Project Management and The Great Escape

1. Project ManagementandThe Great Escape By Kurt Ackerman (732) 583-5816 kurtack@optonline.net

2. Who were the Stakeholders in this Project? • The Prisoners. • The Guards. • The Guards’ Administrators. • The Allies. • The Third Reich.

3. What were the three escape projects names? • The tunnel “Tom”. • The tunnel “Dick”. • The tunnel “Harry”. Why three of them? • So that the prisoners would have alternate options if one was discovered, or if other problems presented themselves (Risk Management).

4. The Scope Constraint • Tunnels needed to be dug far enough to escape the compound. The tunnels needed lights, air, wall and ceiling support. Excavated dirt needed to be disposed of in a clandestine manner. Papers needed to be forged. Civilian clothes needed to be procured and tailored. Maps were needed, as were train schedules. Languages needed to be learned - or unlearned.

5. The Cost Constraint • Items were stolen. Items were made from what was available, Guards were bribed and items bartered. Guards were also blackmailed into supplying resources.

6. The Time Constraint • The timetable was quite extensive. It took over a year, nearly two, for the tunnels to be ready. Their timetable was altered a little when one tunnel was discovered.

7. Who was the Project Manager? • In real life, Roger Bushell. In the movie, Roger “Big X” Bartlett (Richard Attenborough).

8. What was the Security Team Leader responsible for? • Flight Lieutenant George Harsh was in charge of internal security. Special German guards – “Ferrets” – could nose around in the compound for any signs of escape. Harsh created a log-in/log-out system (called “Duty Pilot”) to keep track of the Ferrets.

9. What was the Counterfeiting Team Leader responsible for? • Flight Lieutenant Des Plunkett was responsible for forgery of crucial papers and maps. Improvisation and bribery were used to procure maps and German IDs, from which copies were made.

10. What was the Clothing Team Leader responsible for? • Tommy Guest and his team were responsible for altering the service uniforms, as well as workman’s clothes and all “civilian” attire. Service uniforms were recut and dyed, and bedding was also used to make clothes. These pieces were concealed by carpentry professional “Digger” Macintosh.

11. What was the Tunnel Team Leader responsible for? • Flying Officer Wally Floody was a pre-war mining engineer, and was the brains behind the tunnels. A manually operated air-pump was built, wires and light bulbs were strung (using the German’s electricity), and excavated dirt was surreptitiously disposed of around the compound.

12. What was the Financial Operations Team Leader responsible for? • Johnny Travis was in charge of scrounging whatever was available to create “escape kits” and hoard “lagergeld”, which was as close to money as the POWs were allowed to have. Train tickets, travel passes, and even a camera were procured.

13. What were some project controls? • The X Committee, which organized the plan, could approve or reject any other escape plans. Secrecy was important. English-speaking Ferrets would eavesdrop on the POWs. The “Duty Pilot” system monitored the movements of the ferrets. Forged documents were reviewed again and again. Prisoners were tested on their language skills.

14. Name one anticipated risk, and the mitigation plan. • Discovery of the escape plan. Bushell had been warned that if he tried another escape, he would be killed. Tunnel cave-ins were also common; bed boards from the bunks shored tunnel walls and ceilings up.

15. Name one unanticipated risk, and the risk response. • Due to the unforeseen cutting down of trees to make way for camp expansion, the end of the escape tunnel was 30 feet from the woods, meaning escaping prisoners could be discovered when the guard walked by the area. A rope was stretched from the woods to the end of the tunnel, and a tug was given when the German sentry was not nearby.

16. What were the key deliverables? • An escape tunnel needed to be dug. • 250 men were to attempt escape. • The Third Reich was to be distracted from their war effort as they searched for the escapees.

17. Why were completion times so important? • Sentries patrolled the grounds at regular intervals. • Prisoners had to be out under cover of darkness and early enough so they could catch trains. • Dates on the Ids were valid only for the day of escape. The escape had to be executed while the forged format was still current. • The longer they put off the escape, the more likely the remaining tunnels would be discovered.

18. How were human resources managed? • People were assigned jobs according to their vocations in civilian life. • Graphic designers became counterfeiters; mining engineers became tunnel experts; tailors designed “civilian” clothes. • The biggest contributors to the project were among the first out, as were German-speaking prisoners, who were believed to have the best chances of success.

19. How did they use motivation and team-building? • The prisoners were organized as a community with all members invested in the well-being of the rest of their comrades. The men pooled their rations, lagergeld, and other precious items, so that all made a contribution.

20. The Fifty J5233 F/L Henry J Birkland - 61053 F/L E Gordon Brettell DFC - 43932 F/L Lester G Bull DFC - 90120 S/L Roger J Bushell - 39024 F/L Michael J Casey - 400364 S/L James Catanach DFC - 413380 F/L Arnold G Christiansen - 122441 F/O Dennis H Cochran - 39305 S/L Ian K P Cross DFC - 378 Lt Halldor Espelid - 42745 F/L Brian H Evans - 742 Lt Nils Fugelsang - 103275 Lt Johannes S Gouws - 45148 F/L William J Grisman - 60340 F/L Alastair D M Gunn - 403281 F/L Albert H Hake - 50896 F/L Charles P Hall - 42124 F/L Anthony R H Hayter - 44177 F/L Edgar S Humphreys - J10177 F/L Gordon A Kidder - 402364 F/L Reginald V Kierath - P0109 Maj Antoni Kiewnarski - 39103 S/L Thomas G Kirby-Green - P0243 F/O Wlodzimierz Kolanowski - P0237 F/O Stanislaw Z Krol - J1631 Patrick W Langford - 46462 F/L Thomas B Leigh - 89375 F/L James L R Long - 95691 2/Lt Clement A N McGarr - J5312 F/L George E McGill - 89580 F/L Romas Marcinkus - 103586 F/L Harold J Milford - P0913 F/O Jerzy Tomasc Mondschein - P0740 F/O Kazimierz Pawluk - 87693 F/L Henri A Picard Croix de Guerre - 402894 F/O John P P Pohe - 30649 Sous-Lt Bernard W M Scheidhauer - 213 P/O Sotiris Skanzikas - 47341 Rupert J Stevens - 130452 F/O Robert C Stewart - 107520 F/L John G Stower - 123026 F/L Denys O Street - 37658 F/L Cyril D Swain - P0375 F/O Pawel Whilem Tobolski - 82532 F/L Ernst Valenta - 73022 F/L Gilbert W Walenn - J6144 F/L James C Wernham - J7234 F/L George W Wiley - 40652 S/L John E A Williams - 106173 F/L John F Williams

21. References The Great Escape Stalag Luft III, Sagan March 24/25th, 1944 By Rob Davis Retrieved from: http://www.elsham.pwp.blueyonder.co.uk/gt_esc/ Remembering the Fifty Retrieved from: http://www.pegasus-one.org/pow/cSL_3_Fifty.htm Stalag Luft III Photos Retrieved from: http://www.pegasus-one.org/pow/pSL_3 NOVA Great Escape - Experts dig into World War II’s most daring and technically ingenious prison break. PBS, November 16, 2004 Retrieved from: http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/greatescape/