New Display Announced Commemorating the Long March
Published on: 27 January 2025
Today marks the 80th anniversary of the evacuation of Stalag Luft III, the Luftwaffe controlled prisoner-of-war camp that imprisoned captured Allied air force personnel during the Second World War.
From late 1944 to April 1945, 80,000 Allied prisoners-of-war were marched westwards from the Nazis’ network of camps, as the Soviet Army advanced towards the German front. Prisoners were forced to walk hundreds of miles in extreme winter temperatures. Many died from exposure, exhaustion or disease, or were shot by guards.
Stalag Luft III seen through barbed wire, around 1943
RAF Museum, PC71/19/632
To mark the 80th anniversary of the Long March, the RAF Museum will display loaned objects related to Warrant Officer George Thomson, who was force marched westwards from Stalag Luft VII in January 1945. George, a navigator, was imprisoned after baling out of a Lancaster while on a bombing raid over Frankfurt.
Allied prisoners inside Stalag Luft III. Squadron Leader Roger Bushell,
who masterminded the Great Escape, stands second from the left.
RAF Museum, X003-2640-A6
The display will open in RAF Museum London Hangar 5 on Wednesday 12 March, within the Museum’s ‘Strike Hard, Strike Sure’ Bomber Command exhibition and beside the Long March Memorial.
Warrant Officer George Thomson
Items on display will include George’s diary, which gives a powerful insight into his experiences as a prisoner-of-war, as well as his navigator’s badge, flying logbook and prisoner-of-war dog tags.
Also on show will be a postcard from George to his parents, dated 4 October 1944. It reads; Dear Mum and Dad, I am now in a POW camp and the address is on the front. Please don’t worry about me; I am quite OK and thanks to the “Red Cross” life here is quite good. Will you let all my friends know, and keep everything going for me. I only hope you have not had too much anxiety, and that you are both well. Take care of yourselves – all my love, George.