It is over fifty years since the critics of the day acclaimed The
Wooden Horse as a superbly told story of the most ingenious and daring
escape of the Second World War. Millions of readers agreed, and the
book became a modern classic. This revised and expanded edition tells
the tale. The escape itself was conceived on classical lines. The
Greeks built a wooden horse and by means of it got into the city of
Troy; in 1943 two British officers built a wooden horse and by means
of it got out of a German prison camp. Together with a third
companion, they were the only British prisoners ever to escape and
reach England from this camp, though many tried. It was Stalag Luft
III, designed especially to hold the Germans' most prized captives –
Allied aircrew – and considered to be escape-proof. The break from
the camp itself is only part of the story. Once outside the wire the
escapers were still faced with the problem of getting out of Germany.
Fugitives in the midst of a watchful enemy population, they had many
close shaves when disaster threatened to overwhelm them – adventures
which the reader shares to the full. The fantastic nature of this
enterprise, the patience, determination and endurance, above all the
steel nerve it demanded from an undernourished physique, are rendered
the more impressive by the manner of the telling. The characters are
so surely drawn that they could not but be real. Throughout the book
runs a vein of humour which alone made those days bearable. The warmth
of human companionship born of privation, fear and a common purpose is
vividly portrayed.
Les mer
Produktdetaljer
ISBN
9781473800458
Publisert
2023
Utgiver
Vendor
Pen & Sword Military (ORIM)
Språk
Product language
Engelsk
Format
Product format
Digital bok
Forfatter