Behind enemy lines

The town of Bridgend in South Wales was the centre of one of the most dramatic wartime breakouts seen on British soil.

- BY CLAIRE O'BOYLE

Island Farm, formerly accommodation for women working in a nearby ammunition factory, became home to captured German fighters.

During the train journey that transported the prisoners to Island Farm, one resourceful man spotted a map on the back wall of a train carriage and traced it - not on paper, but on the torn-off tails of his shirt. It would come in handy later.

Escape plans were on their minds from the offset and digging under the fence was the plot that paid off.

The prisoners mined two tunnels, with one constructed as a decoy to trick the British authorities. To hide the soil, the Germans built a false wall in their hut using wood from the back of the camp's theatre stage.

They made an underground ventilation system using stolen milk cans and makeshift bellows and ran electrical cables into the ground to light up their escape route. They even orchestrated noisy points in a theatrical production to muffle the sound of their work.

In January 1945, the smaller decoy tunnel was discovered - while the men finalised the real one.

Then in March, the first of the 70 men involved crawled 9m underground, coming up just beyond the camp's perimeter fence.

The group split, running in different directions, before the guards realised there had been an escape.

A huge manhunt, one of the biggest in British history, was launched.

While many were rounded up, four of the escapees found a car and asked British guards for a push.