Customer Reviews

The Great Escape from Stalag Luft III: The Full Story of How 76 Allied Officers Carried Out World War II's Most Remarkable Mass Escape

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Most of the information presented herein has already been presented by earlier authors writing about the Great Escape. One unique feature of this book is the testimony of those 7 of the original 76 escapees who were still alive at the time of publication of this book (2004). Most of them believed, in retrospect, that the Great Escape had been worth it. But one of them opined that it was not worth the lives of the 50 who had been murdered by the Germans. The book has some unique photographs, and contains an extensive bibliography of books and other materials on the Great Escape.

Carroll provides good detail about the construction of the three openings (traps) of the tunnels Tom, Dick, and Harry. A group of Polish RAF officers who were engineers designed and built the traps. So cleverly were the traps constructed that the Germans found only one of them (Tom), and then only by accident and after numerous unsuccessful intensive searches.

The author Carroll makes some biased statements that detract from the otherwise excellent quality of the book. He claims, for instance, that the escaped POWs were engaging in espionage because the information they obtained was not all entirely related to their escape prospects, as they necessarily observed objects of military significance during their traverses through Germany and Germany-occupied territories. But, using such a loose definition of espionage, how could escaped POWs not be engaging in espionage? He also makes the ridiculous statement that Churchill wanted to "flatten every acre" of Germany, and brings up the destruction of Dresden in this regard. In actuality, Churchill expressed moral reservations about the conduct of Allied bombing following the Dresden firestorm, whose death toll at the time had been exaggerated several times over by German propaganda (an exaggeration which at times continues to this day). Carroll also claims that the shooting of POWs was a matter of concern to both Germans and Allies, but the murder of Jews was not. This is manifestly incorrect and Carroll, a historian, should know better. In fact, from the earliest days of the war, as German atrocities against Poles and then Jews began to mount, the eventual punishment of the German criminals had become one of the reasons for fighting the war.

This is a truly fascinating story. Unfortunately the author leaves out so much. For example, how did the men actually dig the tunnel? What did they use to dig? How did they estimate the distance of the tunnel? What was the process of making fake papers, uniforms, etc? Unfortunately the author provides no insight on these details. Given that these were amazing feats their exclusion is disappointing. But the biggest problem with the writing is the author's occasional interjections of his own (at times absurd) opinions. For example, near the beginning of the book he chides other writers who in his view took a "mawkish pose" regarding the 50 soldiers who were shot. He then goes on to conjecture that those men were still treated fairly well and "would be the last to complain about their treatment." That seems a blantantly presumptous thing to say. And in the last line of the book the author gets preachy in his suggestion that younger generations could learn a thing or two from the Bible. Also throughout the book the author makes very pompous observations. For example, he refers to "amateur" escape attempts! This makes one wonder if Carroll has any idea at all what it must have been like to be imprisoned during the war...and what it must have been like to attempt any kind of escape. So while I'm fascinated with the story, I'm disappointed with Carroll's telling of it--primarily his lack of detail and his frequently arrogant tone. I'd recommend looking for another account of the escape.

I grew up watching the Great Escape with my father. I always liked the movie and considered it one of my top 10 favorite war movies. After reading Ghost Soldiers (about POWs in a Phillipine camp), I found this book.

The author starts out stating that he is merely attempting to tell the full story of the Great Escape and is in no way trying to discredit the movie version.

His approach is to use the information he gathered from many, many sources including survivors of the ordeal who are still living. He simply tells the real story and at no time criticizes the movie version.

As we all know, Hollywood has a tendency to distort an original story in an effort to increase profits. Its nice to know what really happened in Stalag Luft III and the events leading up to and after the Escape.

The author adds a reprint of the transcript of the war crimes trials where Herman Goring denies ever knowing about an order to kill escaped prisoners. Its a nice touch.

If you liked the movie and have any interest in WWII history, I recommend reading the full story about the Greatest Escape of all.

This book gives a blow-by-blow description of all the events leading up to and after the great escape. You get a real look into the types of personalities and motivations behind their actions. I watched the movie after reading the book - what a great combination!