HA96 Posted 22 December , 2013 Share Posted 22 December , 2013 Came across this new book recently, has anyone read it yet? Sounds like something really similar to the WW2 The Great Escape story, especially since the German Kommandant, like in 1944, had many of the "professional" escapees in his camp and finally could not control the guys as well. http://www.amazon.co.uk/The-Real-Great-Escape-Breakout-ebook/dp/B00DZIHBG0/ref=wl_it_dp_o_pC_nS_nC?ie=UTF8&colid=3EX3KJ1DAHD9K&coliid=IP02INX5IL9JT Lindele. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
centurion Posted 22 December , 2013 Share Posted 22 December , 2013 Read the original The Tunnellers of Holzminden written by one of the POWs who was in the camp. The real 'pioneering' was what some of the escapers did when they got out of the camp - used the German railway system to get out of the search zone ASAP The very original "bad boys" camp was French in the Napoleonic period - Bitche in Burgundy which like Colditz was in a fortress. Some RN types got out of there and walked all the way to Leghorn in Italy and got a frigate home Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dolphin Posted 23 December , 2013 Share Posted 23 December , 2013 'The Real Great Escape' is worth reading, especially if you haven't already read 'The Tunnellers of Holzminden'. The new book includes short accounts of the post-War careers of the men mentioned in the story, which is very interesting. Gareth Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
healdav Posted 23 December , 2013 Share Posted 23 December , 2013 Read the original The Tunnellers of Holzminden written by one of the POWs who was in the camp. The real 'pioneering' was what some of the escapers did when they got out of the camp - used the German railway system to get out of the search zone ASAP The very original "bad boys" camp was French in the Napoleonic period - Bitche in Burgundy which like Colditz was in a fortress. Some RN types got out of there and walked all the way to Leghorn in Italy and got a frigate home Bitche is on the Lorraine/Alsace border just south of the German Saarland border, not in Burgundy. It is well worth a visit. The fortress is amazing. Verdun was also a POW area during the Napoleonic era. A midshipman who was imprisoned there wrote a book about his experiences, but I've lost the details (and it isn't as far as I know, in print). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HA96 Posted 23 December , 2013 Author Share Posted 23 December , 2013 Read the original The Tunnellers of Holzminden written by one of the POWs who was in the camp. The real 'pioneering' was what some of the escapers did when they got out of the camp - used the German railway system to get out of the search zone ASAP The very original "bad boys" camp was French in the Napoleonic period - Bitche in Burgundy which like Colditz was in a fortress. Some RN types got out of there and walked all the way to Leghorn in Italy and got a frigate home Hi, is this book still available? Would you happen to have the author too? LIndele Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Admin spof Posted 24 December , 2013 Admin Share Posted 24 December , 2013 Hi Lindele You can read it online or download it from archive.org https://archive.org/details/tunnellersofholz00durn Glen Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
centurion Posted 24 December , 2013 Share Posted 24 December , 2013 There were a number of "escape" books published between the wars about British escapers. I think I may have read all of them.Escapers tended to aim for either the Dutch or Danish border and ,until the Holzminden men,walked at night.This made progress slow and food was a problem.After days walking at Night and holing up in the day escapers took on a trampish appearance which made recapture more likely. Bridges were a danger point as checkpoints were set up on them if there was a hunt on. After Holzminden trains were seen as a better bet (until one got close to the border).One man who managed a home run was later taken prisoner again -this time in Palestine when his plane was forced down and escaped a 2nd time from a Turkish POW camp (but the war ended befre he got home) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HA96 Posted 9 January , 2014 Author Share Posted 9 January , 2014 Hi Glen, thanks a lot for the link to be able to read the book online. I have now started to read it. Lindele Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jonathan Saunders Posted 10 January , 2014 Share Posted 10 January , 2014 Pat Reid, one time British Head of the British Escape Committee at Colditz who himself obtained a famous home run, said his inspiration for escaping was three WW1 escape books he had read for their seemingly "Boy's Own" adventures, one being the Tunnellers of Holzminden. I forget the other two now but definitely they were important contributions to the knowledge of escape that prevailed in the next war. Regards, Jonathan S Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
healdav Posted 10 January , 2014 Share Posted 10 January , 2014 I got rid of the book, unfortunately, but someone who I think was called Clayton something, was employed right through WW2 in inventing ways of getting escape material to POWs. When given the job the first thing he did was to get the British Library to get copies for him of every book about escaping in WW1, then he sent a telegram to the hedamster of, I think, Wellington School, requisitioning the whole 6th Form, and told them to read the books and to note down everything that was said about the sort of equipment they would have liked to have when scaping, and the secutiry methods which the Germans used to stop them getting what had been sent. He then started inventing ways of sending what the POWs had said they most wanted and worked down the list. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AlanCurragh Posted 10 January , 2014 Share Posted 10 January , 2014 A little off topic, but I think this is the book you mean http://www.amazon.co.uk/Official-secret-remarkable-aids-their-production/dp/B0000CKNC8/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1389357434&sr=8-1&keywords=clayton+hutton Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
centurion Posted 10 January , 2014 Share Posted 10 January , 2014 Pat Reid, one time British Head of the British Escape Committee at Colditz who himself obtained a famous home run, said his inspiration for escaping was three WW1 escape books he had read for their seemingly "Boy's Own" adventures, one being the Tunnellers of Holzminden. I forget the other two now but definitely they were important contributions to the knowledge of escape that prevailed in the next war. Regards, Jonathan S Probably Within Four Walls by Major M C C Harrison and The Escaping Club by Major A J Evans the best known of the five classic WW1 escape books Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
centurion Posted 10 January , 2014 Share Posted 10 January , 2014 Other possible candidates include Eastern Flights - A Record of Escape by Alan Bott Cage-Birds by R. R. McIntosh and also An Escaper's Log by Duncan Grinnell-Milne Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
healdav Posted 10 January , 2014 Share Posted 10 January , 2014 The original book of Holzminden (or rather a reprint) is available from Amazon. I have just ordered a copy. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jonathan Saunders Posted 10 January , 2014 Share Posted 10 January , 2014 Probably Within Four Walls by Major M C C Harrison and The Escaping Club by Major A J Evans the best known of the five classic WW1 escape books The Escaping Club rings a bell. Reference is made to them in the opening pages of The Colditz Story. Regards, Jonathan S Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
centurion Posted 10 January , 2014 Share Posted 10 January , 2014 Penguin published wartime editions of what became known as the Caged Penguins in 1940 Within Four Walls The Escaping Club The Tunnellers of Holzminden Eastern Flights Cage Birds They were also issued as Penguin soldiers editions but not as POW issue (presumably it was considered that the Germans would block them). Confusingly they did also publish Escape to Switzerland which was not an encouragement to POWs but a travel and history book - the escape was purely mental. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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