There was something thrilling about the tenacity and purpose of prisoner of war officers seeing their duty as trying to escape this formidable German prison during WW2. Not only were they using the power of their brains and working together but they were fighting the enemy by needing more and more resources to keep them incarcerated. There were many phenomenal escapes and even in event of failure a attitude of doubling down and never giving up the attempts. One of the most demystifying cases that appears in the book is that of Douglas Bader, one of the most legendary pilots of World War II. Bader was a Royal Air Force flying ace credited with 22 aerial victories. He had both his legs amputated after an accident and continued to fly with prostheses (which he filled with ping pong balls to be able to float if he crashed into the water). The escape attempts were filled with adventure, thrill with danger lurking at every corner but you need to read between the lines to understand that this book is a fitting tribute to soldierly spirit, the never say die attitude, the camaraderie and the OLQs (Officer like Qualities) which made these brave men face and survive the extreme odds and still keep on trying to escape from the escape proof Colditz Castle. A radio was produced so they could keep up-to-date with what was happening on the outside. Magazines of the front were pilfered from guards. This gave the POWs ideas on how others were trying to escape from their respective prisons.

This is an excellent account of Colditz, a special prisoner of war camp for special prisoners. These included those who had escaped from other camps, as well asthose who could be used as possible bargaining chips (minor members of the Royal Family, Churchill's nephew and others). Colditz was meant to be completely safe, impregnable and impossible to escape from. Of course, this did not quite work out to be the case.

Retailers:

We first meet the POWs of Colditz as they try their hand at an escape attempt they have been cooking up for several months. The false German uniform had been made, the travel passes had been created, and photographic passports had been produced by clever means. All that was left to do was complete the plan and walk through the gates of one of the most daunting prison camps in the world.

In a forbidding Gothic castle on a hilltop in the heart of Nazi Germany, an unlikely band of British officers spent the Second World War plotting daring escapes from their Nazi captors. Or so the story of Colditz has gone, unchallenged for 70 years. But that tale contains only part of the truth.The prisoners sent to Colditz had all escaped before from other camps and were sent there because it was considered escape-proof - ha! The Germans' mistake, of course, was to concentrate all that energy and skill in one place, so the prisoners were not so much concerned with whether they could escape but whether they could beat their fellow prisoners to the draw. But Macintyre also makes it clear that Colditz was unlike most POW camps. Firstly, its extraordinary location made escape appear impossible. And then there was the fact that everyone housed there was classed as deutschfeindlich, ‘German-unfriendly’, and had been sent there because they had tried to escape from other camps. It was like a school where all the bad boys had been gathered together under one roof. Anything related to the sexual exploits or frustrations of the prisoners wasn't really something I was keen on reading, but thankfully, it was kept fairly brief. The author made a bit of a stretch, claiming oh so many of the men engaged in homosexual acts. We know some did from memoirs or whatnot, and I'm not so naïve as to think others didn't and just never came out and admitted it. But the author also claimed that it must have been going on in a fairly large scale, while in the same breath, mentioning that (with the aforementioned exceptions) it was never verified/caught onto by the guards/we don't have proof. Well, then, I guess better to leave it at that. The French had the first few successful attempts. Some vaulted over the wire and climbed the walls, while others dressed up and walked out during a large sporting match.