The Real Great Escape by Guy Walters aims to tell the true story of Roger Bushell and the mass escape he masterminded from a German POW camp in March 1944. The movie version, and the book upon which it is based, tell a tale of high adventure wherein the deaths by execution of fifty Allied airmen were an unfortunate and unforeseeable consequence of their brave attempt to disrupt the German war effort. The truth is much muddier than that, bound up in the egos of those involved, and ultimately the real story is much more of a senseless, and avoidable, tragedy. I enjoyed that Guy Walters researched and called in question many key moments in the film that have become part of the cultural mythos around this story – debunking is one of my favourite history nerd things. The executions, which take place in large groups in the film, were actually carried out in small groups of twos and threes at different times, the details of which comprise one of the more sobering passages I’ve read in a while. I think the book probably goes as far as it can without disparaging the memories of those involved, which poses an interesting question – to whom do we owe a duty when we retell history?