Sunday, October 24, 2004

The Great Escape


anyone know html?
.
This week there was a little publicity surrounding the opening of a new exhibit about prisoners of war at the Imperial War Musueum. A couple of veterans of the Great Escape were trundled in front of journalists to give the exhibition a plug.
.
Many people are familiar with the story of the Great Escape; 76 Allied prisoners escaped en masse from a German Camp in March 1944. Three made it back to Britain and 73 were recaptured; 50 of whom were murdered by the Germans.
.
What made the story and the later film so interesting was the meticulous planning that went into the escape. Most of the prisoners were conscripts, rather than professional military men, and they used their civilian skills to prepare for the breakout. Engineers dug the tunnels, tailors made civilian clothing, printers forged documents, linguists taught the escapers rudimentary French and German.
.
Now I got thinking, after 60 years of soft living, I couldn't help wondering what skills would a cross-section of contemporary British civilians bring to a modern day escape attempt ...
.
'I'll design a multi-lingual web page!'
.
'I'll start a direct mailing!''
.
'I'll organise a protest march!'
.
'I'll draft a mission statement!'
.
'I'll write some parking tickets!'
.
'I'll turn the escape into a reality TV show!'
.
and then they'll all get some illegal immigrants to dig a death-trap tunnel and do the escaping for them: £5 a day, not a word to the taxman, no questions asked ...

No comments: