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Summer "Escape" Reading
By Lt Col P
A handgun course I took Memorial Day weekend caused me to realize again how tough the human spirit can be, which in turn lead me to think about the men who have sustained grevious injuries in this war and still volunteered to go back into combat. That, in turn caused me to remember a name from books I had read long ago-- Douglas Bader.
And Group Captain Bader gave rise to this post.
There exists in the literature of WWII a sub-genre of escape books, and some of them are among the best memoirs of that war. Several are among my own favorites, and made a powerful impression on me. So, here is a short list of suggested reading for your summer "escape," to remind us all that you can't keep a good man down.
Escape From Colditz, by P.R. Reid. This is where the Germans put the worst of the worst (from their point of view) of the Allied officer prisoners. Their prison was an enormous centuries-old castle, dead in the center of the Reich, floodlit at night and with a guard force that outnumbered the prisoners. It was foreboding, and seemingly impregnable. Yet, many tried to escape, some succeeded, and a few even made it to freedom. And in its walls thrived a microcosm of the great Alliance that eventually won the war. (See also the Nova program on "The Colditz Glider.") It has long been one of my goals to visit the castle and walk to Switzerland, retracing the escapers' secret route.
The Great Escape, by Paul Brickhill. NOT THE MOVIE. READ THE BOOK. The true, inspiring and ultimately tragic story of the most daring mass escape from a German POW camp.
Love And War In The Appenines. Eric Newby's classic about escape and evasion among the mountain peasants of Northern Italy. Outrageously funny, and completely true.
And here is the one that I haven't read yet, but have resolved to get as soon as I can:
Reach For The Sky, by Paul Brickhill. This is the biography of Group Captain Bader, mentioned above. Bader rejoined the RAF at the start of WWII, having been cut from the service after an accident in which he lost both legs. In this condition he flew in the Battle of Britain and became an ace, and one of Britain's best pilots. He was later shot down and captured. As a prisoner he became as thorough a nuisance to the Germans as he was in the sky.
Please do submit your suggestions.
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Comments
Although not a WW2 escape novel, I am always inspired when I read "Five Years to Freedom" by Special Forces Colonel Nick Rowe.
Captured as an advisor early in the war, he spent five years in various jungle camps in South Vietnam. He talks about how he kept his sanity and the friendships he made with his fellow prisoners and even an animal or two.
COL Rowe maintained a well-crafted lie that he was a civil engineering officer with the Army working on paddy dykes. Intel networks in the anti-war movement provided the truth... that he was a Special Forces advisor with the ARVN. Sent to be executed, he escaped.
COL Rowe later helped establish the Army SERE course that all Special Forces candidates must attend before they earn their Green Beret. While serving as an advisor with the Phillipine Army in the 1980's, COL Rowe was targeted and assasinated by communist insurgents there. I once was told that, after his death, the insurgents sent a message to his family expressing their deep respect for what they termed a worthy adversary.
After COL Rowe's death, the Army SERE school was named in honor of his memory.
Anyway, it's a great read.
"They Fought Alone" by John Keats is a biography of Wendell Fertig, an engineer in the US Army who commanded a force that numbered up to 30,000 on Mindanao after U.S. surrendered in the Philippines.
It really isn't an escape book, but if I remember correctly, it does have a lot of information about his evasion of the Japanese after the surrender and as he was setting up his guerrilla network.
(Awhile ago I had heard that it was going to be made into a movie, but it looks like that it will never come to be.)
"I Was a Stranger" by John Hackett is an escape from Holland. For much of his time in Holland he is recovering from injuries, and the book points to the ordinary heroism of the family that hid him. Probably not as hard or technical a book as the rest of yours, but a quick uplifting read nonetheless.
http://www.amazon.com/I-Was-Stranger-John-Hackett/dp/0712665625/ref=sr_1_1/102-9357864-7684125?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1181150005&sr=1-1
"Free as a Running Fox", by T. D. Calnan. He keeps escaping and keeps getting caught. If I remember right, he wrote the book for his kids, so they would know what he did for so long.
"The Long Walk: The True Story of a Trek to Freedom", Slavomir Rawicz
This deserves to be at or near the top of any such list, and should be more widely known.
The Wooden Horse by Eric Williams
The POWs used a home made vaulting horse to hide the tunnel entrance...right in the middle of the compound!
The Password is Courage by John Castle
True story of Btry Sgt Maj Charles Coward
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_Coward
Good book and a great movie
I'm a latecomer to this post, Colonel, but I'll second the recommendation of Calnan's Free As A Running Fox. It's out of print, but I read it as a kid and recently bought it used from Amazon. Well worth the price.
A new book by a Canadian historian is worth a read - it's called A Gallant Company: The Men of the Great Escape, by Jonathan F. Vance, published by Pacifica Military History. It's a book about the Sagan tunnel escape and the men involved, especially the Fifty murdered by the Gestapo, that has been needed for a long time. Vance interviewed survivors and relatives and has a number of never-published photos.
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Two good 'uns, both WWII escapes:
David Howarth "We Die Alone" Stephen Ambrose said it better than I can "A book that I absolutely could not put down,,,and one I will never forget"
Robert Kee "A Crowd is Not Company" Times of London said " Arguably the best POW book ever written" I can't argue with that
Please let me know how you like them...