While not accurate for John Egan's actual evasion and capture in Germany, the experiences shown by his character in this episode were very strongly based on the actual incident named the Russelsheim Massacre, where six American airmen were executed by an angry mob of German civilians, while their two armed guards stood by idle. One uniformed air warden, armed with a semi-automatic pistol, emptied his magazine while shooting all six in the head to ensure they were dead. The incident started when two German women called the airmen, "terror flyers," and one threw a brick to the head of an airman.
Finally, again as portrayed, those airmen who failed to escape were taken by a cart to a nearby cemetery and buried in a mass grave. One event that happened in reality, but not portrayed in the scene was that an air raid siren sounded off at the height of the violence, causing the mob to stop and flee in fear. This allowed two of the six airmen to escape. Their reports were integral to the post-war investigation.
The American prosecutor was Lt. Col. Leon Jaworski, who was the special prosecutor in the Watergate hearing. He insisted on individual accountability for war crimes and secured eight convictions with one acquittal. Six German civilians and the air warden were sentenced to death. The two others were sentenced to 15 and 25 years in prison. One of the death sentences was later commuted to 30 years of hard labor, and the other five were hanged.
Finally, again as portrayed, those airmen who failed to escape were taken by a cart to a nearby cemetery and buried in a mass grave. One event that happened in reality, but not portrayed in the scene was that an air raid siren sounded off at the height of the violence, causing the mob to stop and flee in fear. This allowed two of the six airmen to escape. Their reports were integral to the post-war investigation.
The American prosecutor was Lt. Col. Leon Jaworski, who was the special prosecutor in the Watergate hearing. He insisted on individual accountability for war crimes and secured eight convictions with one acquittal. Six German civilians and the air warden were sentenced to death. The two others were sentenced to 15 and 25 years in prison. One of the death sentences was later commuted to 30 years of hard labor, and the other five were hanged.
When CPT Crosby is looking at himself in the mirror, clad only in a bath towel and his "saucer" hat, we see him remove the metal "stiffener band" from it. This was often done because it made it easier to wear headphones during missions This resulted in a so-called "50-mission crush" look often associated with airmen.
The polite and soft mannered officer who questions Bucky at the camp is based on Hanns Scharff, a German officer in charge of interrogating POW's at the Dulag Luft III transit camp. Scharff was ordered to use torture if necessary, but used sympathy and kindness instead. Speaking fluent English, he would create a rapport with the prisoner by studying the case beforehand and pretending to know everything about him and his mission. As depicted, Scharff spoke about hobbies and family, offered food, cigarettes and news about the man's companions or the advance of the war, while casually mentioning that the methods of the Gestapo were far nastier. After the war, Scharff testified against Nazi leaders at the Nurember Trials and later emigrated to New York, where he was invited by the Pentagon to give lectures on interrogation techniques, many of which are still used by the FBI and CIA.
Camps for POW's like Stalag Luft III were very different from the reality of concentration camps. They were not run by SS, but by the Luftwaffe or the Wehrmacht. Enemy officers were not forced to work, and the camps even received inspections from the Red Cross. Interestingly, and although Stalag Luft III in particular was noted for its high security, escape attempts were extremely frequent. This was because these camps followed the rules laid by the Geneva Convention for treatment of prisoners of war, and according to them enlisted personnel could not be executed for escape attempts. The Royal Air Force, therefore, instructed their officers to try to escape as much as possible, knowing that commanders would be forced to deviate resources from the war to recapture them and increase the number of guards.
Most of Harry Crosby's part of the episode comes from his memoir titled A Wing and a Prayer.