Escape from a WWI Prisoner of War Camp

The light fighter planes flown many times by inexperienced pilots during WWI often crashed in enemy territory. The pilots then found themselves in prisoner of war camps. The prisoner of war camps in Germany were horrible. The prisoners were often starved, freezing, and ill. In spite of the hardships, many tried to escape and more than once.

Prisoners who were prone to escape were sent to Holzminden, one of the worst camps. The commandant vowed that no prisoners would escape from his camp, but in fact one of the most daring and successful escapes occurred under his nose. The prisoners tunneled out and several of them survived the 150 mile journey to Holland. This is the story of the men and their escape.

This is a well-researched book. If you’re a fan of WWI stories, you shouldn’t miss this one. The early part of the book goes into detail about the prisoners and the escape attempts. This can be a bit hard to follow because so many characters are involved. However, once the story focuses on the escape from Holzminden, the pace picks up.

The men accomplished an amazing engineering feat building a tunnel under the prison, but also building false walls to hide what they were doing and getting forged documents. This is a suspenseful tale that reads more like a novel than a history book. I highly recommend it.

I received this book from Net Galley for this review.