 In September 1942, British officers from Oflag VI-B Dössel, were transferred to VII-B after a mass escape (the "Warburg Wire Job").Within months two officers from Dössel, Lieutenant Jock Hamilton-Baillie and Captain Frank Weldon, proposed digging a tunnel north from Block 2's latrine to a villager's chicken coop about away.Work began in December 1942, but the rocky ground made digging difficult.