John Nichol - The Last Escape: The Untold Story of Allied Prisoners of War in Germany 1944-1945

PENGUIN BOOKS

THE LAST ESCAPE

John Nichol is a former RAF flight lieutenant whose Tornado bomber was shot down on a mission over Iraq during the 1991 Gulf War. He was captured and became a prisoner of war. He is the bestselling coauthor of Tornado Down and author of five novels: Point of Impact, Vanishing Point, Exclusion Zone, Stinger and Decisive Measures. He is also a journalist and widely quoted military commentator. His website is at www.johnnichol.com

Tony Rennell is the author of Last Days of Glory: The Death of Queen Victoria and co-author of When Daddy Came Home, a highly praised study of demobilization in 1945. Now a freelance writer, he was formerly associate editor of the Sunday Times and the Mail on Sunday.

The authors are now working on a history of the unsung heroes of RAF Bomber Command and the US 8th Air Force during World War Two which will be published in 2004.

Also by John Nichol

Tornado Down (with John Peters)

Team Tornado (with John Peters)

FICTION

Point of Impact

Vanishing Point

Exclusion Zone

Stinger

Decisive Measures

Also by Tony Rennell

Last Days of Glory: The Death of Queen Victoria

When Daddy Came Home (with Barry Turner)

The Untold Story of Allied Prisoners of War in Germany 194445

JOHN NICHOL AND TONY RENNELL

PENGUIN BOOKS

PENGUIN BOOKS

Published by the Penguin Group
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Published by Viking 2002
Published in Penguin Books 2003
14

Copyright John Nichol and Tony Rennell, 2002
Maps copyright Raymond Turvey, 2002
All rights reserved

The moral right of the authors has been asserted

The publishers gratefully acknowledge permission to quote from the following: Extract from Hitler 19361945: Nemesis by Ian Kershaw (Allen Lane The Penguin Press, 2000) copyright Ian Kershaw, 2000.

Extracts from Sir Winston Churchills writings reproduced by permission of Curtis Brown Group Ltd on behalf of the Estate of Sir Winston Churchill. Copyright the Estate of Sir Winston Churchill.

Extract from MI9, Escape and Evasion by M. R. D. Foot and J. M. Langley (Copyright M. R. D. Foot and J. M. Langley, 1979) by permission of PFD on behalf of Professor M. R. D. Foot CBE and the Estate of Lt.-Col. J. M. Langley.

Except in the United States of America, this book is sold subject to the condition that it shall not, by way of trade or otherwise, be lent, re-sold, hired out, or otherwise circulated without the publishers prior consent in any form of binding or cover other than that in which it is published and without a similar condition including this condition being imposed on the subsequent purchaser.

This book is dedicated to all the Allied Second World War prisoners who gave their freedom so we could keep ours.

Sergeant Dixie Deans.

Sergeant Cal Younger.

A typical room at Stalag Luft III.

Prisoners at Stalag Luft III.

Fourth of July celebrations at Stalag Luft III.

A secret earphone built into Sergeant Vic Gammons plastic toothpowder box.

The German warning.

Dear John letters were not uncommon in the camps.

Reichsfhrer Himmler inspecting Russian POWs.

SS Generalleutnant Gottlob Berger.

Fallingbostel, 1944. Allied airmen watch an overhead air battle.

A laager at Stalag Luft IV.

POWs taking exercise at Stalag Luft III.

POWs march out of Stalag Luft III.

American POWs on the march out of Stalag Luft III.

A rest stop on the march out of Stalag Luft III.

Wounded POWs arriving at Moosburg.

Built to house 14,000, Moosburg eventually held 130,000 POWs.

POWs at Moosburg.

Prisoners in a makeshift tent at Moosburg.

The toilets at Moosburg.

General Patton arrives at Moosburg.

Moosburg after liberation: POWs mob a tank.

Stalag 11B, Fallingbostel: British POWs greet their liberators.

British and American POWs released from Fallingbostel.

An American POW at Fallingbostel.

Fallingbostel, 20 April 1945.

British prisoners at Le Havre, awaiting transport home.

American prisoners catch their first glimpse of the Statue of Liberty.

George Guderley with Little Buck after their reunion in America.

George Guderley, Bob Otto and Roger Allen at the Stalag Luft IV memorial in Poland.

1, 2: Cal Younger; 3, 4, 5, 15, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 29: Courtesy of the Friends of the United States Air Force Academy Library; 6, 7, 8: Vic Gammon; 9: Corbis; 12: Joe ODonnell; 11: Bob Coles; 13, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28: Imperial War Museum; 14, 15, 16: Courtesy of the United States Air Force Academy; 30: George Guderley; 31: John Nichol.

Every effort has been made to contact all copyright holders. The publishers will be glad to make good in future editions any errors or omissions brought to their attention.

To acknowledge every individual who helped us produce this book would be impossible, but we would like to send special thanks to Dr Patricia Wadley, the national historian at the American Ex-POW Organization, for the use of her thesis Even One is Too Many and her encyclopedic knowledge of POW affairs; Duane Reed at the United States Air Force Academy, Colorado, for answering hundreds of questions and seeking out stories, oral histories and photographs; the staff at the Imperial War Museum in London, especially Stephen Walton, for guiding us through the archives; the staff at the Public Record Office, the British Library and the London Library; Jo Cox, for research at the Public Record Office, London; Dr Mikhail Myagkov, for research in the Soviet Military Archive, Moscow; Major Dr Peter Andreas Popp of the German Military Archive, Freiburg; Louise King of the Churchill Archive Centre, Cambridge; Ellis Gibson at Travel Designs, who organized our trips to meet many of the American POWs during the tours of their former camps; Allan Percell, who arranged our tour of Fallingbostel; Dominique Kirkman, for translating German sources.

All who read the manuscript and offered advice and corrections George Guderley, Batch Batchelder, Stephen Walton, Phil Chinnery, Cal Younger, Duane Reed, Dr Barry Turner, Dr Kent Fedorowich and Sebag Montefiore; the International Committee of the Red Cross in Geneva, for checking its archives and providing information; the staff at the Air Force and Army Historical branches of the Ministry of Defence.

Everyone at Viking/Penguin, especially Juliet Annan, Wendy Wolf and Kate Barker; our agent and friend Mark Lucas; and Suzannah Nichol and Sarah Foot, who read the drafts, acted as unpaid researchers and secretaries, offered help and advice, and generally put up with us we would be nothing without them.