Author:Guy Walters
In early 1942 the Germans opened a top-security prisoner-of-war camp in occupied Poland for captured Allied airmen. Called Stalag Luft III, the camp soon came to contain some of the most inventive escapers ever known. They were led by Squadron Leader Roger Bushell, code-named 'Big X', who masterminded an attempt to smuggle hundreds of POWs down a tunnel built right under the noses of their guards.
The escape would come to be immortalised in the famous film The Great Escape, in which the ingenuity and bravery of the men was rightly celebrated. The plan involved multiple tunnels, hundreds of forged documents, as well as specially made German uniforms and civilian clothing. In this book Guy Walters takes a fresh look at this remarkable event and asks the question, what was the true story, not the movie version? He also examines what the escape really achieved, and the nature of the man who led it.
The Real Great Escape is the first account to draw on a newly-released cache of documents from Roger Bushell’s family, including letters from Bushell, that reveals much about this remarkable man, his life and experiences during the war, and the planning of the escape attempt that was to make him famous. The result is a compelling and authoritative re-evaluation of the most iconic escape story of the Second World War.
Guy Walters strips away the myths to reveal the real story behind the film and finds the truth to be no less thrilling. This is utterly compelling and once again shows there is no better investigator in this field.
—— James HollandA masterly work of profound research and reflection, objective and humane
—— Hugh Trevor-Roper , Sunday TelegraphI am full of admiration for this book. By careful research and sensitive use of light and shade, Ms Bunting holds the reader's attention through an uncomfortable passage in our history - and one which we have been most reluctant to inform ourselves
—— Alan Clark , GuardianExcellently researched... This book...is an important historical document, if an uncomfortable one, in the understanding of our national character
—— John Mortimer , Sunday Times[An] excellent book...thoroughly unflinching, fair-minded, humane and sensitive
—— Jonathan Keates , Evening StandardScolarly and immensely readable
—— Jack Higgins , Mail on SundayA scrupulously fair account of life under occupation
—— New Statesman and SocietyA well-sourced, severely objective account of the origins and courses of the wars that followed the Easter Rising
—— Irish CatholicCharles Townshend's The Republic . . . nails the Irish revolutionary events of 1918-23 with his inimitable kind of forensic panache
—— Roy Foster , Times Literary Supplement BOOKS OF THE YEARNot the typical testosterone-driven account that plagues the war-memoir genre. His straightforward, unself-conscious writing paints an absorbing picture of war in the twenty-first century.
—— The New YorkerAt times, The Long Walk...is almost unbearable to read. Not because the writing is bad — it’s often excellent. It’s unbearable because of Castner’s brutally vivid descriptions of the war and the way it tore apart his mind and his life.... An important book to read for anyone who wants to get some sense of the long-term human toll of the Iraq war. How many soldiers have been damaged as Castner has? How many lives and families have been destroyed — or will be — by the effects of TBI? The Long Walk brings home in a visceral way the hidden, personal burden of war that many veterans continue to carry.
—— The Boston GlobeA brutally honest, sharply observed account of life at war. Both harrowing and poignant - an intensely personal story.
—— The Daily BeastThe Long Walk is a powerful, intimate, disturbing look at the ways that war can infect the life of a soldier. By the end of the story...we’ve watched him fight a deftly drawn series of battles, from the physical, to the emotional, to the existential. Each one of these is more intense and wrenching than the last. The Long Walk is not for the faint of heart. Castner tells us what he is thinking and feeling at all times and has the magnificent ability to fill his scenes with the suspense of the moment. It is the ultimate show-not-tell.
—— Jennifer Miller , Christian Science MonitorRaw and entirely convincing. There are some extraordinarily tense set-pieces but, just as powerfully, the tales from Iraq are interspersed with what happened to Castner when he got home.
—— Reader's DigestIntelligent, well-informed.
—— Evan Mawdsley , BBC History MagazineHas a lot more to offer than the usual facts and figures thrown together about a largely forgotten part of history… This has a certain amount of written fluidity… I have read any number of books about this subject and I have to say that this is one of the best researched that I have found… I found it a satisfying read throughout, I learnt a lot and filled in a few holes in my knowledge, an excellent book.
—— Reg Seward , Nudge