Customer Reviews

The Last Escape: The Untold Story of Allied Prisoners of War in Europe 1944-45

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Few history books will ever have a more immediate and visceral impact on a reader; this is a chronicle of horror, bravery, hate, love and uncertainty woven into a rich tapestry of human endeavor at the absolute limit of comprehension. The authors have put stark human faces on one of the great acts of treachery and inhumanity of the Third Reich. In the brutal winter of 1944-45 the Germans began moving over 200,000 allied POWs from the advancing Russian armies toward the west, for reasons not certain even today. The particular ordeals of POWs from a selected number of the camps are described in riveting detail, with the personalities and actions of key POW participants richly revealed in often first-hand accounts and from recent interviews and testimony. It is almost unreal the depth of depravity inflicted by the Germans, particularly the SS, on these marches, some hundreds of miles long and lasting over several months. It seems incomprehensible that as a signatory to the Geneva Convention and a generally Christian nation that the Germans could be so uncaring of fellow humans; and as badly as the American and British POWs suffered, the treatment of the Russian prisoners will leave the reader profoundly disturbed. The authors follow the main characters throughout the ordeal and in many cases through the happiness and disappointments they faced after liberation. The book is carefully constructed so that as events unfold on the ground the reader is given the backdrop of actions by the governments and military hierarchies of the USA, UK, Soviet Union and Germany which help to explain the cascading events leading to the tragedy. Like a really good novel, the books gives us a look at the aftermath, when both heroes and scoundrels get what they deserve, or, all too often, what they don't deserve. Readers will find themselves cheering on the good guys and screaming invective at the bad guys and there are many of them, on both sides of the wire. This is THE book to top the "must read" list of anyone who enjoys or studies WWII history; buy it, read it and share it with friends; this is an important and largely unknown story superbly written.

In December 1944, some 270,000 American, British, and Commonwealth prisoners were sent on the road so they wouldn't be liberated by the advancing Allied armies. Nichol (himself a PW during the first Gulf War) and Rennell have dug out the stories of these men, who were marched for hundreds of miles through one of the worst winters Germany has ever experienced--half frozen, generally unfed, racked with dysentery, and apt at any moment to be shot by a German guard or strafed by Allied aircraft who had no idea who they were. Afterward, their ordeal was forgotten by all but themselves. An excellent account of an unknown atrocity, which left thousands dead and other thousands crippled for life. -- Dan Ford

Historical works tend to lean to one of two sides--first person recollections or cumbersome accounts of occurences with often little signficance. THE LAST ESCAPE transcends both of these genres and presents a most readable account of the western European POW experience during the last two years of World War II. Prisoners-of-war have seemingly been the focus of many books in the past few years but this volume informs the reader with a thorough picture of daily life, the forced marches and ultimate liberation. What makes the book stand out from others is its presentation of archival material which gives a scholarly background of not only why the Germans did what they did, but why the Allies reacted in their own manner. Stalin's dealings with the Soviet role in the POW situation are nothing less than fascinating and the role of families back home (home being England) and their coping with loved ones in captivity or worse, whereabouts unknown, mesmerize the reader with a sense of empathy not often seen in historical works of this nature. Readers are, of course familiar with POW books such as THE WOODEN HORSE, THE GREAT ESCAPE, A GALLANT COMPANY, et al, but THE LAST ESCAPE is the only book (aside from the excellent Vietnam prisoner book HONOR BOUND by Rochester and Kiley)topresent a most impressive blend of humanizing accounts with diligent academic research.When considered in the context of the supporting material, the recollections of RAF and USAAF prisoners take on an entirely new meaning and present a view of despair, frustration, dashed hopes and finally the job (but at the same time) uncertainty of freedom. THE LAST ESCAPE splendidly portrays these roller coster emotions on the part of prisoners.

By June 1944, there were hundreds of thousands of Allied prisoners in German POW camps, many in eastern Germany. As the war ground on, Russian forces began threatening the easternmost camps. The Germans chose to march most of those prisoners west. It was winter, and the prisoners often had to walk hundreds of miles; many weere in poor condition after nearly six years of captivity. Allied policy on POWs was in serious disarray, but there was a great concern that SS or other authorities would massacre prisoners or hold them as hostages. Drawing on first-person narratives and published works, the British authors concentrate primarily on British POWs, secondarily Americans; virtually no attention is paid to the many other Western allies held in German camps. How the end game played out, the fates of those camps overrun by the Russians, and the general muddle, terror, deprivation, and determination of individual prisoners makes a complex story, and a valuable addition to WWII literature. Recommended for military and political collections, and public libraries. Nichol is a journalist, former RAF flier who became a POW during the first Gulf war, and author of Tornado Down. Rennell is a journalist and author of Last Days of Glory.

Comparing suffering is a little like comparing husbands and wives: you can't do it. Yet for the thousands of Allied POWs in the second world war, comparisons were made between the German and Japanese treatment of those interred in the POW camps and which group had it worse. Yes, the inmates in Changi Prison had dysentary and work detail and died on forced marches by the score - but so did countless American and British soldiers and airmen in Germany, most notably within the last five months of the war. Who is to say that one group of POWs had a worse fate? Each of them suffered greater hardships and loss than most of us can contemplate. Yet for those reading up on that period of history, it's the horrors of the Japanese prison camps which first come to mind, not the POW camps in Europe.

The Last Escape, luckily, does not even attempt to compare the hardships of the two groups of POWs. Instead, it focuses squarely on the men interred in German POW camps, the misinformation that was given to the civilian public about their daily lives, and the reality they were experiencing. As the Russian and Allied front moved into Germany in the early part of 1945, the narrative follows the various Stalags in near-chronological order as they begin a series of forced marches deep into German territory. Mostly it is the memories and the words of those who survived the marches which tell the story (the authors highlight around fifteen veterans, who they either interviewed personally or were able to access privately published memoirs). All of the stories are horrific and utterly believable.

The book itself is easy to read, with maps strewn at various points within, clearly marked to follow the marches into Germany. I found the story quite gripping and interesting. The story carried every soldier well past the liberation of the camps and all the way home, so we were not left wondering what happened to any of them at the end. (Perhaps the last two chapters were the most interesting, in learning how the governments managed to get the tens of thousands of POWs home again in record time, and the difficulties with readjusting to freedom that those soldiers had.)

What I especially appreciated was the even focus on both American and British soldiers within the book. While nationalities were generally kept seperate within the camps, there were a few cases in which American soldiers bunked with British, and vice versa. This was the case in the book, where half the featured stories were of British soliders, and half were of American. There was very little information on any other nationality, although there was plenty of hearsay about the Russian POWs - not all of it good, unfortunately.

There was also much consideration of the political ramifications of who actually liberated the POWs. I had not before realized what a struggle it was with Stalinist Russia on the release of British and American POWs who had been liberated by the Communists, but the book carefully and clearly laid out the issues behind that particular hurdle, and the resulting numbers of Russian POWs who were returned to the Soviet Union only to be either killed immediately (some within minutes of their return) or sent for life to the gulags.

This was an excellent book with a full and complete picture of the last few months of war for the POWs in Europe. I would think it beneficial - and indeed, required - reading for anyone interested in this period of history.

The Last Escape: the Untold Story of Allied Prisoners of War in Europe is an excellent book about a subject not many people know about. Many people know about pow's because of The Great Escape and The Bridge over the River Kwai, but this book tells a different story. Late in WWII as Germany's defeat drew nearer, problems arose for the Allied forces involving prisoners of war under German control. How to get them back? What about the Gestapo and SS? This book offers many sides of the story not often presented about the closing months of the war. The Last Escape has interviews with countless prisoners who survived the ordeal. You can read about the marches in the blizzard across Germany, US and Russian relations about the prisoners, plans from the homefront about how to handle the prisoners, and so much more. This was a very informative book that is at times very moving and at others very disturbing. The Last Escape puts you in the prison camp with the POWs making the whole thing that much more real. For a very enjoyable and informative read about the little known stories of prisoners of war in WWII, check out The Last Escape!

This is an important work. The detail of the atrocities and hardships inflicted on American and British POWS by the Germans makes up the bulk of this book, but is needed to put the lives of the POWs into context. Their's was a miserable existence (if they survived), and support from the nations that had sent them into harm's way was hardly forthcoming. The policy that paid them a pittance for each day in captivity but subtracted any money they received from the Germans during their POW time from their pay was cruel bureaucratic nonsense at its worst.

Most of the other reviewers have concentrated on the hardships of the marches and camp life, so I will focus on the liberation of the eastern camps by the Red Army. As the author explains, Stalin was suspicious of the Allies and feared they would not honor the public and secret agreements made at Yalta. As a result, the American and British POWs were not freed -- the Soviet troops simply took over the camps as new wardens and guards from the Germans. The Allied POWS became hostages for the good behavior of the British and American governments.

Acceding to Stalin's demands, the British and American authorities forcibly returned all previous Soviet citizens to Soviet control, a policy that resulted in the extermination of probably some two million people. Soviet POWs, slave labor deported from Russia to work in German industry, and Russians working or fighting for the Germans were all condemned to the Gulag or executed.

But how many British and American POWs were in German hands? How many were "liberated" by the Soviets? How many disappeared into the Gulag as hostages? The answers are not here. The author discussed the numbers in Appendix 4, but the answer is elusive. The final SHAEF tally was 199,592 British, but only 168,746 British were officially returned. On the American side, General Marshall estimated that the Russians still held 25,000 Americans POWs on May 19th, of which only 1,500 returned home. Later estimates concluded that the Germans held 107,000 American POWs in total, of which approximately 85,000 returned home. The reader is advised to read Sanders et al, "Soldiers Of Misfortune" that addressed this problem and what happened to the American and British POWs who were shipped into the Gulag.

This book approaches the subject of the missing POWS, but drops it quickly as a hot potato. It does conclude that not all the POWs came home and that "...some undoubtedly fell into Soviet hands and, for various reasons, were detained behind the rapidly descending iron curtain and died there." If this sounds like what happened in Korea and Vietnam, I hope the reader will not be excessively shocked.

The whole subject of POWs, their treatment and return in all US wars is a subject that should be definitively handled and discussed in open forums. To date, that has not happened, but this book is another force seeking to open the door to full disclosure. I hope it helps.

The story is not untold, just not heard as often as the stories of the American prisoners held by the Japanese during WWII. The Germans treated prisoners awfully, as illustrated by the true stories in this book.

The death marches were unbelievable. Some marched over 400 miles with very little clothing, no food, and the worst winter Germany saw in over 50 years. I found the resolve for these men to survive to be remarkable. The most incredible fact is that more POWs didn't die considering what they went through. I was particularly moved by the description of a POW afraid to go to sleep one night because he was sure he would freeze to death. Truly inspirational and fascinating stories. The sacrifices these men made are hard to fathom.

The only reason I didn't give this book 5 stars is because of the writing style. I'm nitpicky, I know, but the writing didn't flow enough to grip me. The stories were gripping, but the writing could have been more creative.

Still, I strongly recommend this book. It relates facts that we should all be aware of.

My grandfather was a POW from 1940 to 1945. My brother bought this book for him to help him tell us his story. He has drawn in biro on one of the maps in the book the route his camp marched through Poland and Germany in the closing months of the war. He died in 2008, aged 88. I am now reading his copy of the book for the first time and it makes me feel so sad that I heard only snippets of Granddad's own experiences. I am also grateful and humble that he and thousands of ordinary blokes like him went through all that and came out the other side so well adjusted.
This book is a worthy testament to their sacrifices and suffering. It is well paced and engaging. This makes it easy to read and it rarely becomes dry, even in the parts about the tortuous bureaucracy surrounding the POWs on both sides of the war. My Granddad commented that it closely mirrored his experiences and it did enable him to talk a little more about the events and his feelings - having apparently not previously mentioned any of it for more than 50 years, according to my father. I would highly recommend the book to anyone interested in a fuller understanding of the second world war. I would also recommend it as a means to help anyone count their true blessings in these times of recession and alleged hardship which do not compare to what those men went through not so long ago.

A very good account of a forgotten part of the Second World War; Allied POW's caught in the final months of the Third Reich. The author's of this book have provide the reader with a detailed and moving account of what happened to the many thousands of Allied POW's caught in the final struggle for Nazi Germany towards the end of WW2.

These men are the unrecognised heroes of the Second World War. British soldiers captured from as far back as Dunkirk, or in North Africa or as recent as Arnhem. Or the many RAF officers and men from the British Empire and Commonwealth and their comrades in arms, men from the USAAF, shot down on missions over occupied Europe who were forced marched across the shrinking borders of the Third Reich undergoing horrendous privations and hardships, in an attempt to keep them from the advancing allied forces.

The authors have utilised interviews with many surviving veterans who speak here for the first time of the terrible conditions and of the many untold acts of heroism, fortitude and courage never before told. This is a great story and should be read by all who have an interest in the Second World War, as this is a part of that story not told before.