Oliver Philpot

The Wooden Horse was the idea of Lieutenant Michael Codner RA[12] and Flight Lieutenant Eric Williams.[13] They approached Philpot in June 1943 to 'register' their escape scheme with the escape committee, Philpot being the escape co-ordinator for the hut in which the three of them lived.

With the scheme approved, Codner and Williams set to work. A vaulting horse was constructed from stolen timber, plywood with cigarette package wrappings used for the top. After a period of legitimate use, Codner and Williams started to dig a tunnel from inside the horse. One man was carried out in the horse and the tunnel started by digging a shaft, lined with plywood panels from Red Cross parcel boxes. After each session, care was taken to secure the top of the shaft and to replace the surface sand on top. The digger and the sand excavated were carried back into a hut and the sand disposed of. Initially Philpot assisted in disposing of the sand, but later on Codner and Williams asked him to join in the digging and become one of the escapers.[14] Digging was a cramped job and sand was dragged back to the bottom of the shaft by the digger and then placed into bags for lifting and disposal. Only 12 bags per session were lifted. After a while, the team swapped to a four-cycle dig-and-lift scheme, where two men went out on the first trip and dug 36 bags of sand. For the next three trips, one man went out and recovered 12 bags each time. As the tunnel grew longer, a bowl and string were used for pulling the sand back. Although this was slightly slower (36 bags per cycle as opposed to 48 under the old system), it meant three shorter sessions and one longer one for the volunteers using the horse for vaulting, an important change as the number of volunteers was small and they were becoming tired.[15]

Experimentation with a poker showed that the tunnel was about 30 inches (76 cm) below ground but also running approximately 30° off the intended course.[16] The tunnel had several narrow escapes from detection or accidental destruction due to digging by either the guards or other POWs, but by the beginning of October it was past the wire and the three men started to make their final preparations. They decided to make the break in the period of no moon at the end of the month and escape on Friday, 29 October 1943. This was 114 days after the first digging commenced.[17]

On the morning of 29 October, Philpot and Codner were carried out to the tunnel as normal to collect some sandbags. Philpot returned with the bags while Codner remained in the tunnel all day to continue the digging. Codner's absence from the evening roll-call was covered and then the horse was used to carry three men to the tunnel: Philpot and Williams, together with a third man named McKay to seal the three escapers into the tunnel.[18] The three broke out just after 6 p.m. It had previously been agreed that Philpot would travel alone as Jörgensen, while Codner and Williams would travel together posing as French workmen. Philpot made his way to Sagan station, where he caught the train to Frankfurt (as did Williams and Codner). Arriving at Frankfurt, Philpot intended to catch the night train to Küstrin, but it was cancelled and he had to wait until the next morning for the next train. After spending the night in some woods, Philpot took the train to Küstrin and then onto Danzig. After almost giving himself away by falling off his case and swearing in English, his false papers were good enough to survive checking by a police officer.[17][19]

The Swedish vessel Aralizz that Philpot smuggled himself onto in Danzig harbour

Arriving in Danzig less than 24 hours after escaping from Stalag Luft III, Philpot started to look for a neutral ship to carry him across the Baltic Sea to Sweden. After an initial reconnaissance and looking for somewhere to sleep, he checked into a hotel even though this required him to share a room with another guest. The next day (Sunday), Philpot spent the day around the Swedish dock and in the evening managed to smuggle himself onto a Swedish ship called the Aralizz. The crew of the Aralizz saw him and the captain asked him to leave as he was placing the crew at risk,[20] but Philpot refused. Without the knowledge of the captain, the chief engineer and a seaman hid Philpot until Tuesday, when the ship sailed. Once the ship was at sea, Philpot again made his presence known to the captain, who took a different attitude now the ship was no longer in port.

After the ship arrived in Sweden, Philpot was handed over to the Swedish police and taken to the British Legation in Stockholm on Thursday 4 November 1943—less than five days since the breakout.[21] A week later, he was reunited with Codner and Williams, who had used a similar route via Stettin to escape. Williams, Codner and Philpot were the only three men to escape from the east compound at Stalag Luft III and regain their freedom (the so-called "home run").[22]

Philpot returned to the United Kingdom on a BOAC flight just before Christmas to be reunited with his family. He did not return to operational flying and after debriefing by MI9 he was posted to the Air Ministry as a senior scientific officer.[17] He was subsequently awarded the Military Cross on 16 May 1944.[23]