Twenty-eight prisoners of war escaped from Angler Camp 101 in Ontario in 1941 via this tunnel
These images show the exit to the 1941 Prisoner of War escape tunnel located at Angler, Ont. Camp 101 located on the North Shore of Lake Superior. The discovery took place on Friday, April 18, 1941, when a Veterans Guard of Canada member roaming outside the wire perimeter kicked over an abandoned pan, revealing the exit.
The PoW had hoped to achieve the escape of 80 PoW to commemorate Hitler’s Birthday on April 20th, however constant rain began to gather in the tunnel system, weakening the sand walls.
Twenty-eight men escaped the tunnel before it was discovered, with two getting as far as Medicine Hat prior to being captured. Five men took shelter in a trapper’s hut. Two were shot and killed (research indicates murder), and two were wounded. The fifth was also captured, as were the balance of the escapees.
The images can be found in photographs and postcards from that era. The top picture (image 982) shows a empty beer carton for scale. The tunnel was 150 feet (45m) long, solidly built using bed boards and other salvaged camp lumber.
The bottom picture (image 983) includes a member of the Veterans Guard facing the exit, holding a flashlight (you can see the flashlight as a small white dot), and a search party light to examine the tunnel.
Escape tunnel from the prisoner of war camp at Angler, Ontario, used in 1941
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The Henderson Collection of pictures, papers, and objects pertaining to the German prisoners of war in Canada and the Veterans Guard of Canada now belongs to the Royal Alberta Museum.
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