Escape from Villingen, 1918 (Volume 5)

C. A. Brannen Series

by Dwight R. Messimer

On July 26, 1918, American aviator First Lt. George Puryear shot down a German observation plane and then, in an act of bravado, landed to accept the crew's surrender. In fact, by miscalculation he had landed inside the German lines, and it was the Germans who accepted his surrender. But Puryear redeemed himself ten weeks later when he led a mass escape from the prison camp at Villingen, Germany.

Once he was out of prison and safely in the Black Forest, Puryear “went to a prearranged spot where we were to meet and waited fifteen minutes. While I waited there were about fifty shots fired. No one came, so I got down on my knees, prayed for luck and started off.” Five days later he reached Switzerland, the first American officer to escape from the Germans and return to his unit during World War I. Early the following morning Edouard Isaacs and Harold Willis made the hazardous crossing of the Rhine River to freedom.

214 pages, Hardcover

First published September 1, 2000

Reviews

[Jeffrey Williams · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a very well researched academic monograph of the WWI escape from the German prison camp at Villingen. While it is very descriptive of the locations of the prison camps and some of the geography, it is unfortunate that we do not come away from this with a better understanding to who these people were. This is an important book for those who are researching WWI prisons and should be used as reference material, but it is not the most stimulating of reading.

[Chuck · Rating 3 out of 5]

A good account of the escape efforts of a group of American POWs in World War I. Bit dry but well researched.