The book and the story is really fascinating as the mix between written testimony and letters from Laird and Bobbie and notes by Rory to contextualize the events manages to return much of that terrible experience that was the construction of the "Death Railway", of the return to desolation of Singapore (in the labor camp in which Laird was destined, the Songkurai camp nr. 2, 400 out of 1600 of those who had left died), of the climate of uncertainty that passed from the end of the war to the return to civilian life and that for Laird meant hugging his beloved Bobbie again. In addition to Richard Laird's memoirs and history, the book has three excellent appendices that concern Captain Cyril Wild of the Ox & Bucks, who will then take care of bringing Japanese war criminals to military justice, a report by Bruce Hunt on the Tanbaya hospital ( placed on the railway line) and another report that, drawn up by Lieutenant Colonel Dillon was intended for the Japanese and to improve the conditions.. Read more
On The Old Barbed Wire
The book and the story is really fascinating as the mix between written testimony and letters from Laird and Bobbie and notes by Rory to contextualize the events manages to return much of that terrible experience that was the construction of the "Death Railway", of the return to desolation of Singapore (in the labor camp in which Laird was destined, the Songkurai camp nr. 2, 400 out of 1600 of those who had left died), of the climate of uncertainty that passed from the end of the war to the return to civilian life and that for Laird meant hugging his beloved Bobbie again. In addition to Richard Laird's memoirs and history, the book has three excellent appendices that concern Captain Cyril Wild of the Ox & Bucks, who will then take care of bringing Japanese war criminals to military justice, a report by Bruce Hunt on the Tanbaya hospital ( placed on the railway line) and another report that, drawn up by Lieutenant Colonel Dillon was intended for the Japanese and to improve the conditions.. Read more
On The Old Barbed Wire
I saw this book on bookstagram and knew I wanted to read it. I absolutely loved it. It drew me in and I didn't want to take a break. Definitely did not disappoint!
NetGalley, Alicia Goeser
I saw this book on bookstagram and knew I wanted to read it. I absolutely loved it. It drew me in and I didn't want to take a break. Definitely did not disappoint!
NetGalley, Alicia Goeser
Very interesting to read. I had no knowledge of these prisons. So it was interesting to me. Great to learn new knowledge. The book was very factual. Well written too.
NetGalley, Lisa Houston
Very interesting to read. I had no knowledge of these prisons. So it was interesting to me. Great to learn new knowledge. The book was very factual. Well written too.
NetGalley, Lisa Houston
Article: [link=https://www.expressandstar.com/news/voices/opinions/peter-rhodes/2020/02/25/peter-rhodes-on-a-tingling-sensation-a-french-charmer-and-a-new-book-on-the-midlands-forgotten-prison-camps/]Peter Rhodes on a tingling sensation, a French charmer and a new book on the Midlands' forgotten prison camps[/link] as featured by
Express & Star, 25th February 2020
Article: [link=https://www.expressandstar.com/news/voices/opinions/peter-rhodes/2020/02/25/peter-rhodes-on-a-tingling-sensation-a-french-charmer-and-a-new-book-on-the-midlands-forgotten-prison-camps/]Peter Rhodes on a tingling sensation, a French charmer and a new book on the Midlands' forgotten prison camps[/link] as featured by
Express & Star, 25th February 2020
For me this was a shocking exposure of how the German soldiers were treated by the red army in the pow camps.
It is a story told by a soldier who was a pow and how this had an impact on their life.
At times harrowing but an important document from an eye witness.
Well worth the 5 stars and a read by all.
Amazon Customer, Richard Domoney-Saunders
For me this was a shocking exposure of how the German soldiers were treated by the red army in the pow camps.
It is a story told by a soldier who was a pow and how this had an impact on their life.
At times harrowing but an important document from an eye witness.
Well worth the 5 stars and a read by all.
Amazon Customer, Richard Domoney-Saunders
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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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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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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...
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The Devil's Workshop
One of the most remarkable episodes of WWII was the Nazi attempt to forge currency and trigger the economic collapse of the Allies. The counterfeit operation was one of the largest the world has ever seen and lead to the postwar reissue of sterling. At the Sachsenhausen concentration camp near Berlin, 144 Jewish prisoners of 13 different nationalities… 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...
