The Great Escape

First published in 1950, this is Paul Brickhill's account of the mass break from Stalag Luft III, the German camp for Allied airmen, in March 1944. Brickhill, a prisoner there, describes the digging of the tunnels, the forging of papers and clothes, the timing of the exit, and the hunt that followed across occupied Europe. Named officers organise sand disposal, intelligence, and the queue for a place in the tunnel. The narrative stays with camp method and the escape night rather than with later trials. The book is a POW escape history, not a novel and not a general history of the air war.

Three-quarter-bound in cloth, blocked with a design by Richard Sweeney.