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Summary: Courage under wire
Review: This is an engrossing tale of courage and ingenuity. Amazingly, under the paranoid eyes of their German captors, 76 RAF prisoners of war managed to tunnel their way to (at least temporary) freedom. The story is presented as a factual account - there isn't much dialogue, and characterisation is sketchy, but this is inevitable; a novelisation of the book would have spoiled it, for me at least. The blow-by-blow details of how the escape was accomplished are engrossing, and the author generates tension skillfully. I found myself in the tunnel with the roof collapsing, and shivering in the snow outside the wire fretting about the guards and searchlights. A cracking read from start to finish.
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Summary: The Tunnel Kings
Review: This is the first time I ever read this book, and it was AWESOME! Paul Brickhill explained the whole escape in great detail, which made the book really interesting to read. I liked the book because it had good details on how they dug the tunnels, and gto rid of the sand. The people involved in the "X" organization were pretty smart to come up with ways to make the tools needed to dig the tunnels. I recommend this book to every one who likes to read about war and POWs.It is a GREAT BOOK!
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Summary: A Classic POW Story....
Review: What a wonderful book. I've read it a few times and I marvel at the every day heroism displayed by the hungry, sex-starved men of Stalag Luft III.My own copy is the First Edition, printed by Norton in 1950 and signed by George Harsh who wrote the Introduction. I got it for an astonishing $12 and it's one of the most treasured books in my collection. It's part memoir and historical account. You read as the POWs begin their audacious plan and despite for many of them, what would be a tragic ending, you marvel at what these men had to endure and go through. Despite the tragedy, this is no weepy account. This is a testimony to the human spirit which triumphs in the face of human isolation. They are prisoners true, but they in the end, are the ones to triumph over nazism. The movie of course, inspired me to read the book, but just remember that the movie's characters are fictional composites of the real men. It would do well to remember the old cliche, "the book is always better than the movie," which is entirely true in this case. A Wonderful Book. Read It.
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Summary: Wow!
Review: When I was in school, a teacher assigned us this book. I was fascinated. They made compass cases out of melted phonograph records! They made air tubes out of hundreds of cans! They hid tunnels everywhere! And it was all TRUE!!! Unfortunately for me, the rest of the class whined that the book was boring (!!!) and the teacher had us turn them in. He had to pry mine out of my fingers. Years later, I was finally able to get a copy of the book, and it was worth it. I'd like to list the truly amazing things they did to escape the Nazi prisoner-of-war camp, but I wouldn't want to spoil the book for anybody.
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Summary: If your only familiarity with this story is the movie....
Review: You must read this book! It is one of the great stories of human ingenuity, determination, and courage. One thing that struck me in reading this book was the brilliant leadership of "Big X", the late Roger Bushell. Those of you in management positions who think you are hot stuff because you are paid a lot to manage some systems project or some group of clerical people should read this book to find out what a real manager of a real "project" is like.
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