THE WOODEN HORSE - 1949 - P R E F A C E - SOON after returning from Germany in 1943 L wrote a book which I called Goon in the Block. This was the story of Peter Howard, an airman who was shot down over Germany, taken prisoner, and who later managed to escape into Sweden. At that time the war was still being fought, the prisoners still in Germany, and I could not give details of the escape nor any information that would have helped the enemy. The story became fact thinly disguised as fiction and any, reference to escape was ...
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THE WOODEN HORSE - 1949 - P R E F A C E - SOON after returning from Germany in 1943 L wrote a book which I called Goon in the Block. This was the story of Peter Howard, an airman who was shot down over Germany, taken prisoner, and who later managed to escape into Sweden. At that time the war was still being fought, the prisoners still in Germany, and I could not give details of the escape nor any information that would have helped the enemy. The story became fact thinly disguised as fiction and any, reference to escape was intentionally misleading. Now I am free to write of the escape and in doing so I have used a little of the material of Goon in the Block. To those who have read the earlier book I apologise for the use of material already published. ERIC WILLIAMS. INTRODUCTION IT WAS January When they had first come to Stalag-Luft 111, and for the whole of that month the ground was under snow. Snow lay thickly on the roofs of the barrack blacks and gave an air of gaiety to the barbed wire which sparkled and glittered in the sun. Every post carried its cap of crisp, powdery snow, and when the wind blew, the snow drifted up against the coiled wire, softening its gauntness. Escape in this weather was impossible, and when the snow stopped falling the prisoners made a bobsleigh run and cut up their bed-boards to make toboggans. They flooded the football pitch and made an ice rink on which they skated from morning until evening. The camp was pure and clean while the snow lay on the ground, and the air loud with the shouts of the skaters. It was only when the night-carts came to empty the aborts that the compound became offensive, and then the air was malodorous and long yellow streaksmarked the white snow where the carts had been. When the thaw came the camp was a sea of mud. The packed ice of the toboggan run was the last to melt, and the skating rink was a miniature lake on which a few enthusiasts sailed their home-made yachts. Then that dried up and the football pitch was reconditioned. The goalposts were replaced and the earth dams that had held the water were removed. With the spring came a renewed interest in escape. Spring is the escaping season. Peter and John had already escaped oncefrom their previous camp, only to be brought back after two days of wandering aimlessly around the Polish countryside. That had been in the winter when the country was cold and bare and they had been exhausted and almost glad to be recaptured and brought back into the camp. As the weather grew warmer they were ready to try again. For weeks now they had been talking of starting a tunnel. But all the possible starting places had been used before. The camp was set in a clearing of the pine forest a few single-storey wooden barracks raised on piles three feet above the ground, huddled together inside the wire the wire itself, the main feature of the camp, strong and heavily interlaced, a twelve-foot double fence of bristling spikes. There were arc lamps hanging above the wire and at intervals along each fence stood goon boxes, small sentry boxes on stilts higher than the wire. These goon boxes were armed with machine-guns and carried searchlights which swept the camp continually during the hours of darkness. There were two guards in each box, connected by telephone to the main guardroom at the prison gates. Posten carrying tommy-guns patrolled the wire between the sentry boxes...
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Seller's Description:
Very Good in Good jacket. Size: 12mo-over 6¾"-7¾" tall; There is one small tear to the dustjacket which also has some sunning on the spine Size: 12mo-over 6¾"-7¾" tall.
