July 1918. A band of Allied Royal Flying Corps airmen are determined to escape Germany's harshest POW camp. Their plan will become the most ambitious mass breakout attempt of the Great War.
In the winter trenches and flak-filled skies of World War I, captured soldiers and pilots narrowly avoided death only to find themselves imprisoned in Germany's archipelago of brutal POW camps. After several unsuccessful escapes, a group of Allied prisoners of Holzminden - Germany's land-locked Alcatraz- hatched the most elaborate escape plan yet known. With ingenious engineering, disguises, forgery and courage, their story would electrify Britain in some of its darkest hours of the war.
Drawing on never-before-seen memoirs and letters, Neal Bascomb brings this little-known story narrative to life amid the despair of the trenches and the height of patriotic duty.
Fascinating - Daily Express
It's riveting reading, but more than that, it's inspiring - Candice Millard, author of Hero of the Empire
A remarkable piece of hidden history, told perfectly . . . brims with adventure, suspense, daring, and heroism - David Grann, author of Killers of the Flower Moon
Entertaining . . . very little is known about the escape artists of World War I, but Bascomb's suspenseful and well-researched book could change that - Daily Mail