Tonight | Greatest Escapes of WW2 on SBS: prisoners risk everything for freedom – Captured soldiers, sailors and airmen attempt daring escapes in a new six-part documentary series. Greatest Escapes of WW2 premieres Sunday 25 October at 5:35pm on SBS and is available free on SBS On Demand.
The series looks beyond one nation or battlefield. By drawing stories from both sides of the war and locations around the world, it puts the risks taken by prisoners at the centre of each escape.
Escape routes across the war
Some captives dug tunnels; others stole planes. The journeys did not end at the prison boundary. The series also follows people forcing their way through dangerous jungles or marching long distances while death squads pursued them.
Those different routes give the programme its scope. An escape might demand planning and patience, a sudden chance to seize an aircraft or the endurance to keep moving on foot. Each attempt begins with the same aim: getting back to freedom.
A six-part documentary
Rather than treating wartime escape as a single familiar story, Greatest Escapes of WW2 gathers cases involving soldiers, sailors and airmen. The series premise is the persistence of people who refused to concede after capture. The premiere begins that collection of accounts on SBS.
Greatest Escapes of WW2 airs Sunday 25 October 2026 at 5:35pm on SBS and streams on SBS On Demand.
Read more in TV Central’s SBS coverage. Watch on SBS On Demand.
