ESCAPE FROM STALAG 6

By David McMaster

Welcome to this choose your own adventure presentation. In this mission every decision you make

effects the outcome. Your only goal… escape from Stalag 6. Just follow the links to navigate your

prisoner through the multiply scenarios. Good luck!!!

(Click on highlighted/ underlined words throughout the adventure to find out my information on the

certain word or topic)

Continue

BackgroundThe year is 1941. World War Two has claimed countless lives from both sides. You are a British pilot ordered on bombing mission over a small German strong hold. However on your approach your plane is shot down by German fighters and you crash in the middle of German field. After climbing out of the wreckage you find yourself surrounded by 6 German Soldiers. Two options spring into your head. Either surrender, or try to fight your way past them. What do you do?

Surrender Fight

Fight Your Way PastAfter looking around at the 6 heavily armed German soldiers you decide to take your chances and fight. You reach for your pistol and draw it from its holster. You manage to shoot 2 of the soldiers before getting shot in the leg. You fall to the ground and your gun lands about a metre away from your hand. The Germans give you one last chance to surrender. Do you?

Surrender Reach for your pistol

Reach for your pistolYou decide that there is no way you are going to a German Prisoner of War (POW) camp and in one last desperate attempt for freedom you dive for your pistol which is lying about a metre away from you. As you grab the handle of your pistol the 4 remaining German soldiers open fire hitting vital organs inside your body. You take one final breathe and then close your eyes. You died fighting. Back to Start

SurrenderAfter considering both options you decided to surrender. The Germans confiscate your pistol and sit you in the back of a truck. After driving a short distance you arrive at Stalag 6, a German Prisoner of War Camp just outside Berlin. On arrival you meet your new Commandant who asks you some questions which he expects answers to. Do you answer him or not?

Answer Don’t answer

Don’t answerAfter several chances to answer the Commandants questions you choose to keep your mouth shut and as a consequence you end up in the Cooler. After 1 month of being in the Cooler you are let out and sent back to the Commandant who yet again asks you the questions. Do you answer them this time?

Answer Don’t answer

Don’t answer againYou yet again choose not to answer and therefore are thrown into the Cooler for 2 months. After being let out of the Cooler the Commandant gives you one last chance to cooperate. You decide to cooperate and are assigned a bunk inside one of the prison buildings. However you soon discover that whilst you were in the Cooler for 3 months some of the prisoners attempted a break out. However these prisoners were caught and security around the camp as been tightened. You have missed your chance to escape and you live the rest of the war stuck in the POW camp until your release in 1945.

Back to Start

Answer You answer the Commandants questions and are assigned to a bunk in one of the prisoners cabins. The next night you here some of the other prisoners planning an escape attempt. Do you…

A:

B:

Or C:

Tell the Commandant about

the attempt

Ask to join the attempt

Plan your own attempt

You tell the CommandantAfter over hearing a plan by your fellow prisoners to escape Stalag 6 you decide that an escape attempt would cause trouble within the camp and therefore you tell the Commandant about what you heard. The prisoners that were involved are punished and you name remains anonymous. However security around the camp is tightened and you have ruined all chances of you or anyone else escaping. You spend 4years in the camp before being released in 1945 at the end of the war.

Back to Start

Plan your own attemptAfter hearing your fellow prisoners talk about an escape you start to get interested and listen to their idea more. However their plan is to escape next month and you decide that you can’t wait that long. Therefore you attempt an escape by yourself the next night. How do you choose to escape?

Or

Go over the fence surrounding the

campCut your way

through the fence

Disguise yourself as a guard and walk out

the front gate

Disguise yourself as a guard

You decide that a good way of escaping will be to disguise yourself as a guard and walk out the front gate of the compound. However this will require a uniform. Every day you know that a guard checks your cabin. You will use this as your chance to get his uniform. When the guard enters do you A:

Or B:

Try to strangle him

Take his gun

Strangle HimAs the guard enters your room you use your shoelace to strangle him. Once he his dead you put on his uniform. Now that you are in uniform two options are possible. You can either take a truck and drive out of the compound. Or just simply walk out. Which do you do?

Take the truck Walk out of the compound

Take the GunOnce the guard enters you jump on him and take his gun. The guard gets back up and knocks you to the fall sending the gun skidding across the ground. Both you and the guard reach for it and both of you grab hold. During the struggle for possession the gun accidently goes off. The gunshot noise alerts the other guards around the camp. You take possession of the gun and knock out the guard on the floor. However as you are about to run you notice that the cabin is surrounded by guards and getting out now would be impossible. The Commandant yells for you to surrender, do you?

Yes No

You surrenderYou realise that fighting would be pointless and you exit the cabin with your hands in the air. You spend 3 months in the Cooler. After your are released from the Cooler you do not attempt another break out and you live the rest of the war stuck in the POW camp until you’re released in 1945.

Back to Start

You don’t surrender You see that you are surrounded but attempt to fight your way out nevertheless. You manage to shoot three of the guards before you are gunned down yourself. You sustain critical wounds and die instantly. Bad Luck.

Back to Start

Take the truckYou decide to hot wire a German Truck and drive out the front gate. After making up a false story in German as to why you needed the truck the guards proceed to open the gate and you drive out with no one suspecting anything. You manage to drive the truck out of Germany and into Switzerland. Congratulations, you have escaped from Stalag 6.

Back to Start

Walk out the gateYou decide that in your uniform it will be best to walk out the front gate of Stalag 6. However on your approach to the gate one of the other guards recognises you and you are immediately surrounded. You are taken to Berlin where you are sentence to death by shooting (a common punishment for any Englishman who is caught in German uniform). You face a firing squad and are shot the next morning. Bad luck.

Back to Start

Cut your way through the fence

Before you can cut your way through the fence you need some wire cutters which are located in the storage shed at the back of the camp. After attempting to steal the wire cutters you are caught and thrown in the cooler for a week. However even though your escape attempt didn’t work you can still join the attempt in which the other prisoners are trying. Do you wish to do that?

Choose not toJoin the other attempt

Choose not toYou decide not to risk another break out attempt and you spend the rest of the war in the camp.

Back to Start

Go over the fenceThe following night you try an escape attempt. You choose to climb over the barbed wire fence on the south side of the compound between the two guard towers. You approach the fence without being spotted and begin to climb. You make it all the way over the fence and onto the other side. However once over the guard tower spots you and sounds the alarm. You know that more soldiers are on the way. That leaves you with the option to either run or stay and be captured. What do you decide to do? Run Stay and be

captured

RunYou decide to risk running. You sprint towards the forest which is only 40metres away however the guard in the tower is an excellent shot and before you can even get 10 metres he fires. You are shot and killed during the escape attempt.

Back to Start

Stay and be capturedAfter the alarm has been sounded you choose to stay and be captured as you realise that running would mean certain death. after your capture you spend 3 months in the Cooler. After your are released from the Cooler you do not attempt another break out and you live the rest of the war stuck in the POW camp until your release in 1945.

Back to Start

Join the escape attemptBefore you arrived at Stalag 6 some of the prisoners had been working together to dig two tunnels out of the compound. You offer to help finish digging the two tunnels in exchange for you being able to escape with them. They agree and after another month of digging the two tunnels are finished. Tunnel One leads to the south side of the camp near the river and Tunnel Two leads to the west near the forest. Which tunnel would you like to take?

Tunnel 1 Tunnel 2

Tunnel OneYou choose to take Tunnel One which goes south under Stalag 6 and comes up near the river. However the calculations of how far the river was from the camp were wrong and when you dig the final pieces of dirt away water rushes in. You have dug into the river!!! The tunnel quickly fills with water forcing you and the other prisoners to hurry back the other way. All the commotion in the tunnel alerted the guards and all prisoners involved were captured and thrown in the Cooler for 6months. After being released from the Cooler you do not try another escape attempt and you spend the remainder of the war in the camp.

Back to start

Tunnel TwoYou choose to take Tunnel One which leads west directly into the forest. You make it through the tunnel and out into the forest past the confines of the camp. You and the other prisoners shake hands and go your separate ways. You manage to make it out of German and eventually end up in France. Congratulations you have escaped from Stalag 6 !!!

Back to start

World War Two- Started 1939.- Britain declared war on Germany.- 40,500 Australians died during WW2. - Worst battle of WW2- Battle of

Stalingrad, 23 August 1942–2 February 1943. Over 1,250,000 people died.

- Germany surrendered.- WW2 ended 1945.

Back

Germany

Back

Commandant- Officers in the German army assigned to

manage and run Prisoner of War Camps. - Enormous pressure was put onto the

Commandants to make sure that none of their prisoners escaped their designated camps.

- If a prisoner did escape it most likely resulted in the Commandant being demoted and being placed as a foot soldier on a battle field… usually on the Western or Eastern Fronts. Back

Cooler- German punishment device.- A cooler is a very small and hot room with no

furniture or comforts. - Food is the bear minimum when in the cooler.- Used to punish prisoners who miss-behave or

try to escape.- Most prisoners learnt their lesson after their

first trip to the cooler, however some prisoners never learned and after being a constant menace to the Germans stronger punishments (such as death) were issued.

Back

Cabin Checks- Cabin checks in POW camps were regular

and thorough. - German guards used them to look for

possible tunnels that the prisoners decided to dig, home made weapons or objects that the prisoners might of stolen from around the camp (such as shovels).

- Punishment for finding any forbidden/ stolen objects or a half dug tunnel was a trip to the cooler for those prisoners involved. Back

Released- At the end of the war in 1945 all prisoners of war from both sides were released back to their respected countries.

Back

Estimating Distance- Estimating the distance of objects (such as rivers and

forests) outside the prison compound often proved difficult for the prisoners.

- The methods they used were basic as they did not have the proper equipment for the job and obviously they weren’t allowed outside the camp to measure.

- The most famous example of a wrongly determined distance was in 1944 when a group of prisoners planned the largest escape attempt in history from Stalag Luft III. The prisoners had planned to dig a tunnel under the camp and into the forest, however their plan was thrown into chaos when their tunnel (code named “Harry”) ended about 40 feet short of the forest.

Back