The Great Escape [Audio CD]

Brickhill (Author), Paul (Author), Reader: Whitfield (Editor), Robert (Editor)

Book Description

Publication Date: October 1, 2008

One of the great true stories of the war, and one of the greatest escape narratives of all time.""San Francisco Chronicle

Editorial Reviews

Review

“Absorbing...spine-tingling...puts the average war book so far in the shadow it's not even funny.” (Dallas Times-Herald )

“One of the great true stories of the war, and one of the greatest escape narratives of all time.” (San Francisco Chronicle )

“For sheer suspense, puts the fictioneers to shame.” (Boston Globe ) --This text refers to the Paperback edition.

From the Inside Flap

With only their bare hands and the crudest of homemade tools, they sank shafts, built underground railroads, forged passports, drew maps, faked weapons, and tailored German uniforms and civilian clothes.

They developed a fantastic security system to protect themselves from the German "ferrets" who prowled the compounds with nerve-racking tenacity and suspicion.

It was a split-second operation as delicate and as deadly as a time bomb. It demanded the concentrated devotion and vigilance of more than six hundred men -- every single one of them, every minute, every hour, every day, and every night for more than a year. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

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Product Details

• Audio CD
• Publisher: Blackstone Audiobooks, Inc.; Unabridged edition (October 1, 2008)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1433249618
• ISBN-13: 978-1433249617
• Product Dimensions: 5.7 x 5.2 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 4 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (62 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,117,758 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

21 of 21 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A One-Volume Encyclopedia of an Unforgettable Thriller, March 21, 2006

By 

Jan Peczkis "Scholar and Thinker" (Chicago IL, USA) - See all my reviews
(TOP 1000 REVIEWER)   

This review is from: The Great Escape (Mass Market Paperback)

I first saw the movie as a child in the 1960's, and became fascinated with the subject, which lead me to this book. The details of the escape are described in minute detail. The drawings included, made by Kenyon, one of the camp artists, are very informative and clear. They show such things as the layout of the camp and its tunnels as well as the stooge system for protecting the forgers from approaching Germans.

One can sense every emotion from Brickhill's writing: The cursing of the diggers when buried by sandfalls while excavating the tunnels, the frustration of those attempting to remove the outer cover of tunnel Harry's exit shaft, the shock of the discovery that Harry's exit was as much as 30 feet short of the woods, the fury of the Germans at discovery of the mass escape, etc. One can also see that the evacuation of 200 POWs through one tunnel in one night, even without setbacks (such as the air raid) turned out to be an impossible goal. Most men in the tunnel took much longer than 2-3 minutes to get through it. In fact, several got stuck several times.

A major factor leading to the rapid capture of most of the "hardarsers" (those striking out on foot) was the snow on the ground. It forced most of the men to walk on or near the roads, where they were easily spotted and apprehended for questioning.

Brickhill also devotes some detail to the pursuit of the German murderers of 50 of the escapees. He recounts the lack of cooperation of the Soviet-imposed Communist puppet government of Poland, in which the previously-German Stalag Luft III campsite had found itself after the establishment of the Oder-Neisse line as the postwar boundary of Poland. (Of course, Brickhill could not have foresawn the fact that after Communism fell in Poland after 45 years, the Polish officials were free to express an avid interest in the onetime site of the camp).

14 of 15 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Trust in 104, May 8, 2005

By 

Christopher "chrysaetos" (Wengen-en-esprit) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Great Escape (Mass Market Paperback)

By now, everyone knows the story. I bought the film version on DVD a while back. I laughed a lot and enjoyed the film greatly (I think it's well done).

The tale is immense in scope, so I figured I'd read the book. I was in for a huge surprise. Half of the film's ideas come from Brickhill's prelude, and have nothing to do with the actual escape (or camp!). This meant only one thing: Brickhill's tale, thick as it is, is going to be completely original and that much more satisfying a read.

Paul Brickhill was the boss of a small group of prisoners who worked as stooges (watching out for Germans espying on their prisoners' doings). He writes fluidly and very well, and his obvious post-war research is superb (he tells the German angle in some parts). The book is easy to read, has moments of humor, and the descriptions are fantastic and there is never, ever, a dull moment from page one.

Little did I realize how much the film throws out the horrors of Nazi Germany (or seemingly takes it in stride). The film plays out escaping as a game, and even in the book, characters try to escape constantly. While the Geneva Convention includes a clause that states escaping should not be prosecuted severely, as it is a logical reaction to imprisonment, the reader will recall that Nazis don't necessarily believe in anything other than the word "kill." Therein lies the terror.

There is no Steve McQueen here, and, while there is a cooler, it's the least of the prisoners' fears. There isn't a small group of characters that the story revolves around. There are hundreds of people, and Paul introduces them at varying and strategic places within the story. You learn about new escapees up to the very last chapter. Everyone is a hero in his own way.

And while I was reading, I admittedly "forgot" about the Nazi terror and was constantly thrilled to see what would happen next, not realizing how everyone's lives were really in constant danger. Chapter 19 is one of the most frightening moments in the book. It is also the introduction of Hitler, and some of his own decisions regarding the Britons, the Americans, and even the Germans themselves.

Brickhill's fears aren't of being caught and thrown into a cooler. It is of being caught by the Kriminalpolizei, or the Gestapo, or of starving while eating illegally small portions of German rations (at one point, the prisoners are fed filthy water condensed on a motorcar engine).

This book is quite simply amazing. Do not expect the quasi-solo efforts of the brilliant escapes and happy fortunes as occurs in the book "Papillon." Expect frustrations, anger, impatience and, most of all, the miraculous teamwork that results into a years-long plan: the great escape.

I read the 1966 Fawcett Crest edition (see "customer images"), which includes an introduction by Brickhill's Stalag Luft III cohort George Harsh, and new illustrations from fellow prisoner Ley Kenyon, based on his own original drawings from the war.

18 of 21 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Tribute to Honor, Ingenuity and Determination, November 6, 2000

By 

gobirds2 (New England) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Great Escape (Mass Market Paperback)

Paul Brickhill's novel "The Great Escape" is absorbing reading about British and American POW's efforts to escape from the camps of their German captors. What is significant about this book is the ingenuity and tactics employed by the prisoners in their numerous escape attempts. Most people are familiar with the film of the same name, but this book goes into much greater depth and detail. What I found most interesting about the book was how the Allies were able to bribe the German guards into obtaining essentials they needed for their escape and aftermath. The German guards' fear of retribution from their own superiors helped advance the Allies' efforts. This is a very good book and makes for good reading. Paul Brickhill's dedication is "for the fifty" who paid the ultimate price of which there is no greater honor.