ESCAPES FROM CAPTIVITY

Press, Volume XCIV, Issue 28128, 17 November 1956, Page 3

ESCAPES FROM CAPTIVITY

Escape From Germany. By Aidan Crawley. Collins. 318 pp.

On rations that were inadequate even for maintenance, and under living conditions which sometimes beggared description, the spirited approach to escape sustained by the Royal Air Force prisoners of war in Germany was remarkable. It was a tribute to the type of person selected as air crew for which the prime requirements were supreme physical fitness. Let it not be thought however that every Royal Air Force prisoner of war, or any other prisoner of war for that matter, spent all his time in trying to escape. Only a few out of the many were inveterate escapers. Most did not try at all and some tried but once. This point is made clear by Mr Crawley in the first part of his excellent book. The second part is devoted to individual escapes, the third part to mass escapes. Despite the many books which have already been written on this subject no reader will wish to put down this one until it is finished. It is in fact the official anthology of the escapes of Royal Air Force prisoners of war from Germany. Those who knew him will be very pleased to see that at last Warrant Officer Grimson has been given due recognition for the extraordinary feats he performed before his death. He pot only escaped six times but also spent some six months in Germany trying to arrange an escape route for others to follow him. He is described by Mr Crawley as the most accomplished escaper of all. Unfortunately he never reached England. To round off his anthology Mr Crawley traces the final phases of the large camp at Sagan. The first appendix gives the names of the thirty P.O.W. escapers who actually got back to England. The second appendix contains extracts from documents pertaining to the court-marshal of von Lindeiner, commandant at Sagan at the time of the great escape which led to the death of so many airmen. No-one should miss reading this book. The saga of courage it records will be remembered for all time.