Goofs

When Hilts and Ives are first put in the cooler, Ives is to the right as Hilts faces the door. As Hilts talks to Ives through the bars in the door, he faces the wrong direction.

When Hendley's stolen plane crashes the wings are clearly ripped completely off the fuselage. When the plane is next seen on fire the wings are still attached.

When Danny prepares to dig the first tunnel, he marks the outline using blue chalk. The outline is round/oval, but during a close-up shot when he writes the number 17 in the corner, the outline is more of a square. In the next shot, the outline is once again oval and the number 17 looks different.

In Bartlett"s briefing, he says the first tunnel ("Tom")will go out from 105, and then says it will go out from hut 104, and Harry from 105. Danny is then shown starting Tom in 104. However, by the July 4th celebrations, "Tom" is in hut 105 when Strachwitz discovers it (and "105" is painted on the hut when the guards surround it).

When Hilts crashes his motorcycle into the barbed wire fence, he is clearly in front of the barbed wire. When they cut back for the close-up, he is entangled in the barbed wire.

The film shows the executions being carried out by uniformed German troops using a Spandau machine gun. In reality, the executions were done by Gestapo agents who used pistols at close range.

Throughout the film actors are seen wearing rings and watches. No allied POW would have been allowed to keep anything remotely this valuable, or useful, for themselves. And if they were, lower grade guards and administrators would have targeted them for abuse and/or theft.

As described in the book and the movie, the entry shafts to the tunnels were dug 30 feet straight down. When Hilts breaks out of the tunnel he is standing in the end chamber and is able to reach up and pull down turf and grass. This implies that the tunnel at some point was dug on an upward slant. In fact this bit of engineering was contemplated and discussed by the escape committee, but in the end it was rejected because of safety concerns with the trolleys. The actual tunnel did have a long vertical exit shaft.

The film shows almost everything happening in the summer months. In reality, the actual escape occurred in March, 1944 while there was still significant snow on the ground. Most of the escapees who were trying to walk across country were forced by the deep snow to leave the fields and go on to the roads and into the hands of the patrols.

The film shows a large number of the escapees being shot in one common space at one time. In reality, the 50 were shot in many different places, sometimes alone and sometimes in small groups.

Strong timbers are needed to support thousands of pounds of dirt above a tunnel. The three foot long, 1/2 inch thick boards taken from the bed frames shown used in the tunnel seemingly could not support the weight. However, documentary interviews and excavation of the actual Stalag Luft 3 site, reveal that the film's depiction of the tunnel's construction was accurate. While the materials used may not have been adequate for a professional tunnel or mine, they were apparently adequate to the task and some are still holding up the tunnel even now.

Hendley wears USA flashes on his uniform. This shows that he is an American serving in the RAF and is a member of the Famous "Eagle" squadrons, three squadrons composed of Americans who joined the RAF. This also means that Hendley was shot down before 1944, since the squadrons were re-absorbed by the USAAF at that time.

At least one escapee is dressed as a German guard. While this is against all standard protocols, and being caught in a uniform would be an act of espionage punishable by execution after torture, the source book itself states that one of the escapees, Tobolski, did in fact escape disguised as a Luftwaffe Unteroffizer.

Note : Although escaping dressed in German uniforms did occur in that and various camps, the escapee is seen still in the fake uniform long after being re-captured (surely the German would have quickly taken it from him) - though presumably that was done so that the audience quickly realized it was the same character (who had therefore failed) as he was only minor.

When Roger meets the SBO for the first time, Roger is told that the prisoners wanted to "bring out the Welcoming Committee". However, Roger was specially delivered to the camp by a Gestapo/SS detachment. The SBO and other prisoners would have had no prior knowledge that Roger was arriving. Earlier on, MacDonald notices Bartlett arriving at the camp, and goes off to pass the word onto the other soldiers. Between when Bartlett is brought into Von Luger's office, and the time he goes to see Ramsey, this would have been enough time for a small, impromptu welcoming committee to have been formed.

When Hilts is on his motorcycle he is stopped in a town and asked for his pass. The reason he was stopped is because he is out of uniform. German motorcycle riders wore knee high black leather boots. Hilts is wearing brown combat boots.

When one of the officers has his papers checked on the train, the Germans say Danke to him , and he replies "Danke" when this should have been Bitte.

After the escape... throughout the train stations, towns, etc. there are only two Nazi flags (Swastikas) shown, one an armband and one on the side of a locomotive. Throughout Germany and its occupied lands, the Nazi flag were ubiquitous hanging practically everywhere and in great abundance.

After reading Paul Brickhill's book, it's obvious the actors in the film are too GQ looking. After months in the camp and secretly tunneling they had beards and suffered weight loss. Also it may not be on record but there was nothing to stop the Nazis from stealing the prisoners' Red Cross packages.

Flipped shot. After Hilts steals the motorcycle, he is hiding behind a building waiting for the German troops to go by. As they go by, the sidecar on the German motorcycle is on the wrong side of the bike.

When Hilts is playing the fife on the Fourth of July, his hands are in the wrong position. Both are on the outside of the fife, while anyone actually playing the instrument would have the right hand on the other side.

The planes in the airfield are American AT-6 Texan trainers painted in Luftwaffe grey. The Luftwaffe did in fact operate several AT-6s that had been captured from Belgium, who had bought them from the United States.

At the Cafe Suzette, Sedgewick is reading a newspaper called "Liberation", an underground resistance newspaper put out by the French. An escaping prisoner might read that paper, but not in broad daylight in a cafe where it would draw attention to him.

Early in the movie, when the guards do a surprise inspection and come into the shower at night while Charles Bronson is digging, the guy looking out through the peep hole in the door could only see straight ahead to the next hut, whereas the guards are coming from his far right far beyond where he could see.

Although Hendley and most of the other prisoners are (accurately) portrayed as very resourceful, a lot of the stuff they use would be impossible to obtain, or manufacture, no matter how good they were. These can't be stuff that soldiers brought with themselves when they were caught, or stolen from the camp either: dozens of civilian hats and shoes, large-size leather bags, two carboys (giant bottles they use for moonshine), rolls of fabric, and even a drum.

Most improbable of all is the the gunpowder they use to blow the cover of the garbage can (as a mock-up cannon) during their 4th of July celebration. No matter how small an amount it was, it would be considered a crime at a POW camp.

Hendly ducks under a German truck during a diversion and removes several long steel rods from underneath that will be later converted to picks for digging the tunnel. He does this without any kind of tools. Components that resembled these rods would probably have belonged to the steering system- would have been securely bolted to the truck- and their removal would have rendered the vehicle unsteerable.

The motorcycle that Hilts uses in his escape attempt was a 1960s British Triumph 650.

The transport truck carrying the 50 prisoners who are to be shot has modern brake lights, circa early 1960's. Military trucks, especially during the war, either had no brake lights or taillights or only one very small red light at the rear.

As the rowboat escapees, the "Tunnel Kings," near the end of their journey in a harbor, what appear to be container cranes can be seen in the background as they approach the ship and clamber onto the gangway, on both sides of the large vessel. Containerization did not begin until the mid 1950's and containership cranes were unknown in the 1940's.

Hilts' watch is a Rolex Submariner not available in the 1940s.

Hilts's baseball glove is a present-day (i.e., late 1950s/early 1960s) model, far too modern in design for a wartime glove.

When celebrating the 4th of July, James Garner plays the drum. His drumbeats don't match the drum sounds.

When the 50 are shot by the Germans near the end of the movie, you can see that the machine gun's ammo belt runs out, yet you can still hear the machine gun being fired for a few seconds longer.

given that there were three trucks its likely the sound of a different gun.

During the majority of the 4th of July scene the background soundtrack loops over and over. This goes on for nearly 10 minutes.

When the Americans are marching as "The Spirit of '76", they stop before the Senior Barracks Officer. The last fife note is heard after Hilts lowers the fife from his lips.

During Hilts's first time in the cooler when he is in conversation with Ives, a crew member is clearly seen on the left of screen, behind the false wall of the cell, presumably recording sound.

When Hilts is setting a trip line across the road the sun is screen left. As he reaches the near side of the road he's suddenly lit from screen right and has two opposing shadows. The light (probably a reflector) follows him causing the post in the foreground to reflect the light and then the post also gains a shadow facing the sun.

In the wide screen edition. During the initial trip to the cooler when Hilts is talking to Ives through the door you can seen the end of the brick wall on the left side, which is the edge of the set. During the scene you can see a person on the opposite side of this wall(the German guard).

(at around 2h 35 mins) As Bartlett and Mac try to run from the police at the bus stop, a there is a spotlight on its mount on the left-hand side of the screen.

When Hilts is fleeing pursuing Germans on the motorcycle and rides down a hill past a large log pile on the screen left, there is a square wooden enclosure in the distance (it sides run diagonally due to the perspective meaning the back and right sides are hidden from the viewer). For some reason a man in civilian clothes is hiding out of sight behind the right side . He then briefly runs into view from screen right to left and then goes behind a tree.

There's no part in the German-Swiss border where you can see the Alps or any mountains like those in the film.

Immediately after Lt. Henley tells Colin that they are just one mountain ridge away from Switzerland, their plane flies past the famous castle of Neuschwanstein, which is on the Austrian border, about 60 miles (and some very high mountains) away from Switzerland.

While the producers and Sturgis do deserve credit for filming the movie in Germany, the truth is that Stalag Luft III was actually in the Silesian dust bowl near the city of Sagan (or Zagan) in Poland. The topography there is actually quite flat. So the scenes of gentle hills and mountains that are shown in the immediate aftermath of the escape while picturesque are not accurate. Moreover, the escape occurred in March when there was still snow on the ground.

Despite what is indicated in the film, the Alps are nowhere near the German border with Switzerland. They are located much further south, by the Swiss border with Italy.

When Danny starts the first tunnel, in order to camouflage the sound of his pick, a man outside uses a sledge hammer to simultaneously drive a metal stake into the ground. It is never explained why the Germans would have approved this, given the man the stake and sledge hammer, or what the purpose of the stake was. The stake is never again seen in the movie and neither is the man who held the sledge hammer.

At the end, the SBO tells Hendley that there were 50 killed. He later asks Hendley about Blythe. But the SBO had just read the list of 50 killed and Blythe's name would have been on it. So he would have already known that. (Note: it's specifically said there were fifty killed, not executed. Blythe was killed on site, as was Ashley-Pitt and the SBO knew about Ashley-Pitt's murder).

When in the truck with other captured POWs, Bartlett hopes he won't cause the deaths of 70-odd escapees. His whole plan was to have 250 men out of the camp and he got out before the 76th one did (which was then all stopped by the Germans). He would have no way of knowing the number of escapees, it's not like they would've all gathered to do a 'headcount'.

When Ramsey (James Donald) is reading the list of murdered men, he reads "Addison, John; Alledale, Peter; Bancroft, Edward ... " When Hendley (James Garner) arrives and asks about Ashley-Pitt (whose full name is Eric Ashley-Pitt), Ramsay says he was among those killed. But in that case, Ramsey should have read Ashley-Pitt's name earlier.

When Hendley and Blythe are playing chess, the chessboard is positioned with a black square in the bottom right corner, i.e. the board is turned 90 degrees from the proper setup. A chess player would know the proper setup.

Throughout the movie, British and German officers pronounce "lieutenant" as "lootenant" rather than "leftenant".

In an early scene after the prisoners are brought into the camp, Werner asks Hendley why an American would fight alongside Britain, since they burned down the U.S. capital in 1812. While it happened during the War of 1812, the burning of Washington occurred in 1814.

(Possibly a deliberate error by the film-makers to make the actors be easier identified by viewers as they each escape) the escapees sneak out from the tunnel exit at night so as not to be noticed by the patrolling guards - but many of them wear bright clothing whilst doing it.