My son's artwork (rediscovered in an old scrap book today) on the theme of 'Colditz'

http://i.imgur.com/kfTFUKJ.jpg

(I'm guessing that's the 'Colditz glider' and a Walther P38? The other two are a bag of golf clubs and one of his school dinnerladies)

Got a new POW book I just picked up:

https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon....4,203,200_.jpg

Story of the Palawan massacre and the survivors escape. I just started it. Will report when I finish. So far it's pretty good.

Somer Hill Camp, Tonbridge
 

I once lived in a POW camp as a baby, believe it or not. Here's a feature about it by a local history group from my home town. "The Camp", as it was referred to by those who'd stayed there, was apparently built with the help of a Japanese car manufacturer (you'll see what I mean!)

https://tonbridgepeoleandancestry.bl...-homeless.html

'Escape From Colditz' board game
 

https://i.imgur.com/JPTnIcF.jpg

I saw this in a junk shop the day before yesterday; £14 for this plus some other crappy 1970s game I never heard of. I don't understand why I didn't cough up the 14 quid and chuck the other game in the bin.

I've never played this... is it any good?

The diary of a German PoW in Tonbridge
 

http://www.tonbridgehistory.org.uk/a...war-diary.html

This is a fascinating and unique read, for me not least because Tonbridge is my home town. I've mentioned the Somerhill prison camp before... I actually lived there myself for a while:
http://www.subsim.com/radioroom/show...&postcount=168

And I've walked the long and beautiful country lane that is Horns Lodge Road (para.5) many times in summers past and know it well. A friend who was a Lancaster tailgunner during the war lived at the top of the road near to the farm, but Horns Lodge Farm was pulled down in quite recent times. Otherwise this lovely place is unchanged since wartime.

Thanks Eichhörnchen for the link I will check it out.



I finished As Good as Dead awhile back. I found the stories of survival astounding. What the allied prisoners of war had to go though at the hands of the Japanese was just horrific.


Meanwhile I have two more I just added to the Escape Library:

Escape from Davao

https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon....4,203,200_.jpg

I just started this and so far it is engaging. I'm already familiar with this story having read Melnicks "Philippine Diary".

On deck is this one:
The Longest Winter by Alex Kershaw


https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon....4,203,200_.jpg

^ I discovered a new softback retrospective on the 'Bulge' by Charles Whiting in a shop the other day, but didn't pick it up. I think now I'll go back for it.

I checked out the photo pages... it being a new book I reckoned there must be new photos rather than the same old ones we're familiar with. And sure, I didn't recognise any of them, but they were pretty mundane looking.

I'll do you a report later

I've owned "Escape From Davao" for sometime now and it's still one of my favorite reads. I recently picked up https://s6.postimg.cc/k7tipc2dt/51_M...04_203_200.jpg
I've also seen the movie but the book is far and away more detailed.

I read that one awhile back. I had a difficult time feeling empathy for the main character, at least at first. He was such a miserable little brat when he was a kid.

'Escape To Freedom'
 

ESCAPE TO FREEDOM (1954, Hutchinson & Co Ltd; no ISBN number given)

The Hon. T.C.F. PRITCHIE and Capt W.EARLE EDWARDS

https://i.imgur.com/6KJfFV7.jpg

I came across this by chance today in one of my bookcases... I'd quite forgotten about it (I think it was a gift from a friend who had a second-hand book shop in Boston many years ago)

I don't know whether this is a rare book, but I've not seen or heard anything about it before, and it looks as though it belongs in that canon of fabulous escape books from the post-war period, when the events were still vivid and fresh in the memory

It seems that it will describe experiences and escapes from Warburg Camp, then Spangenburg Castle in Bavaria, by the authors... presumably companions... and I am really looking forward to losing myself in it

^ Copies available here: https://www.abebooks.co.uk/book-sear...edwards-earle/

Thanks... it certainly seems like an important addition to the PoW escape book list

Abebooks is a dangerous website to visit

Just take all of my money!!!