the guards being ok with that much potentially lethal material being in the hands of prisoners...but I don't know. 

Second-to-last paragraph in the article:

'The guards will have let this kind of thing happen because the more time the prisoners were doing things like that, the less time they were spending on trying to escape.'

Not only were they OK with it, but they put him to work on chores/jobs around the camp so he would have access to leftover materials for his project.  They got a willing laborer to paint the barracks for a day and he got a rag soaked in paint for his model.  They got repairs to fences and buildings and he got some pieces of wood. 

But, I do wonder how he got away with having the tools (I'm thinking of) around to work the materials into their current shape?  I'm thinking he had at least a small pocket knife on hand to carve the wood and cut the tin.