Meticulously researched and revealing many previously unknown facts, it relates how the British group came to be integrated with a multinational group of VIP prisoners in Dachau concentration camp, including German family groups of men, women and children; relatives of those implicated in a plot to kill Hitler. The lively narrative describes kidnapping, escape attempts, interpersonal conflict, betrayal and comradeship, as well as intrigues and love affairs among the prisoners, culminating in their dramatic attempt to free themselves from the SS. You could be forgiven that this might be a heavy read due to who the book is about and what we know he was responsible for. But the book is very different to the heavy facts about the concentration camps and what happened to them. This book in fact focuses on a special plot or plan being devised by Himmler in order to use well known, strategic or ‘important’ people to keep together in one place where they could then be used as some kind of.. Read more
UK Historian
Meticulously researched and revealing many previously unknown facts, it relates how the British group came to be integrated with a multinational group of VIP prisoners in Dachau concentration camp, including German family groups of men, women and children; relatives of those implicated in a plot to kill Hitler. The lively narrative describes kidnapping, escape attempts, interpersonal conflict, betrayal and comradeship, as well as intrigues and love affairs among the prisoners, culminating in their dramatic attempt to free themselves from the SS. You could be forgiven that this might be a heavy read due to who the book is about and what we know he was responsible for. But the book is very different to the heavy facts about the concentration camps and what happened to them. This book in fact focuses on a special plot or plan being devised by Himmler in order to use well known, strategic or ‘important’ people to keep together in one place where they could then be used as some kind of.. Read more
UK Historian
It's an incredible story of surviving open boat journeys and Japanese captivity. A page turner and must read on the 80th anniversary of the fall of Singapore, which heralded Britains declining post-war presence in the Far East.
Richard Gough, Military author and historian
It's an incredible story of surviving open boat journeys and Japanese captivity. A page turner and must read on the 80th anniversary of the fall of Singapore, which heralded Britains declining post-war presence in the Far East.
Richard Gough, Military author and historian
As featured by
Hereford Times, 4th February 2021
As featured by
Hereford Times, 4th February 2021
[b]Review by Eric Probert[/b]
There have been many books written on Bader- Amazon suggests at least 15 alternative titles – but I don't think any other biographer had such a close personal relationship with Bader than John Rayne Turner. Within these 252 pages with 21 black and white illustrations is a fitting tribute to this inspirational and courageous leader both in war and peace. You will learn not only of a hero and great tactical leader but also of a sometimes difficult and overbearing person whose strengths outweighed his weaknesses.
The newsletter of the North Weald Airfield Museum Association
[b]Review by Eric Probert[/b]
There have been many books written on Bader- Amazon suggests at least 15 alternative titles – but I don't think any other biographer had such a close personal relationship with Bader than John Rayne Turner. Within these 252 pages with 21 black and white illustrations is a fitting tribute to this inspirational and courageous leader both in war and peace. You will learn not only of a hero and great tactical leader but also of a sometimes difficult and overbearing person whose strengths outweighed his weaknesses.
The newsletter of the North Weald Airfield Museum Association
[b]Rating[/b]: 5 out of 5 stars "During the First World War, nearly 9 million of the 70 million soldiers mobilised globally spent time in enemy captivity." This statistic surprised me, as did many in this fascinating and eye-opening book written about the German officers held in a prison camp in Skipton, Yorkshire. I had no clue this particular place existed. But I do now. The first officers arrived in January, 1918 to a place which was initially used as a military training camp. Evidently 916 were held over a period of nearly two years. Interestingly, structures and materials were sold after taken down in 1920. This historical account is largely comprised of writings by the officers themselves, always compelling, often humorous. We are taken through daily activities in this POW camp through their recorded details which are thankfully now put together here. And oh, what stories! They include a witty ode to an iron bed frame, sordid food descriptions and rations, joyful letter days, putting.. Read more
NetGalley, Brenda Carleton
[b]Rating[/b]: 5 out of 5 stars "During the First World War, nearly 9 million of the 70 million soldiers mobilised globally spent time in enemy captivity." This statistic surprised me, as did many in this fascinating and eye-opening book written about the German officers held in a prison camp in Skipton, Yorkshire. I had no clue this particular place existed. But I do now. The first officers arrived in January, 1918 to a place which was initially used as a military training camp. Evidently 916 were held over a period of nearly two years. Interestingly, structures and materials were sold after taken down in 1920. This historical account is largely comprised of writings by the officers themselves, always compelling, often humorous. We are taken through daily activities in this POW camp through their recorded details which are thankfully now put together here. And oh, what stories! They include a witty ode to an iron bed frame, sordid food descriptions and rations, joyful letter days, putting.. Read more
NetGalley, Brenda Carleton
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Tracing Your Prisoner of War Ancestors: The First World War
The experience of civilian internees and British prisoners of war in German and Turkish hands during the First World War is one of the least well-known – and least researched – aspects of the history of the conflict. The same applies to prisoners of war and internees held in the UK. Yet, as Sarah Paterson shows in this authoritative handbook, a… Read more...
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Behind the Wire
Philip Kaplan presents us here with a riveting account of the Allied experience behind enemy lines, detailing the trials and tribulations experienced by the British and American airmen who were shot down in European skies during World War Two, to be incarcerated 'behind the wire' in enemy camps. With eloquence and a clear enthusiasm for the subject… Read more...
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A Talent for Adventure
Books on prison camps, daring escapes and life with the Resistance abound. Pat Spooner's story is different and more compelling in one important respect. It recounts the gripping and dramatic rescue of two senior British generals (one a VC) and an air vice marshal from occupied Italy by the author and his companion who had themselves both escaped from… Read more...
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Prisoner of the Gestapo
Tom Firth begins his extraordinary memoir by describing his unusual childhood in Japan and the devastating Yokohama earthquake in 1923. In 1930 the family settled in his mother’s native Poland only to split up when Poland was overrun by the Nazis and the Russians in 1939. Whilst his father and older brother were in England, Tom found himself trapped… Read more...
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Gunther Pluschow
Gunther Plüschow of the German Imperial Navy holds a unique place in history - during the First World War he was the only German prisoner of war ever to escape from the British mainland and make it all the way back to the Fatherland. Yet, although his daring break for freedom in 1915 is astonishing in its own right, Plüschow was much more than simply… Read more...
Very few British soldiers could lay claim to such a full war as Leslie Young. Having survived the retreat to and evacuation from Dunkirk, he volunteered for the newly formed Commandos and took part in their first major operation, the raid on the Lofoten Islands. He fought and was captured in Tunisia. He escaped in Italy before his PoW camp at Fontanellato… Read more...
Once a Hussar is a vivid account of the wartime experiences of Ray Ellis, a gunner who in later life recorded in this well-written, candid and perceptive memoir the conflict he knew as a young man seventy years ago. As an impressionable teenager, fired with national pride, he was eager to join the army and fight for his country. He enlisted in the… Read more...
Drawing on the memories of the last surviving prisoners of the 1914-1918 war, this book tells the dramatic story of life as a POW in Germany. Stories include the shock of capture on the Western Front, to the grind of daily life in imprisonment in Germany. Veterans recall work in salt mines, punishments, and escape attempts, as well as the torture of… Read more...
