Project Management and The Great Escape

1
Project ManagementandThe Great Escape
By Kurt Ackerman [phone] kurtack_at_optonline.
net
2
Who were the Stakeholders in this Project?

• The Prisoners.
• The Guards.
• The Guards Administrators.
• The Allies.
• The Third Reich.

3
What were the three escape projects names?

• The tunnel Tom.
• The tunnel Dick.
• The tunnel Harry.

Why three of them?

• So that the prisoners would have alternate
  options if one was discovered, or if other
  problems presented themselves (Risk Management).

4
The Scope Constraint

• Tunnels needed to be dug far enough to escape the
  compound. The tunnels needed lights, air, wall
  and ceiling support. Excavated dirt needed to be
  disposed of in a clandestine manner. Papers
  needed to be forged. Civilian clothes needed to
  be procured and tailored. Maps were needed, as
  were train schedules. Languages needed to be
  learned - or unlearned.

5
The Cost Constraint

• Items were stolen. Items were made from what was
  available, Guards were bribed and items bartered.
  Guards were also blackmailed into supplying
  resources.

6
The Time Constraint

• The timetable was quite extensive. It took over a
  year, nearly two, for the tunnels to be ready.
  Their timetable was altered a little when one
  tunnel was discovered.

7
Who was the Project Manager?

• In real life, Roger Bushell. In the movie, Roger
  Big X Bartlett (Richard Attenborough).

8
What was the Security Team Leader responsible
for?

• Flight Lieutenant George Harsh was in charge of
  internal security. Special German guards
  Ferrets could nose around in the compound for
  any signs of escape. Harsh created a
  log-in/log-out system (called Duty Pilot) to
  keep track of the Ferrets.

9
What was the Counterfeiting Team Leader
responsible for?

• Flight Lieutenant Des Plunkett was responsible
  for forgery of crucial papers and maps.
  Improvisation and bribery were used to procure
  maps and German IDs, from which copies were made.

10
What was the Clothing Team Leader responsible
for?

• Tommy Guest and his team were responsible for
  altering the service uniforms, as well as
  workmans clothes and all civilian attire.
  Service uniforms were recut and dyed, and bedding
  was also used to make clothes. These pieces were
  concealed by carpentry professional Digger
  Macintosh.

11
What was the Tunnel Team Leader responsible for?

• Flying Officer Wally Floody was a pre-war mining
  engineer, and was the brains behind the tunnels.
  A manually operated air-pump was built, wires and
  light bulbs were strung (using the Germans
  electricity), and excavated dirt was
  surreptitiously disposed of around the compound.

12
What was the Financial Operations Team Leader
responsible for?

• Johnny Travis was in charge of scrounging
  whatever was available to create escape kits
  and hoard lagergeld, which was as close to
  money as the POWs were allowed to have. Train
  tickets, travel passes, and even a camera were
  procured.

13
What were some project controls?

• The X Committee, which organized the plan, could
  approve or reject any other escape plans. Secrecy
  was important. English-speaking Ferrets would
  eavesdrop on the POWs. The Duty Pilot system
  monitored the movements of the ferrets. Forged
  documents were reviewed again and again.
  Prisoners were tested on their language skills.

14
Name one anticipated risk, and the mitigation
plan.

• Discovery of the escape plan. Bushell had been
  warned that if he tried another escape, he would
  be killed. Tunnel cave-ins were also common bed
  boards from the bunks shored tunnel walls and
  ceilings up.

15
Name one unanticipated risk, and the risk
response.

• Due to the unforeseen cutting down of trees to
  make way for camp expansion, the end of the
  escape tunnel was 30 feet from the woods, meaning
  escaping prisoners could be discovered when the
  guard walked by the area. A rope was stretched
  from the woods to the end of the tunnel, and a
  tug was given when the German sentry was not
  nearby.

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What were the key deliverables?

• An escape tunnel needed to be dug.
• 250 men were to attempt escape.
• The Third Reich was to be distracted from their
  war effort as they searched for the escapees.

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Why were completion times so important?

• Sentries patrolled the grounds at regular
  intervals.
• Prisoners had to be out under cover of darkness
  and early enough so they could catch trains.
• Dates on the Ids were valid only for the day of
  escape. The escape had to be executed while the
  forged format was still current.
• The longer they put off the escape, the more
  likely the remaining tunnels would be discovered.

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How were human resources managed?

• People were assigned jobs according to their
  vocations in civilian life.
• Graphic designers became counterfeiters mining
  engineers became tunnel experts tailors designed
  civilian clothes.
• The biggest contributors to the project were
  among the first out, as were German-speaking
  prisoners, who were believed to have the best
  chances of success.

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How did they use motivation and team-building?

• The prisoners were organized as a community with
  all members invested in the well-being of the
  rest of their comrades. The men pooled their
  rations, lagergeld, and other precious items, so
  that all made a contribution.

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The Fifty

• J5233 F/L Henry J Birkland - 61053 F/L E Gordon
  Brettell DFC - 43932 F/L Lester G Bull DFC -
  90120 S/L Roger J Bushell - 39024 F/L Michael J
  Casey - 400364 S/L James Catanach DFC - 413380
  F/L Arnold G Christiansen - 122441 F/O Dennis H
  Cochran - 39305 S/L Ian K P Cross DFC - 378 Lt
  Halldor Espelid - 42745 F/L Brian H Evans - 742
  Lt Nils Fugelsang - 103275 Lt Johannes S Gouws -
  45148 F/L William J Grisman - 60340 F/L Alastair
  D M Gunn - 403281 F/L Albert H Hake - 50896 F/L
  Charles P Hall - 42124 F/L Anthony R H Hayter -
  44177 F/L Edgar S Humphreys - J10177 F/L Gordon A
  Kidder - 402364 F/L Reginald V Kierath - P0109
  Maj Antoni Kiewnarski - 39103 S/L Thomas G
  Kirby-Green - P0243 F/O Wlodzimierz Kolanowski -
  P0237 F/O Stanislaw Z Krol - J1631 Patrick W
  Langford - 46462 F/L Thomas B Leigh - 89375 F/L
  James L R Long - 95691 2/Lt Clement A N McGarr -
  J5312 F/L George E McGill - 89580 F/L Romas
  Marcinkus - 103586 F/L Harold J Milford - P0913
  F/O Jerzy Tomasc Mondschein - P0740 F/O Kazimierz
  Pawluk - 87693 F/L Henri A Picard Croix de Guerre
  - 402894 F/O John P P Pohe - 30649 Sous-Lt
  Bernard W M Scheidhauer - 213 P/O Sotiris
  Skanzikas - 47341 Rupert J Stevens - 130452 F/O
  Robert C Stewart - 107520 F/L John G Stower -
  123026 F/L Denys O Street - 37658 F/L Cyril D
  Swain - P0375 F/O Pawel Whilem Tobolski - 82532
  F/L Ernst Valenta - 73022 F/L Gilbert W Walenn -
  J6144 F/L James C Wernham - J7234 F/L George W
  Wiley - 40652 S/L John E A Williams - 106173 F/L
  John F Williams

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References

• The Great Escape
• Stalag Luft III, Sagan
• March 24/25th, 1944
• By Rob Davis
• Retrieved from
• http//www.elsham.pwp.blueyonder.co.uk/gt_esc/
• Remembering the Fifty
• Retrieved from
• http//www.pegasus-one.org/pow/cSL_3_Fifty.htm
• Stalag Luft III Photos
• Retrieved from
• http//www.pegasus-one.org/pow/pSL_3
• NOVA
• Great Escape - Experts dig into World War IIs
  most daring and technically ingenious prison
  break.
• PBS, November 16, 2004
• Retrieved from