Download or read book The True Story of the Great Escape written by Jonathan F. Vance and published by Casemate Publishers. This book was released on 2019-08-30 with total page 525 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The real history behind the classic war movie and the men who plotted the daring escape from a Nazi POW camp. Between dusk and dawn on the night of March 24th–25th 1944, a small army of Allied soldiers crawled through tunnels in Germany in a covert operation the likes of which the Third Reich had never seen. The prison break from Stalag Luft III in eastern Germany was the largest of its kind in the Second World War. Seventy-nine Allied soldiers and airmen made it outside the wire—but only three made it outside Nazi Germany. Fifty were executed by the Gestapo. In this book Jonathan Vance tells the incredible story that was made famous by the 1963 film The Great Escape. It is a classic tale of prisoners and their wardens in a battle of wits and wills. The brilliantly conceived escape plan is overshadowed only by the colorful, daring (and sometimes very funny) crew who executed it—literally under the noses of German guards. From the men’s first days in Stalag Luft III and the forming of bonds among them, to the tunnel building, amazing escape, and eventual capture, Vance’s history is a vivid, compelling look at one of the greatest “exfiltration” missions of all time. “Shows the variety and depth of the men sent into harm’s way during World War II, something emphasized by the population of Stalag Luft III. Most of the Allied POWs were flyers, with all the technical, tactical and planning skills that profession requires. Such men are independent thinkers, craving open air and wide-open spaces, which meant that an obsession with escape was almost inevitable.” —John D. Gresham

Download or read book The Real Great Escape written by Guy Walters and published by Random House. This book was released on 2013-01-31 with total page 530 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In early 1942 the Germans opened a top-security prisoner-of-war camp in occupied Poland for captured Allied airmen. Called Stalag Luft III, the camp soon came to contain some of the most inventive escapers ever known. They were led by Squadron Leader Roger Bushell, code-named 'Big X', who masterminded an attempt to smuggle hundreds of POWs down a tunnel built right under the noses of their guards. The escape would come to be immortalised in the famous film The Great Escape, in which the ingenuity and bravery of the men was rightly celebrated. The plan involved multiple tunnels, hundreds of forged documents, as well as specially made German uniforms and civilian clothing. In this book Guy Walters takes a fresh look at this remarkable event and asks the question, what was the true story, not the movie version? He also examines what the escape really achieved, and the nature of the man who led it. The Real Great Escape is the first account to draw on a newly-released cache of documents from Roger Bushell’s family, including letters from Bushell, that reveals much about this remarkable man, his life and experiences during the war, and the planning of the escape attempt that was to make him famous. The result is a compelling and authoritative re-evaluation of the most iconic escape story of the Second World War.

Download or read book Real Great Escape The written by Jacqueline Cook and published by Random House Australia. This book was released on 2013 with total page 322 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Bigger than The Great Escape. The story of the first successful mass tunnel escape from a PoW camp in WWI Germany. Holzminden prisoner-of-war camp was a World War I prisoner-of-war camp for British Empire officers located in Lower Saxony, Germany. It opened in September 1917, and closed with the final repatriation of prisoners in December 1918.

Download or read book The Great Escape written by Ted Barris and published by Dundurn.com. This book was released on 2013-09-16 with total page 321 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: One night in 1944, eighty airmen escaped a German POW compound in Poland. The event became known as "The Great Escape." Ted Barris writes of the planners, task leaders, and key players in the escape attempt, those who got away, those who didn't, and their families at home.

Download or read book The Great Escape written by Paul Brickhill and published by W. W. Norton & Company. This book was released on 1950 with total page 306 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Records the efforts of six hundred British and American officers to escape from a Nazi prison camp.

Download or read book The Longest Tunnel written by Alan Burgess and published by US Naval Institute Press. This book was released on 2004 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: First published in 1990 and based on sources not available for Paul Brickhill's earlier work, the book tells how on the night of March 24, 1944, seventy-six Allied POWs slid through a 350-foot tunnel and out of a high-security German prison camp, into history.

Download or read book The Great Escape from Stalag Luft III written by Jens Müller and published by Rowman & Littlefield. This book was released on 2024-03-05 with total page 161 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A thrilling, first-person account of one of the most famous prison escapes of World War II. Jens Müller was one of only three men who successfully escaped from Stalag Luft III on the night of March 24, 1944—the breakout that later became the basis for the famous film The Great Escape. His memoir tells how Müller, a pilot in one of the RAF’s Norwegian squadrons, was shot down by the Luftwaffe over the English Channel in June 1942. After some days at sea in his Spitfire’s life raft, he made it to land in Belgium but was soon captured by the occupying Germans and sent as a prisoner of war to Stalag Luft III (in what is now Zagan, Poland). Müller vividly describes life in the camp, how the escapes were planned, and relates the compelling story of his personal breakout. Together with Per Bergsland, he managed to make it to the coast and stowed away on a ship to Gothenburg, Sweden. The two men eventually reached RAF Leuchars base in Scotland.

Download or read book Human Game written by Simon Read and published by Penguin. This book was released on 2012-10-02 with total page 416 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In March and April of 1944, Gestapo gunmen killed fifty POWs—a brutal act in defiance of international law and the Geneva Convention. This is the true story of the men who hunted them down. The mass breakout of seventy-six Allied airmen from the infamous Stalag Luft III became one of the greatest tales of World War II, immortalized in the film The Great Escape. But where Hollywood’s depiction fades to black, another incredible story begins . . . Not long after the escape, fifty of the recaptured airmen were taken to desolate killing fields throughout Germany and shot on the direct orders of Hitler. When the nature of these killings came to light, Churchill’s government swore to pursue justice at any cost. A revolving team of military police, led by squadron leader Francis P. McKenna, was dispatched to Germany seventeen months after the killings to pick up a trail long gone cold. Amid the chaos of postwar Germany, divided between American, British, French, and Russian occupiers, McKenna and his men brought twenty-one Gestapo killers to justice in a hunt that spanned three years and took them into the darkest realms of Nazi fanaticism. In Human Game, Simon Read tells this harrowing story as never before. Beginning inside Stalag Luft III and the Nazi High Command, through the grueling three-year manhunt, and into the final close of the case more than two decades later, Read delivers a clear-eyed and meticulously researched account of this often-overlooked saga of hard-won justice.

Download or read book The Great Escaper written by Simon Pearson and published by Simon and Schuster. This book was released on 2021-05-04 with total page 465 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A Sunday Times bestseller, the real story behind the mastermind of the most famous breakout in history—The Great Escape. While the most famous images from the 1963 film The Great Escape include either a motorcycle or a ball—but definitely Steve McQueen—Richard Attenborough played the part of “Big X,” the British mastermind behind the greatest escape in history. Like the subject of the film, “Big X” was a real person. Roger Bushell was the mastermind of the mass breakout from Stalag Luft III in March 1944. Very little was known about Bushell until 2011, when his family donated his private papers to the Imperial War Museum. Through exclusive access to this material, as well as new research from other sources, Simon Pearson has written the first biography of this iconic figure. Born in South Africa in 1910, Roger Bushell was the son of a British mining engineer. On May 23, 1940, his Spitfire was shot down during a dogfight over Boulogne after destroying two German fighters. Over the next four years he made three escapes, coming within one hundred yards of the Swiss border during his first attempt. His third (and last escape) destabilized the Nazi leadership and captured the imagination of the world, forever immortalized by Hollywood. Simon Pearson's revealing biography is a vivid account of war and love, triumph and tragedy—and one man's attempt to challenge remorseless tyranny in the face of impossible odds.

Download or read book The Great Escape written by Angus Deaton and published by Princeton University Press. This book was released on 2024-05-21 with total page 392 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A Nobel Prize–winning economist tells the remarkable story of how the world has grown healthier, wealthier, but also more unequal over the past two and half centuries The world is a better place than it used to be. People are healthier, wealthier, and live longer. Yet the escapes from destitution by so many has left gaping inequalities between people and nations. In The Great Escape, Nobel Prize–winning economist Angus Deaton—one of the foremost experts on economic development and on poverty—tells the remarkable story of how, beginning 250 years ago, some parts of the world experienced sustained progress, opening up gaps and setting the stage for today's disproportionately unequal world. Deaton takes an in-depth look at the historical and ongoing patterns behind the health and wealth of nations, and addresses what needs to be done to help those left behind. Deaton describes vast innovations and wrenching setbacks: the successes of antibiotics, pest control, vaccinations, and clean water on the one hand, and disastrous famines and the HIV/AIDS epidemic on the other. He examines the United States, a nation that has prospered but is today experiencing slower growth and increasing inequality. He also considers how economic growth in India and China has improved the lives of more than a billion people. Deaton argues that international aid has been ineffective and even harmful. He suggests alternative efforts—including reforming incentives to drug companies and lifting trade restrictions—that will allow the developing world to bring about its own Great Escape. Demonstrating how changes in health and living standards have transformed our lives, The Great Escape is a powerful guide to addressing the well-being of all nations.

Download or read book Zero Night written by Mark Felton and published by Macmillan. This book was released on 2015-08-25 with total page 318 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Non-fiction that reads like a novel! A thrilling, moment by moment account of an epic escape and the real-life adventures that followed.

Download or read book Dreams of Flight written by Dana Polan and published by Univ of California Press. This book was released on 2021-11-09 with total page 283 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Introduction -- Engineering The great escape : from book to film (and in-between) -- Tunneling in : The great escape : style, theme, and structure -- After-lives -- Appendix : "It really happened".

Download or read book The Auschwitz Escape written by Joel C. Rosenberg and published by Tyndale House Publishers. This book was released on 2014 with total page 481 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Joel C. Rosenberg delivers a spellbinding novel about one of the darkest times in human history.

Download or read book Great Escapes 1 Nazi Prison Camp Escape written by Michael Burgan and published by HarperCollins. This book was released on 2020-04-28 with total page 97 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Are you ready for some of the most exciting, death-defying escape stories ever told? Perfect for fans of the I Survived series, the first installment in a brand-new, edge-of-your-seat series based on real events! In spring 1942, Royal Air Force pilot Bill Ash’s plane was shot down by Germans, who captured and eventually brought him to Stalag Luft III, a notorious camp for prisoners of war. The Germans boasted that the camp—which was isolated, heavily guarded, and surrounded by wire fences—was escape proof. But Ash was ready to prove them wrong. He, along with other POWs, would dig tunnels, hide in shower drains, or jump on trucks—all in the name of freedom. Because resisting the Germans was their mission, and escaping was their duty. From reluctant reader to total bookworm, each book in this page-turning series—featuring fascinating bonus content and captivating illustrations—will leave you excited for the next adventure!

Download or read book Escape Evasion and Revenge written by Marc H. Stevens and published by Pen and Sword. This book was released on 2010-03-10 with total page 441 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: “A truly remarkable story . . . Marc Stevens has produced a fitting tribute to his father . . . who played a full part in the defeat of Nazi Germany.” —HistoryOfWar.org Peter Stevens was a German-Jewish refugee who escaped Nazi persecution as a teenager in 1933. He joined the RAF in 1939 and after eighteen months of pilot training he started flying bombing missions against his own country. He completed twenty-two missions before being shot down and taken prisoner by the Nazis in September 1941. To escape became his raison d’être and his great advantage was that he was in his native country. He was recaptured after each of his several escapes, but the Nazis never realized his true identity. He took part in the logistics and planning of several major breakouts, including The Great Escape, but was never successful in getting back to England. After liberation, when the true nature of his exploits came to light, he was awarded the Military Cross. He then served as a British spy at the beginning of the Cold War before emigrating to Canada to resume a normal life. This is the story of a heavily conflicted young man, alone in a world that is in the midst of destruction. He is afforded an opportunity to help his persecuted people to obtain a small measure of revenge. It is at once a sad yet uplifting tale of thankless and unheralded heroism. “This is a wartime career that would make any son proud, but Steven’s real triumph is in writing a biography that will satisfy the most discerning historian.” —National Defence Journal

Download or read book Great Escape Forger written by Susan Holmstrom Kohnowich and published by Pen and Sword Military. This book was released on 2022-09-21 with total page 194 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Carl Holmstrom’s superb artwork depicts life as a ‘kriegie’ in a unique manner. But, more than that, he spent the major part of his captivity in Stalag Luft III Prisoner of War Camp, famous for ‘The Great Escape’. The audacity of the 76 escapees was only matched by the callousness of the Nazis who murdered 50 after recapture. As well as skillfully recording camp life, Carl forged invaluable official documents. He also sketched his fellow prisoners and encouraged others to take up drawing as hobby. Remarkably he saved over 200 examples of his work by carrying them on the appallingly arduous 1945 winter march from Poland into Germany. Post war, Carl Holmstrom said, “The drawings were made during imprisonment and represent a sincere effort to portray to the American people and especially to the relatives of the prisoners, intimate glimpses of Kriegie life.” His words proved to be prophetic. An expansion of his earlier self-published Kriegie Life, this superb book honors Carl’s exceptional artistic gift. This book has strong claim to contain the finest collection of POW art to emerge from Nazi-occupied Europe.

Download or read book Tunnel King written by Barbara Hehner and published by HarperCollins Canada. This book was released on 2010-08-10 with total page 77 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Great Escape was the most daring and meticulously planned prisoner-of-war breakout of the Second World War. Yet not many Canadians—least of all children—know the heroic story of Wally Floody, a Canadian airman imprisoned in Stalag Luft III, who was a key figure in digging a set of sophisticated tunnels. Now acclaimed children’s writer Barbara Hehner has penned a gripping action-adventure that tells Floody’s incredible story, and how he eventually became the consultant for the movie The Great Escape. Packed with the kind of details kids love—like the fact that the prisoners built their own radios from empty cookie tins, or how the tunnels were shored up using 4,000 boards from the prisoners’ beds—The Tunnel King also provides an informative and dramatic Canadian context to the Second World War. Written in a lively style infused with Hehner’s obvious passion for her subject, this is a book that kids will devour.