I saw a documentary a couple of years ago which showed some of the guys who’d returned to the scene. They looked down into what was then an open trench which exposed their work. The men just looked down in amazement and commented that they couldn’t imagine how they ever made it. It was obviously a very emotional visit for them.
What made the escape great was their bravery, their planning, their PATIENCE. It would have been easy to make mistakes from impatience to be free. They knew they would not all make it to freedom. They knew the attempt was a huge risk. They gave it a go anyway.
What made the movie about the escape so great was the casting, the mix of Hollywood drama with the attempt to be as real as possible, and the special feeling I got when the poor blind fellow got his chance too. So sad he didn’t make it.