Customer Reviews

The Wooden Horse

5 star:		(12)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Don't be put off by the recent "out of print" status, this book is a great true story of a prison breakout in WW2. You can also easily pick it up through Amazons second hand bookstores for a relatively cheap price.

Written by the escapee himself, it retains all its charm and spirit since it first received rave reviews in the late 1940s to early 1950s.

The breakout came from a novel, yet brilliant idea inspired by the Legend of the Trojan Horse- ie to use a gym vaulting horse as cover to hide an inmate who dug a tunnel to the nearest concentration camp fence. It succeeded, but I won't ruin the story with all the details, you will have to read it yourself! Rest assured the book is well written, and as it is told by one of the escapees himself it has a certain charm, readability and authenticity about it.

Getting out was just the first part, the escapees still had to travel across most of Germany to reach home, right amidst the heartlessness and desparation of WW2. I found the description of the lives of everyday German people within a major war as soulful, revealing and harrowing as the concentration camp itself.

A remarkable story, a great and uplifting novel, sure to inspire for many years to come. No mundane "political correctness" here, truthfully told and recorded with all the desperation, fear, and courageous spirit of many involved in the war-on both sides.

There was a film also made in the 1960s I think, which was almost as good as the book, but not quite. Of similar genre to The Wooden Horse is "the Great Escape", also made into a film, but the Wooden Horse is more realisitic and better done overall in my opinion.

Uplifts the spirit.

The original Trojan Horse contained soldiers in the process of sneaking into a city. This real-life WWII thriller describes a Trojan Horse used by Allied POWs to tunnel their way out of a German POW camp. While the horse was ostensibly being used for vaulting exercise, a small group of men dug a tunnel underneath. Eventually it led them to freedom. The Germans were completely fooled.

This amazing escape episode involved three men, and was not part of the much-publicized Great Escape, but took place from the same camp (Stalag Luft III). This review is an expansion of an earlier one that I had written.

The original Trojan Horse contained soldiers in the process of sneaking into a city. This real-life WWII thriller describes a Trojan Horse used by Allied POWs to tunnel their way out of a German POW camp. While the horse was ostensibly being used for vaulting exercise, a small group of men hidden within the horse dug a tunnel underneath. Eventually it led them to freedom. Years later, "Eric Williams" was surprised that a mere plywood box could have fooled the Germans for so long. Indeed, the Germans apparently never became suspicious of the fact that the horse was always placed at the identical location, and not far from the wire.

The idea was conceived out of the frustration of digging tunnels long distances from the huts to past the camp wire, and the Germans expecting the traps to originate from the huts and finding them. What if there was some way to get much closer to the wire, to dig a tunnel from there, and to conceal the trap from that unexpected location?

The Trojan Horse episode came to mind. It would be a long and laborious tunneling process, as only a few tunnelers and relatively small amounts of sand could be concealed within the horse per exercise session. Otherwise, the horse would be too heavy to be carried.

The vaulting horse was at first used without any tunnelers concealed in it. In fact, the vaulters purposely knocked it over a number of times so that the Germans would see nothing on the inside of it. The Germans were told that the vaulting stemmed from the English craze for exercise.

After innumerable episodes of vaulting and tunneling, the tunnel was past the wire. Three escapees went from inside the horse down the tunnel, and, after many hours, dug there way to freedom. All three made it safely to the Allied lines.

A Gripping True WWII POW Escape Story!!

This book took me over until the very last page.

I usually don't care for reading as a past time and especially novels that take too long to get through.

I read this book over 20 years ago (and only did so by chance after finding it in the school library), because I had to submit a book report during my junior high school years.

I enjoyed the book so much I eagery and ultimately compiled a great book report and was awarded 9/10 as a grade.

Funny enough, I did so well with it that I took the liberty to re-submitted the same book report the following year and again was awarded another high mark (of course it was a different teacher and I had to re-write and date it).

In fact here I am over 20 years later I plan to get my very own copy. That's how much I enjoyed it!

"The Wooden Horse" by Eric Williams is a fabulous book and would make a perfect gift to that person who you think should read more...but doesn't.

They'll thank you for it!

There are two editions of this book. In the original edition and in subsequent reprints there is a last desperate moment where all the remains between Williams and freedom is a German guard on a bridge. He kills him and escapes...

Only as Williams admitted years later in an anniversary update - that part never happened and was put in to satisfy the publishers who wanted a more "exciting" ending.

...and he is right to come clean on the point - the story was exciting enough without needing tweaking - ingenuity under strain of captivity is well portrayed in the book and after the frightening journey across Germany - his debriefing by an Intelligence Officer counterpoints what went before in a very British and understated way.

I first read this book when I was in 6th grade 30 years ago and have read it again many times since. It's probably my all time favorite book. In my opinion, the first 1/2 of the book, which outlines the actual escape from the POW camp, is a little better then the 2nd half where they are trying to get out of Germany. The story is truly amazing

If you read "The Great Escape" by Paul Brickhill, you are bound to enjoy this book. It is also set in a POW Camp, and Eric Williams and Michael(I can't remember the surname) devise a scheme to trick the Germans.

This book was both touching, brilliant, fun, exciting and absorbent. It really taught me a lot about what life was like during WWII. This book is among the Top War books, for Sure!

The story is true and very interesting, but Eric Williams made a couple of horrible mistakes in writing this. One is that he changed the names of all the main characters and wrote it in third person. It comes across as a novel rather then non-fiction and Williams has admitted that some of it was added at the insistence of his publisher to make it more exciting. It simply isn't as good a book as it could have been.

If you enjoyed The Great Escape, you will enjoy this one as well. The story on this book happened at the same prison camp, at the same time. The difference is that these 3 guys made it all the way to England. I'm not spoiling the story, the author tells that on the first pages.

The only thing I would change on this book is that I would tell the real story, with real names. The author changed the story, renamed people and changed some facts. I wish I could tell fact from fiction when reading.

Very nice. I recommend.

A World War II prisoner of war escape story. Probably more
ingenious than The Great Escape, with lots of suspense and
excitement. A realistic depiction of the stresses and strains
of daily lives of the prisoners and the excitement and
insecurity of being on the run.