Accounting for the escapees

Thank you for all that terrific information about the actual escape, Speranza9. I haven't read a great deal about the actual events, so a lot of what you've said is new to me, or helps explain some things.

Of course we all know the movie isn't an historically accurate account of the real escape, or even its aftermath, except in many of its broad details, and I doubt the real thing was planned or carried out as the kind of rover-boys adventure depicted in the film. Obviously a lot of it was jazzed up to accommodate the stars, the action and the box office. Still, even with its liberties, you'd think the film would at least remain consistent within its own context, and among other things take better care in accounting for all the escapees.

At least you set the record straight about the fates of the real and very brave men who made the actual escape. It's also interesting to know that none of the POWs was shot independently of the 50, unlike in the film.

I'm sure any history of the actual escape would properly account for everybody. Many posters here have read books dealing with the real story and men involved and have provided accurate facts.

Since the movie is heavily fictionalized (changed names, compressed events, fake characters, etc.) it's not too surprising that the numbers don't add up. The film concentrates on action, movie-style heroics and two-dimensional characters in a two-dimensional plot. Logic and realism weren't priorities.

You know, I saw the end of this again recently, and thought of this thread, though I didn't post anything.

Like you, I also didn't hear Ramsey read out Ashley-Pitt's name on the roll of the dead, which I've noticed before. Besides which, when Ramsey first greets Hendley and the others he tells them that the Gestapo murdered 50 of the escapees, and that he's just posted the list. Since he specifically refers to 50 men and the list, it's certain, by Ramsey's own words, that the list is of the 50 POWs whom we know had been machine-gunned in the woods -- and only those 50. Clearly, it does not include deaths sustained elsewhere during the escape, or the number on the list would have been higher.

However, I'm sure that when the returning POWs (the ones with Hendley) ask whether specific prisoners were on the list, one of them asks, "Ashley-Pitt?", and Ramsey replies "Yes." If my memory is accurate, how would Ramsey have known that A-P had been shot if he hadn't been on that list?

Now, it could be argued that Ramsey might have been provided separate information about other men killed in the course of the escape -- which would basically be two: Ashley-Pitt (shot while fleeing the railroad station after killing the SS man who recognized Bartlett) and Blythe, shot after his and Hendley's plane crashes. But he doesn't know about Blythe -- Hendley has to tell him that. Okay, maybe he'd been informed about A-P but not Blythe. But he never reads out either man's name in the roll. The lack of continuity here and the gap in numbers remains.

No matter how you figure it -- and whether the murdered 50 should really be 52, with Ashley-Pitt and Blythe added on -- the numbers of the dead, captured and escaped, as stated in the movie, simply do not add up.