The wooden horse
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October 29th 1943, three Allied R.A.F. prisoners of war offices—Flight Lieutenant Eric Williams, Flight Lieutenant Oliver Philpot, and Lieutenant Michael Codner—successfully escaped from the German prison camp Stalag Luft III ( also the great escape POW camp( using a hollowed-out wooden vaulting horse made of red cross boxes and other materials, built by the prisoners themselves
They carried the horse out to the same spot every day, near the barbed-wire perimeter fence. While a group of men performed gymnastics and vaulted over it to mask the noise, a man (sometimes 2/3) hid inside the hollow horse and dug an escape tunnel, which was only a few feet down.
Freshly dug yellow sand was hidden and scattered across the camp using special pouches in the prisoners' trousers, hidden in roof spacers, spreading soil during football game and whilst gardening.
Many months of digging and propping up the tunnel was needed before the escape could take place, Williams, Philpot, and Codner escaped through the tunnel, posed as foreign workers, and eventually made their way to neutral Sweden before returning to Britain
All 3 officers were awarded the Military Cross for their ingenuity and courage.
Williams was posted to the Far East and served in the Philippines until the Allied victory
Codner returned to frontline combat. He rejoined the Royal Artillery in Italy and was later posted to india, where he served alongside his brother.
Philpot was posted to the Air Ministry as a senior scientific officer for the rest of the war.