Great Escape
“They don’t make them like that any more.
“The idea to only speak Gaelic was ingenious but that was their language so it was no hardship to them.”
Scottish film company Burning Horseshoe Productions and Nor thern Ireland- based
Sandy and William.
Sandy, James and William’s cunning WW2 escape is the stuff of Highland legend. Silver Sombrero Pictures behind the new drama. True to its inspiration, In the Darkest Hour’s adapted script tells the story of two Scottish soldiers who used Gaelic to confuse their captors.
Funding for its development has been secured from Northern Ire l a n d’s national screen agency and promotional trailers are due to be filmed this week.
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Dunkirk: Following the battle and evacuation of Allied troops which ended on June 4, 1940, the Gaelic soldiers’ regiment is depleted.
Vadriecourt, east of Abbeville, France: After five days of fighting, the regiment is captured by German forces on June 7.
Between Bethune and Cambrien, France: The trio make their initial escape while other prisoners fight for a share of the water supply.
Rouen, France: The soldiers confuse the German commander and his interpreters by speaking in Gaelic and are set free.
Ukraine, then a part of the USSR: The location the soldiers point out as their home when shown an atlas.
Amiens, Angers, Bordeaux, Bayonne, France: The route the soldiers take on their way to Spain. At Bayonne, they are detained. The following morning, they are let go after telling the guards they are Irish Americans on their way to the American consulate in San Sebastian.
Spain-France border: The Scots evade suspicion at the border by crossing into Spain via a river and only narrowly avoid being swept out to sea.
A city believed to be San Sebastian, Spain: The Gaelic trio find the British consulate and are put up in a farmhouse in the hills while they await the sailing of a steamer to take them home.
Once out of Spanish waters, the trio are transferred to a British warship and return to Scotland via the River Clyde.