Looking back on the movie, "The Great Escape"

"The Great Escape"stared just about every famous name out there when they made the movie. If you haven't seen it (you are probably really young) Steve McQueens escape scenes  became iconic. Riding that motorcycle (a Triumph TR6 Trophy, modified to look more German) he crosses Germany, then while attempting to jump the barbed wire barricade into Switzerland he crashes into the fence and is re-captured. Amazingly it's about the same length of time it took for James Garner and Donald Pleasence to get away, steal a plane, crash the plane and get recaptured. 

Let's take a look at that escape run, The prison camp he broke out of was Stalag Luft III. Stalag is short for Stammlager or Main Camp, Luft is short for Luftwaffe or Air Force (Camp for Airmen) number 3.  McQueen breaks out and rides to the Swiss border. The camp was located in what is now the town of Zagan in Poland.

Sagan water tower

 At the time of the escape it was the town of Sagan in the German province of Lower Silesia. here is a model of the camp...

Now, he tunnels out with everyone else, steals a bike and makes the run for the border at Switzerland...

how about a closer look...

They never mention Czechoslovakia,  or Austria, which would be the more direct route, Out of Germany the sooner the better would have been my idea, not running deeper in towards Berlin. making a left at Dresden then down half the German countryside. There is also a lake between Germany and Switzerland, it's called the Bodensee. So you would have to cross at the Kreuzlingen, Suisse, Konstanz Germany line. that today is 845 kilometers or 7.5 hours, of course I do not believe Stevie was running on a Super Highway back in the 40's. Yes, Mr Hitler, was the guy to get the highways up and built but I don't think it was a straight run to the border, the movie had more, towns and fields. I don't think he typed into Google for instructions to use the  A4, A72,A9,A6 and A81 to B33.