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TWO World War II veterans – who took part in the most famous break-out by British prisoners of war – have gone back to the tunnel they helped construct.

Stanley “Gordie” King, 91, and Frank Stone, 89, returned to the remains of Harry and the tunnel built after The Great Escape, ­nicknamed George, which has been reopened for the first time in 66 years.

Standing at the entrance to the 111-yard shaft, on the site of the notorious Stalag Luft III camp in Poland, widower Gordie’s eyes filled with tears.

The former radio operator said: “It has been such an emotional time for me.

“This brings back such ­bittersweet ­memories. I’m amazed by what they found.”

Frank added: “I’m thrilled by it all.”

The camp, 100 miles east of Berlin, was home to 10,000 prisoners.

The 60-acre site was ringed with a double barbed-wire fence and watchtowers to prevent escape.

Desperate to do just that, the prisoners built three tunnels nicknamed Tom, Dick and Harry 30ft underground using home-made tools.

While Tom was ­discovered and destroyed by the Germans, Dick was used for storage.

Lined with 4000 interlocking bed boards to stop it collapsing, the third tunnel Harry, and the story of the brave men of Hut 104 who battled to keep it hidden from camp guards, was immortalised in the classic 1963 film, the Great Escape, starring Steve McQueen, Richard Atten­borough, and Charles Bronson. Gordie was just 22 when he took part in ­break-out.

He was number 140 in the running order to go down the tunnel but after ­operating a makeshift pump to give air to comrades before him, the alarm was raised by the time only 76 got out.

Only three brave souls made it back to Britain, while 50 were killed by firing squad – on the orders of Hitler.

Now a dig led by Glasgow University archeaologist Dr Tony Pollard and commissioned for Channel 4 documentary Digging The Great Escape has ­excavated the site and found George – a tunnel built after The Great Escape and kept so secret only a handful of prisoner’s knew about it.

Frank was a gunner who shared a room with the “tunnel king” Wally Floody, an ex-miner in charge of digging Tom, Dick and Harry.

He said: “It’s like a war memorial for me. I don’t want people ever to forget the 50 men who died.

“The escape was thrilling and exciting but those men paid the price for it.”

While working on Harry, Gordie performed guard duty and acted as a “penguin” to disperse the sand excavated from the tunnels, whose entrances were hidden by the huts’ stoves. They were called penguins because they waddled when they walked.

The dad-of-six said: “We would put bags around our neck and down our trousers, fill them with ­excavated sand, then pull a string to release it on to the field where we played soccer, all in a very nonchalant way.

“One of my jobs was to look out of the window at the main gate 24 hours a day and write down how many guards went in and out.

“Another was warning watch. If the Germans came into the compound, we would pull the laundry line down and everyone would stop what they were doing and resume normal duties.

“The guards were not exactly brilliant. They were taken from what we called 4F – not fit for frontline fighting.”

Speaking about the daring night itself, he added: “There was an air raid and the power was shut off.

“Only key German-speaking officers with a good chance of bluffing their way through got documents and civilian ­uniforms.

“The rest were hard-a***s ­expected to get out and run but the power cut slowed us down.

“My close friend Jimmy ­Wernham didn’t come back.

“Before he went out, he gave his ring to his roommate Hap Geddes.

“He said, ‘If anything ­happens to me, give this to my fiancée’.

“After the war, Hap took it to Dorothy. He married her.” In ­addition to the tunnel, which contained trenching tools and a lamp made from a milk tin, ­archeologists also found the ­ventilation shaft, made from empty powdered milk tins, was still completely intact.

A PoW radio made from a biscuit tin, and a German gun were ­discovered along with the axle and wheels of a tunnel trolley.

Dr Pollard said: “You have to admire these men.

“The Germans believed that the deaths of those 50 men would have acted as a deterrent for future escapees. But these men were even more determined.”

Dr Pollard, 46, who co-founded Glasgow University’s Centre for Battlefield Archaeology, said: “I was surprised at just how emotional I became when we found Harry.

“We were the first people to see the tunnel in decades.

“But it came to a point when we realised we couldn’t progress with the excavation. As soon as you drive a shaft into the sand, it is so soft it starts to collapse. It shows just how skilled those prisoners were.”

But after abandoning Harry, they were set their sights on uncovering the fourth tunnel, George, that was rumoured to have been built

Dr Pollard said: “George turned out to be an absolute gem.

“We found the shaft and ­excavated the tunnel which ran the entire length of the theatre. It was ­incredibly well preserved, with timber-lined walls, ­electrical wiring and homemade junction boxes, and was tall enough to walk through at a stoop. The craftsmanship is phenomenal.

“It was built at a time of ­heightened security at the camp. It is a fighting tunnel, not an escape tunnel.

“It was heading for the German compound from where the prisoners hoped to steal weapons and fight their way out.

“The men knew the end of the war was nigh and they were playing a dangerous game. “To see what most of the prisoners never saw was a real thrill. The Germans obviously ­discovered Harry but they never had a clue about George.”

?Digging The Great Escape will be screened on Channel 4 at 9pm on November 28.