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The Escape Artists: A Band of Daredevil Pilots and the Greatest Prison Break of the Great War – A Spellbinding True Story of Ingenious Allied Airmen
“Bascomb has unearthed a remarkable piece of hidden history, and told it perfectly. The story brims with adventure, suspense, daring, and heroism.”
—David Grann, New York Times bestselling author of Killers of the Flower Moon
Neal Bascomb, New York Times best-selling author, delivers the spellbinding story of the downed Allied airmen who masterminded the remarkably courageous—and ingenious—breakout from Germany’s most devilish POW camp.
In the winter trenches and flak-filled skies of World War I, soldiers and pilots might avoid death, only to find themselves imprisoned in Germany’s archipelago of prison camps, often in abominable conditions. The most infamous was Holzminden, a land-locked Alcatraz that housed the most troublesome, escape-prone officers. Its commandant was a boorish, hate-filled tyrant named Karl Niemeyer who swore that none should ever leave.
Desperate to break out of “Hellminden” and return to the fight, a group of Allied prisoners led by ace pilot (and former Army sapper) David Gray hatch an elaborate escape plan. Their plot demands a risky feat of engineering as well as a bevy of disguises, forged documents, fake walls, and steely resolve. Once beyond the watchtowers and round-the-clock patrols, Gray and almost a dozen of his half-starved fellow prisoners must then make a heroic 150-mile dash through enemy-occupied territory toward free Holland.
Drawing on never-before-seen memoirs and letters, Neal Bascomb brings this narrative to cinematic life, amid the twilight of the British Empire and the darkest, most savage hours of the fight against Germany. At turns tragic, funny, inspirational, and nail-biting suspenseful, this is the little-known story of the biggest POW breakout of the Great War.
—David Grann, New York Times bestselling author of Killers of the Flower Moon
Neal Bascomb, New York Times best-selling author, delivers the spellbinding story of the downed Allied airmen who masterminded the remarkably courageous—and ingenious—breakout from Germany’s most devilish POW camp.
In the winter trenches and flak-filled skies of World War I, soldiers and pilots might avoid death, only to find themselves imprisoned in Germany’s archipelago of prison camps, often in abominable conditions. The most infamous was Holzminden, a land-locked Alcatraz that housed the most troublesome, escape-prone officers. Its commandant was a boorish, hate-filled tyrant named Karl Niemeyer who swore that none should ever leave.
Desperate to break out of “Hellminden” and return to the fight, a group of Allied prisoners led by ace pilot (and former Army sapper) David Gray hatch an elaborate escape plan. Their plot demands a risky feat of engineering as well as a bevy of disguises, forged documents, fake walls, and steely resolve. Once beyond the watchtowers and round-the-clock patrols, Gray and almost a dozen of his half-starved fellow prisoners must then make a heroic 150-mile dash through enemy-occupied territory toward free Holland.
Drawing on never-before-seen memoirs and letters, Neal Bascomb brings this narrative to cinematic life, amid the twilight of the British Empire and the darkest, most savage hours of the fight against Germany. At turns tragic, funny, inspirational, and nail-biting suspenseful, this is the little-known story of the biggest POW breakout of the Great War.
352 pages, Paperback
First published September 18, 2018
447 people are currently reading
5129 people want to read
About the author
Neal Bascomb
19 books452 followersNeal Bascomb is a national award-winning and New York Times bestselling author of a number of books, all non-fiction narratives, all focused on inspiring stories of adventure or achievement. His work has been translated into over 18 languages, featured in several documentaries, and optioned for major film and television projects.
Born in Colorado and raised in St. Louis, he is the product of public school and lots of time playing hockey. He earned a double degree in Economics and English Literature at Miami University (Ohio), lived in Europe for several years as a journalist (London, Dublin, and Paris), and worked as an editor at St. Martin’s Press (New York). In 2000, he started writing books full time.
His first book HIGHER was selected for the Barnes and Noble Discover Great New Writer award and was featured in a History Channel documentary. His second THE PERFECT MILE was a New York Times bestseller and frequently ranks as one of the top books on running. His third RED MUTINY won the United States Maritime Literature Award and critical acclaim around the world. His fourth HUNTING EICHMANN was an international bestseller and led to a young adult edition called NAZI HUNTERS that was the 2014 winner of the YALSA Award, Sydney Taylor Book Award (Gold Medal), among numerous others. His fifth book THE NEW COOL was optioned by major producer Scott Rudin for film. His sixth ONE MORE STEP, focused on the first man with cerebral palsy to climb Kilimanjaro and finish the Kona Ironman, was a New York Times bestseller as well.
An avid hiker, skier, and coffee drinker, he is happily settled in Seattle, Washington with his family.
Born in Colorado and raised in St. Louis, he is the product of public school and lots of time playing hockey. He earned a double degree in Economics and English Literature at Miami University (Ohio), lived in Europe for several years as a journalist (London, Dublin, and Paris), and worked as an editor at St. Martin’s Press (New York). In 2000, he started writing books full time.
His first book HIGHER was selected for the Barnes and Noble Discover Great New Writer award and was featured in a History Channel documentary. His second THE PERFECT MILE was a New York Times bestseller and frequently ranks as one of the top books on running. His third RED MUTINY won the United States Maritime Literature Award and critical acclaim around the world. His fourth HUNTING EICHMANN was an international bestseller and led to a young adult edition called NAZI HUNTERS that was the 2014 winner of the YALSA Award, Sydney Taylor Book Award (Gold Medal), among numerous others. His fifth book THE NEW COOL was optioned by major producer Scott Rudin for film. His sixth ONE MORE STEP, focused on the first man with cerebral palsy to climb Kilimanjaro and finish the Kona Ironman, was a New York Times bestseller as well.
An avid hiker, skier, and coffee drinker, he is happily settled in Seattle, Washington with his family.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 272 reviews
November 15, 2021
When we think of POW camps, WWII comes to mind, especially the Japanese hell holes. But not many books seem to have been written about the WWI German camps and the miraculous escapes that took place during that war. This book describes in detail one of the most daring and greatest of those escapes.
Holzminden was the most abominable camp and housed prisoners that the Germans considered the most troublesome and escape prone officers of the British Army and Royal Flying Corps. The Commandant of Holzminden was a hate filled tyrant whose actions bordered on psychotic. He swore that no one would ever escape from his camp which was near the border of Holland and safety. How wrong he was!
Desperate to escape, a group of officers developed a complex and elaborate plan which seemed impossible and took almost two years to finalize. The reader will be amazed at the cleverness of how these men put together the tools they needed without alerting the guards. But you will have to read the book to find out how they accomplished the largest escape of the war.
It is a fascinating tale of courage, endurance, and genius and well worth reading. Recommended.
Holzminden was the most abominable camp and housed prisoners that the Germans considered the most troublesome and escape prone officers of the British Army and Royal Flying Corps. The Commandant of Holzminden was a hate filled tyrant whose actions bordered on psychotic. He swore that no one would ever escape from his camp which was near the border of Holland and safety. How wrong he was!
Desperate to escape, a group of officers developed a complex and elaborate plan which seemed impossible and took almost two years to finalize. The reader will be amazed at the cleverness of how these men put together the tools they needed without alerting the guards. But you will have to read the book to find out how they accomplished the largest escape of the war.
It is a fascinating tale of courage, endurance, and genius and well worth reading. Recommended.
March 7, 2019
A riveting story is about prisoners of WW1 and the efforts/commitments they made upon being captured to try to escape from the German prison camps.
One of the fascinating things learned in the book was the reciprocal agreement between the Germans and the allied troops (primarily English) that if an officer was caught trying to escape, he would just be assigned to another prison camp, unlike the enlisted who were summarily executed. Fascinating stories surrounding the “escape artists” and their backgrounds, bravery, hardships and details of outlandish escapes. Punishments, isolations, cruel treatment continued despite the best efforts of the dedicated Red Cross. German prisoners were treated so much better than our allied forces.
One of the fascinating things learned in the book was the reciprocal agreement between the Germans and the allied troops (primarily English) that if an officer was caught trying to escape, he would just be assigned to another prison camp, unlike the enlisted who were summarily executed. Fascinating stories surrounding the “escape artists” and their backgrounds, bravery, hardships and details of outlandish escapes. Punishments, isolations, cruel treatment continued despite the best efforts of the dedicated Red Cross. German prisoners were treated so much better than our allied forces.
November 21, 2019
A detailed book about the Holtzminden POW Escape during the Great War through the lives of some of the 10 men that made it to neutral Holland. It gives great background on the histories of the men and of being a general POW during the War. After reading many books and articles about POW escapes during World War 2, one can see the connections that these different escape attempts had with the subsequent escapes during World War 2 and how MI9 used the intelligence gathered during World War 1. Although the book is drawn out in certain sections, it is still very interesting and a must for World War 2 POW escape enthusiasts.
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September 17, 2018An extremely well-researched account of escape attempts (both successful and unsuccessful) by British soldiers during WW I.
As most of these were pilots, readers get a vivid account of what life was like for those early pilots, as warfare made its shift skyward. The attrition rate was as terrible as it became in QQ II, but these guys still were willing to risk it. Some even relished the risk.
They brought the same attitude toward trying to escape, though conditions in prisoner of war camps were abysmal, especially under a particular pair of German commanders notorious for their cruelty and avarice.
Relying on wartime reports as well as personal letters and diaries, Bascomb takes the time to provide backgrounds on his main characters, giving at least sketches of many others. The bulk of the book leads up to, and includes, a mass escape (over seventy men before the tunnel began to collapse), and what happened after. Unlike The Great Escape of WW II, a bunch of these guys made it.
Bascomb writes with verve, demonstrating a thorough knowledge of his subject. Absorbing, often grim, read for those interested in WW I history.
Copy provided by NetGalley
As most of these were pilots, readers get a vivid account of what life was like for those early pilots, as warfare made its shift skyward. The attrition rate was as terrible as it became in QQ II, but these guys still were willing to risk it. Some even relished the risk.
They brought the same attitude toward trying to escape, though conditions in prisoner of war camps were abysmal, especially under a particular pair of German commanders notorious for their cruelty and avarice.
Relying on wartime reports as well as personal letters and diaries, Bascomb takes the time to provide backgrounds on his main characters, giving at least sketches of many others. The bulk of the book leads up to, and includes, a mass escape (over seventy men before the tunnel began to collapse), and what happened after. Unlike The Great Escape of WW II, a bunch of these guys made it.
Bascomb writes with verve, demonstrating a thorough knowledge of his subject. Absorbing, often grim, read for those interested in WW I history.
Copy provided by NetGalley
July 22, 2023
Narrative non-fiction of the escape from Holzminden prisoner of war camp in Germany during the First World War. The author begins with context. He describes the basics of the war itself, the technology available, the first usage of planes in wartime, and the harsh realities of imprisonment. Bascomb dives deep into the background and personalities of the people who were ultimately involved in the escape. There is a handy list of dramatis personae, which will be useful in referring to the many individuals. We learn how each man was captured, and their various early attempts at escape, ending in recapture and eventual imprisonment in Holzminden. All this takes place in the first two parts of the book.
In the last two parts, we learn how the band of men came together to plan and execute an escape. They bring a diverse mix of talents to the project. The commandant of the prison, Karl Niemeyer, had been very proud that he was in charge of an “escape-proof” prison. He flouted it to the prisoners, making them even more determined to achieve their goal. It is a difficult task full of dangers and near misses. The book is slow in developing, but once the account reaches the planning and execution of the Holzminden escape, it becomes a riveting page-turner. It is an appealing mix of action, adventure, and history. The Epilogue summarizes what ultimately happened to each of the men.
In the last two parts, we learn how the band of men came together to plan and execute an escape. They bring a diverse mix of talents to the project. The commandant of the prison, Karl Niemeyer, had been very proud that he was in charge of an “escape-proof” prison. He flouted it to the prisoners, making them even more determined to achieve their goal. It is a difficult task full of dangers and near misses. The book is slow in developing, but once the account reaches the planning and execution of the Holzminden escape, it becomes a riveting page-turner. It is an appealing mix of action, adventure, and history. The Epilogue summarizes what ultimately happened to each of the men.
January 21, 2019
I sped through this book, it was that interesting. The way the story is narrated and the fact that as a usual history reader I am familiar with most of the battles, sites and offensives mentioned in this book made for a most delightful read . If you are interested in WWI and the roles POW played in the conflict then this is the book for you , you will also read about many attempts at escape from allied prisoners which will make the case that while in prison these allied soldiers never lost the will to fight, it makes for a most uplifting read . The only reason why I didn’t give this book a 5 star rating was because it was too short to really focus on the main characters and at the same time try to pack in as many other escape attempts as possible, a feat this book attempted but didn’t perfectly execute .
March 11, 2020
Post WWI, Jim Bennett, RAF pilot and POW at Holzminden Concentration Camp addressed an assembly of airmen. He spoke of conflict, and the possibility of their being taken prisoner by the enemy, and stressed that if captured, they had a "duty to escape."
Stone walls do not a prison make, nor iron bars a cage
--Inscription to Holzminden cell wall
It seems to me that we owed it to our self respect and to our position as British officers to attempt to escape and to go on attempting to escape, in spite of all hardships.
--A.J. Evans, inveterate World War I breakout artist
Neal Bascomb's "The Escape Artists" is the spellbinding fact-based story of the allied airmen who managed, with ingenious daring-do, to plot and carry out the greatest prison escape of The Great War. Perhaps of any war. Holzminden was a POW camp situated about 150 miles due east of Holland and housed 400 - 500 allied war prisoners. These were mostly airmen and mostly officers. Holzminden was the Alcatraz of prisoner of war camps.
Das Kommandant was a meaty fisted, foul-tempered tyrant named Karl Niemeyer. Basking in his power, this boorish, hate-filled man swore that none should ever leave.
In planning an escape, the common denominator was tunneling. While feisty airmen staged petty diversions, others engaged in risky feats of engineering, creating disguises, forging documents and creating hidden entryways. Then they dug--sometimes just with spoons. A daunting task requiring incredible determination. Some were desperate to return to home and hearth, but more often to return to the fight.
Then of course on the big day, navigating the tunnel had proved to be only the beginning for the half-starved prisoners. What lay ahead was the 150 mile trek across heavily guarded foreign land to the Holland border. Once beyond the watchtowers and round-the-clock patrols, twenty nine men escaped through the tunnel before it collapsed. Nineteen were captured before reaching Holland. The remaining ten were heartily welcomed by the Dutch with all they could eat, warm baths and shaves, clean clothes and soft warm beds. They were treated as heroes.
Neal Bascomb has drawn on never-before-seen memoirs and letters, official histories and family papers to pen this tale. The prisoners were rakish and prankish in an historically tragic, nail-biting suspenseful, comical story of the biggest POW breakout of the Great War.
Stone walls do not a prison make, nor iron bars a cage
--Inscription to Holzminden cell wall
It seems to me that we owed it to our self respect and to our position as British officers to attempt to escape and to go on attempting to escape, in spite of all hardships.
--A.J. Evans, inveterate World War I breakout artist
Neal Bascomb's "The Escape Artists" is the spellbinding fact-based story of the allied airmen who managed, with ingenious daring-do, to plot and carry out the greatest prison escape of The Great War. Perhaps of any war. Holzminden was a POW camp situated about 150 miles due east of Holland and housed 400 - 500 allied war prisoners. These were mostly airmen and mostly officers. Holzminden was the Alcatraz of prisoner of war camps.
Das Kommandant was a meaty fisted, foul-tempered tyrant named Karl Niemeyer. Basking in his power, this boorish, hate-filled man swore that none should ever leave.
In planning an escape, the common denominator was tunneling. While feisty airmen staged petty diversions, others engaged in risky feats of engineering, creating disguises, forging documents and creating hidden entryways. Then they dug--sometimes just with spoons. A daunting task requiring incredible determination. Some were desperate to return to home and hearth, but more often to return to the fight.
Then of course on the big day, navigating the tunnel had proved to be only the beginning for the half-starved prisoners. What lay ahead was the 150 mile trek across heavily guarded foreign land to the Holland border. Once beyond the watchtowers and round-the-clock patrols, twenty nine men escaped through the tunnel before it collapsed. Nineteen were captured before reaching Holland. The remaining ten were heartily welcomed by the Dutch with all they could eat, warm baths and shaves, clean clothes and soft warm beds. They were treated as heroes.
Neal Bascomb has drawn on never-before-seen memoirs and letters, official histories and family papers to pen this tale. The prisoners were rakish and prankish in an historically tragic, nail-biting suspenseful, comical story of the biggest POW breakout of the Great War.
July 28, 2025
This was an adventure that was better than fiction because it really happened. The POWs used their amazing creativity and teamwork to overcome a near impossible environment. I believe that the planning and execution of the escape gave them purpose. This story is well worth your time. I will read more books by this author since this one was really great!
April 5, 2019
Exciting story, well-told. The best sort of non-fiction: I learned a few things and had a great time reading.
ETA: 4/5/2019
A real page-turner!
The author does a nice job in the first part of giving us thumbnail portraits of the major players, most of whom had tried several times to escape; most of whom spent depressing lengths of time in solitary confinement as a penalty for those escape attempts. The second part finds them all relocated to a 'new' camp and planning their mass escape. The final part tracks those who escaped on their trek to freedom. I really appreciated all the maps, diagrams and photos.
Readers familiar with several of the more spectacular escape efforts from WWII will no doubt experience a sense of recognition, then realize that they are reading about the efforts that inspired those later escapes.
Highly recommended.
ETA: 4/5/2019
A real page-turner!
The author does a nice job in the first part of giving us thumbnail portraits of the major players, most of whom had tried several times to escape; most of whom spent depressing lengths of time in solitary confinement as a penalty for those escape attempts. The second part finds them all relocated to a 'new' camp and planning their mass escape. The final part tracks those who escaped on their trek to freedom. I really appreciated all the maps, diagrams and photos.
Readers familiar with several of the more spectacular escape efforts from WWII will no doubt experience a sense of recognition, then realize that they are reading about the efforts that inspired those later escapes.
Highly recommended.
September 18, 2018
GNAB This is a excellent history of the POW situation in Germany in the First World War, and the intrepid pilots and air crews who did their all to escape and get back into the planes that would win the war. I found it very enlightening and even entertaining at times, with never a dull moment. We forget, in this day and age, just how fragile were the planes in the early twentieth century, and how nasty that war got before it was over. The Geneva Convention was just a name as far as Germany was concerned and the POW camps were run by party favorites and misfits, adding to the problems faced by British and French POWs.
This is history of those men, that war, that I can highly recommend to both historical readers and those of a more military bent.
I received a free electronic copy of this history from Netgalley, Neal Bascomb, and Houghton Mifflin Harcourt in exchange for an honest review. Thank you all, for sharing your hard work with me.
pub date Sept 18, 2018
This is history of those men, that war, that I can highly recommend to both historical readers and those of a more military bent.
I received a free electronic copy of this history from Netgalley, Neal Bascomb, and Houghton Mifflin Harcourt in exchange for an honest review. Thank you all, for sharing your hard work with me.
pub date Sept 18, 2018
August 20, 2018
The Escape Artists can easily be envisioned as ready for the big screen. The author builds up the story with painstakingly researched details of the fliers lives before the war, while imprisoned, and afterwards, including the reunions decades later. This book joins Bascomb’s other great pieces of wartime nonfiction, and rivals Hampton Sides’s Ghost Soldiers as one of the best accounts of POW escape.
For my full review: https://paulspicks.blog/2018/08/20/th...
For all my reviews: https://paulspicks.blog
For my full review: https://paulspicks.blog/2018/08/20/th...
For all my reviews: https://paulspicks.blog
May 31, 2018
Bascomb is one of my favorites. This is an exceptional WWI thriller that tells the story of British POWs and their exploits trying to escape captivity. As is the case with the author's previous works, there is exceptional quality research and prose that read like good fiction. Thanks to Houghton Mifflin Harcourt for the Advanced Copy
July 19, 2024
Great story about repeated escape attempts by POWs in WW1 & the final large scale attempt that succeeded.
August 31, 2018
I enjoyed reading "The Escape Artists" by Neal Boscomb. It was and interesting and engaging story I was unaware of set in WWI. I am so grateful when authors write these types of stories because a time will come when the memories of these events are completely erased and these books are all we will have left of such important events.
The story follows several British military men during WWI as they make several attempts to escape POW Camps in Germany. I wish I would've written down the main characters when they first appeared at the beginning of the book because I started getting confused about who was who. It is my only complaint about this book. The beginning could've been better organized and it seemed a bit confusing.
A great story for any history lovers fascinated by WWI. I generally stick to WWII history, but I'm branching out and this was a fascinating story. A strong 3.5 rating from me.
The story follows several British military men during WWI as they make several attempts to escape POW Camps in Germany. I wish I would've written down the main characters when they first appeared at the beginning of the book because I started getting confused about who was who. It is my only complaint about this book. The beginning could've been better organized and it seemed a bit confusing.
A great story for any history lovers fascinated by WWI. I generally stick to WWII history, but I'm branching out and this was a fascinating story. A strong 3.5 rating from me.
March 22, 2019
This book made me uncomfortable to read, but I learned a lot. The conditions of prison camps during WW 1 were interesting. I did not know that officers were treated differently than the enlisted men. I also didn't know that prisoners were allowed to get mail, get paid and buy things. There was a part of me that could not help but think of Hogan's Heros.
The most uncomfortable reading was the description of digging and escaping through the tunnel.
A great read for history bluffs and fans of pushing the limits of human capacity.
The most uncomfortable reading was the description of digging and escaping through the tunnel.
A great read for history bluffs and fans of pushing the limits of human capacity.
October 22, 2018
3.5 stars if I could. This book is a great true story which could potentially be an even better movie.
July 21, 2023
A great story of an escape from one of the very worst German POW camps during WWI.
There is a lot of background information, the first 1/2 of the book, about the men who were involved in this escape. As most of them were pilots in the youth of air travel, the author gives great information as to what it was like to become one of those first daring adventurers taking to the skies. I found it a riveting read, the last quarter of the book holding me captive until the end result was told.
A story of courage and determination. Highly recommended.
There is a lot of background information, the first 1/2 of the book, about the men who were involved in this escape. As most of them were pilots in the youth of air travel, the author gives great information as to what it was like to become one of those first daring adventurers taking to the skies. I found it a riveting read, the last quarter of the book holding me captive until the end result was told.
A story of courage and determination. Highly recommended.
September 19, 2018
This book was absolutely spellbinding. I read it in two days and found myself struggling to pull away. With superb editing and an extensive history of reasearch, Neal Bascomb was able to transport me to another time. The Escape Artists is a nonfiction account of prisoners of war held in Germany during World War One. This was a time when the gentlemanly agreements of the Hague and Geneva conventions were unenforceable, and prisoners were treated in grossly inhumaine fashion. The Escape Artists begins with a general introduction to the majority of the key players in this story, as well as the details of their service and capture. Once we have been introduced, the author takes us on a winding and well researched tale describing their daily lives, routines, trials and coping methods for life in captivity. We are introduced to men who are wontonly cruel for the sake of it, men who are cowards and attempt to curry favor with their captors, and men who with the greatest of spirit refuse to be cowed into submission. They seek only one thing...a return to home and hearth. To rejoin their comrades at the front and maintain the honor of their service they concoct masterful and daring attempts at escape and evasion, chosing to let neither terrible conditions nor repeated capture to cow their indefatigable spirit. These men maintained theire sense of selves, of justice, and their mirth as they rebelled against their captors in every way they could. This book describes some of the greatest of a truly great generation.
February 12, 2024
The astounding account of ten British pilots who escaped a German POW camp by tunneling out and making their way 150 miles to freedom in Holland, but not with the goal of getting out of the war but wanting to get back to fight again! In the words of one of the senior officers on making their way across the border, after taking a moment to breathe a sigh of relief, “Come on, then. Let’s not waste time. There’s a war on, you know.”
July 9, 2019
I've been reading a lot lately about WWII, so it's lovely to come across this well-researched and engaging account from WWI. Authentic and cinematic, the book chronicles the capture, imprisonment (at the notorious Holzminden camp), and ultimate escape (after several failures) of 29 men in 1918, 10 of whom actually made it the 150 miles to safety in Holland. Fascinating reading, heart-stopping at points, and one can only marvel at their persistence and determination.
January 12, 2019
Awesome read
October 3, 2019
A fascinating account of the many different and creative ways men tried to escape POW camps during WWI. The men highlighted in this book were fearless and courageous and it was amazing to me how they kept trying even though they rarely succeeded. They are great examples of resilience and I really loved their never give up attitudes. I also appreciated the many different people they talked about but it did get confusing remembering who was who so I made myself a little list describing the men & that was helpful. I think it would be harder to listen to this one because of all the different characters.
February 16, 2023
Really good. The big climactic escape at Holzminden is worth all of the build up. A remarkable story about remarkable men.
May 23, 2023
Stone Walls do not a Prison make. Nor Iron bars a Cage.
— Inscription on Holzminden cell wall,
from Richard Lovelace poem “To Althea, from Prison”
•
•
It seems to me that we owed it to our self-respect and to our position as British officers to attempt to escape, and to go on attempting to escape, in spite of all hardships.
— A. J. Evans, inveterate World War 1 breakout artist
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
This review is going is a bit choppy. I only summarized the first part of the book when the men were captured, and then I just took notes and highlighted things that were new information to me. The very first thing that stood out to me was in the Prologue; my ancestor, Winston Churchill, was a POW. He had escaped from a Boer POW camp in South Africa; he jumped over a fence and took off! Also, I am pretty impressed by how Neal Bascomb has managed to write a nonfiction that reads like a fiction! There was even a little bit of humor when prisoners started messing with the Camp Commandant of Holzminden (aka Hellminden), pulling harmless pranks to get back at him for his punishments, gloating, and prideful arrogance.
~~~~~~~~~
SUMMARY
~~~~~~~~~
Eyes in the sky. Cecil Blaine, nineteen years old, the youngest pilot in his squadron. He helped thwart a run by ten German bombers that were hovering over Allied trenches. He harassed them in the sky until they retreated. Charles Griffiths was Blaine’s observer. Their plane started having mechanical troubles and they had to land to inspect it, they were five miles out from Allied territory, and the plane had to be destroyed to prevent reverse engineering. They were caught and detained at a post office, since there was no jail, then they were taken to a POW camp.
~~~~~
On the front lines. Second Lieutenant Frederick William Harvey, twenty-eight years old, was down in the trenches. His platoon was in the 5th Battalion, Gloucestershire Regiment. Low to the ground, as to not be caught by German snipers, Harvey made his way to an observation post that he believed would be either lightly defended or unoccupied. As he reached his next turn, he heard voices and rushed toward the doorway of a dugout braced with iron when he was seized by two German soldiers on their way out.
Before his capture, he was an expert scout. He and his friend, Raymond Knight, were awarded the Distinguished Conduct Medal for “conspicuous gallantry” after they took out a few German soldiers while on a nighttime patrol. As soon as Harvey attempted to take prisoner of the German who tried to flee, enemy shots were firing in their direction, and Knight yanked his friend to safety.
Harvey had a wife and a family, he was a poet who loved to read and sing. He had three brothers and one sister. He and his brothers, Eric and Roy, enlisted in the army. Their sister, Gladys, volunteered as a nurse, and their youngest brother stayed home with their mother to help her run the farm.
No mortal comes to visit me to-day,
Only the gay and early-rising Sun
Who strolled in nonchalantly, just to say,
“Good morrow, and despair not, foolish one!”
— Frederick William Harvey, written on the flyleaf of a dusty French book that was left behind in the room in which he was imprisoned.
~~~~~
Second Lieutenant Casper Kennard joined by his observer and air mechanic, Ben Digby. Their plane was taken down directly over enemy trenches immediately after Kennard was caught in a cloud of white smoke and lost all sense of direction. They were then surrounded by German soldiers before they could climb out of the plane. Digby was taken to a German camp for common soldiers, while Kennard was sent to Gütersloh. They didn’t remain in the camps for long, but Kennard looked for any opportunity to escape.
Prior to joining the RFC at twenty-five years old, he was a ranch hand on his parents estate outside Maidstone, England.
~~~~~
Currently in Swamp Camp, where the ground is crumbly peat beneath a layer of black sand, Harvey and the Pink Toes dig a tunnel. It took a couple of weeks before the tunnel went beyond the fence, but it was so shallow that anyone who was digging could feel the footsteps of the men walking above. The last yard of dirt was cleared before dawn on June 27th, and the tunnel opened out into the main ditch that drained the camps water. The escape attempt was unsuccessful, and two men were shot, one of them dying by drowning in his own blood. The test retreated back into the tunnel so they wouldn’t be caught. The Germans permitted a military burial.
In another camp, summer is in full force. The men spent their days barefoot, wearing shorts and singlets. Many had shaved their heads in attempt to stay cool, but the living conditions were poor. The water was disgusting. The prisoners had fallen captive to a type of depression that they referred to as bad wire disease. One of those “same shit, different day” types of depression, but on an unimaginable level that only those who lived through it would really understand. One prisoner wrote: “This was far and away our worst enemy: whole days were drenched in incurable melancholia.”
~~~~~~~~~~
HIGHLIGHTS
~~~~~~~~~~
When Orville Wright performed the first flight in a powered airplane on December 17, 1903, he declared it to be “the introduction to the world of an invention which would make further wars practically impossible.” Hyperbole aside, Wright was correct that airplanes would bring a revolution in war, but not in the way he imagined. Instead of an instrument for peace, the airplane became a multipronged weapon in a conflict that would envelope the world. (Pg. 8)
•
The British lines suffered approximately seven thousand casualties daily, which was referred to as “wastage”, according to staff headquarters. (Pg. 24)
•
In the first six months of WW1, 1.3 million soldiers became POW’s across Europe. By mid-1916 Germany held 1.65 million men in prison camps across the country. (Pg. 47)
•
The majority of German POW’s under care of the British and French were maintained in decent conditions, while Russia was one of the worst caretakers of POW’s, their prisoners died in vast numbers due to neglect, exposure, and hard labor. James W. Gerard, the American ambassador to Germany before the United States entered the war in 1917, tried to alleviate the worst of the abuses, but with 165 POW camps scattered throughout Germany, that posed as impossible. (Pg. 49)
•
Cool hack: Milk was used as invisible ink to send out coded messages. You take a milk-dipped fountain pen to a sheet of paper, write a note over that with ink, and then send it out. When the recipient runs a hot iron over the note, the fat in the milk will reveal the hidden message. (Pg. 52)
•
A few prisoners nicknamed the Pink Toes, had used tablespoons to dig a tunnel through sandy ground during the two hours in which the guards were at dinner. To hide the scattered and excavated debris, they hid it in small pouches beneath their trench coats. They had dug a thirty-five yard stretch, and excavated exactly 2,553 bags of earth and sand, only to find out that all prisoners were being transferred to a camp in Crefeld. (Pg. 59)
•
Fun fact: Under poor winter weather conditions, while the prisoners and guards were held up at Clausthal train station, the men were allowed into the station restaurant. The owner brought out soup and sandwiches for everyone. The British bought every bottle of wine behind the bar, and a party broke out. The guards even joined in, and there was a temporary truce. (Pg. 62)
•
After a way-too-long bout of depression, Harvey was finally inspired to write a poem — the first in a long time. His inspiration came from his friend, Mossy, whose drawing was to remind Harvey of his home.
“From troubles of the world I turn to ducks,
Beautiful comical things
Sleeping or curled
Their heads beneath white wings
By water cool,
Or finding curious things
To eat in various mucks
Beneath the pool,
Tails uppermost, or waddling
Sailor-like on the shores
Of ponds, or paddling
— Left! Right! — with fanlike feet
Which are for steady oars
When they (white galleys) float
Each bird a boat
Rippling at will the sweet
Wide waterway…!”
(Pgs. 153-154)
•
Fun fact: James Whale, English film director of the famous Hollywood movies Frankenstein and The Invisible Man, got his start in drama at Holzminden. (Pg. 162)
•
It took the prisoners nine months to dig the escape tunnel. (Pg. 210)
•
In total, 573 British and Empire prisoners escaped during WW1. By one historian’s estimate, there were over ten thousand attempts, and those who succeeded were a small group out of the 192,848 POWs held in Germany. (Pg. 266)
— Inscription on Holzminden cell wall,
from Richard Lovelace poem “To Althea, from Prison”
•
•
It seems to me that we owed it to our self-respect and to our position as British officers to attempt to escape, and to go on attempting to escape, in spite of all hardships.
— A. J. Evans, inveterate World War 1 breakout artist
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
This review is going is a bit choppy. I only summarized the first part of the book when the men were captured, and then I just took notes and highlighted things that were new information to me. The very first thing that stood out to me was in the Prologue; my ancestor, Winston Churchill, was a POW. He had escaped from a Boer POW camp in South Africa; he jumped over a fence and took off! Also, I am pretty impressed by how Neal Bascomb has managed to write a nonfiction that reads like a fiction! There was even a little bit of humor when prisoners started messing with the Camp Commandant of Holzminden (aka Hellminden), pulling harmless pranks to get back at him for his punishments, gloating, and prideful arrogance.
~~~~~~~~~
SUMMARY
~~~~~~~~~
Eyes in the sky. Cecil Blaine, nineteen years old, the youngest pilot in his squadron. He helped thwart a run by ten German bombers that were hovering over Allied trenches. He harassed them in the sky until they retreated. Charles Griffiths was Blaine’s observer. Their plane started having mechanical troubles and they had to land to inspect it, they were five miles out from Allied territory, and the plane had to be destroyed to prevent reverse engineering. They were caught and detained at a post office, since there was no jail, then they were taken to a POW camp.
~~~~~
On the front lines. Second Lieutenant Frederick William Harvey, twenty-eight years old, was down in the trenches. His platoon was in the 5th Battalion, Gloucestershire Regiment. Low to the ground, as to not be caught by German snipers, Harvey made his way to an observation post that he believed would be either lightly defended or unoccupied. As he reached his next turn, he heard voices and rushed toward the doorway of a dugout braced with iron when he was seized by two German soldiers on their way out.
Before his capture, he was an expert scout. He and his friend, Raymond Knight, were awarded the Distinguished Conduct Medal for “conspicuous gallantry” after they took out a few German soldiers while on a nighttime patrol. As soon as Harvey attempted to take prisoner of the German who tried to flee, enemy shots were firing in their direction, and Knight yanked his friend to safety.
Harvey had a wife and a family, he was a poet who loved to read and sing. He had three brothers and one sister. He and his brothers, Eric and Roy, enlisted in the army. Their sister, Gladys, volunteered as a nurse, and their youngest brother stayed home with their mother to help her run the farm.
No mortal comes to visit me to-day,
Only the gay and early-rising Sun
Who strolled in nonchalantly, just to say,
“Good morrow, and despair not, foolish one!”
— Frederick William Harvey, written on the flyleaf of a dusty French book that was left behind in the room in which he was imprisoned.
~~~~~
Second Lieutenant Casper Kennard joined by his observer and air mechanic, Ben Digby. Their plane was taken down directly over enemy trenches immediately after Kennard was caught in a cloud of white smoke and lost all sense of direction. They were then surrounded by German soldiers before they could climb out of the plane. Digby was taken to a German camp for common soldiers, while Kennard was sent to Gütersloh. They didn’t remain in the camps for long, but Kennard looked for any opportunity to escape.
Prior to joining the RFC at twenty-five years old, he was a ranch hand on his parents estate outside Maidstone, England.
~~~~~
Currently in Swamp Camp, where the ground is crumbly peat beneath a layer of black sand, Harvey and the Pink Toes dig a tunnel. It took a couple of weeks before the tunnel went beyond the fence, but it was so shallow that anyone who was digging could feel the footsteps of the men walking above. The last yard of dirt was cleared before dawn on June 27th, and the tunnel opened out into the main ditch that drained the camps water. The escape attempt was unsuccessful, and two men were shot, one of them dying by drowning in his own blood. The test retreated back into the tunnel so they wouldn’t be caught. The Germans permitted a military burial.
In another camp, summer is in full force. The men spent their days barefoot, wearing shorts and singlets. Many had shaved their heads in attempt to stay cool, but the living conditions were poor. The water was disgusting. The prisoners had fallen captive to a type of depression that they referred to as bad wire disease. One of those “same shit, different day” types of depression, but on an unimaginable level that only those who lived through it would really understand. One prisoner wrote: “This was far and away our worst enemy: whole days were drenched in incurable melancholia.”
~~~~~~~~~~
HIGHLIGHTS
~~~~~~~~~~
When Orville Wright performed the first flight in a powered airplane on December 17, 1903, he declared it to be “the introduction to the world of an invention which would make further wars practically impossible.” Hyperbole aside, Wright was correct that airplanes would bring a revolution in war, but not in the way he imagined. Instead of an instrument for peace, the airplane became a multipronged weapon in a conflict that would envelope the world. (Pg. 8)
•
The British lines suffered approximately seven thousand casualties daily, which was referred to as “wastage”, according to staff headquarters. (Pg. 24)
•
In the first six months of WW1, 1.3 million soldiers became POW’s across Europe. By mid-1916 Germany held 1.65 million men in prison camps across the country. (Pg. 47)
•
The majority of German POW’s under care of the British and French were maintained in decent conditions, while Russia was one of the worst caretakers of POW’s, their prisoners died in vast numbers due to neglect, exposure, and hard labor. James W. Gerard, the American ambassador to Germany before the United States entered the war in 1917, tried to alleviate the worst of the abuses, but with 165 POW camps scattered throughout Germany, that posed as impossible. (Pg. 49)
•
Cool hack: Milk was used as invisible ink to send out coded messages. You take a milk-dipped fountain pen to a sheet of paper, write a note over that with ink, and then send it out. When the recipient runs a hot iron over the note, the fat in the milk will reveal the hidden message. (Pg. 52)
•
A few prisoners nicknamed the Pink Toes, had used tablespoons to dig a tunnel through sandy ground during the two hours in which the guards were at dinner. To hide the scattered and excavated debris, they hid it in small pouches beneath their trench coats. They had dug a thirty-five yard stretch, and excavated exactly 2,553 bags of earth and sand, only to find out that all prisoners were being transferred to a camp in Crefeld. (Pg. 59)
•
Fun fact: Under poor winter weather conditions, while the prisoners and guards were held up at Clausthal train station, the men were allowed into the station restaurant. The owner brought out soup and sandwiches for everyone. The British bought every bottle of wine behind the bar, and a party broke out. The guards even joined in, and there was a temporary truce. (Pg. 62)
•
After a way-too-long bout of depression, Harvey was finally inspired to write a poem — the first in a long time. His inspiration came from his friend, Mossy, whose drawing was to remind Harvey of his home.
“From troubles of the world I turn to ducks,
Beautiful comical things
Sleeping or curled
Their heads beneath white wings
By water cool,
Or finding curious things
To eat in various mucks
Beneath the pool,
Tails uppermost, or waddling
Sailor-like on the shores
Of ponds, or paddling
— Left! Right! — with fanlike feet
Which are for steady oars
When they (white galleys) float
Each bird a boat
Rippling at will the sweet
Wide waterway…!”
(Pgs. 153-154)
•
Fun fact: James Whale, English film director of the famous Hollywood movies Frankenstein and The Invisible Man, got his start in drama at Holzminden. (Pg. 162)
•
It took the prisoners nine months to dig the escape tunnel. (Pg. 210)
•
In total, 573 British and Empire prisoners escaped during WW1. By one historian’s estimate, there were over ten thousand attempts, and those who succeeded were a small group out of the 192,848 POWs held in Germany. (Pg. 266)
August 20, 2018
When you ‘re down and out and feeling blue (is that a song?), you need a book such as Neal Bascomb’s “The Escape Artists” to get you rejuvenated. It’s the story of heroes who never give up. The horrors of German prison camps are, once again, presented in miserable detail but there’s something different. There’s optimism, courage, ingenuity, persistence, and humor that overcome the bleakness experienced by most captives.
During the war the sky over Germany rained paper, wire, and wood as thousands of RAF aircraft plummeted down. Some were shot down, some had mechanical failure that prompted their plunge to earth, and inexperienced pilots without enough training crashed some. The survivors were scooped up by German troops, eventually ending up in the countless prison camps. Multitudes of stiff upper lip Britishers found themselves cold, hungry, insect bitten, and miserable as guests.
Through intense research, Bascomb brings forth his story of World War I British aviators who successfully escape by tunneling out of Holzminden, the Alcatraz of German prisoner of war camps. The perseverance of the courageous men is astounding and the author has described their efforts using crackling prose and riveting detail.
The credo ingrained in British soldiers was that their duty was to attempt to escape at all times. The author states that there were 192,848 POWs held in Germany and that a total of 573 prisoners actually escaped. The heroes of his book tried to get away many times but most of them were failed attempts. But over and over the attempts continued. No amount of punishment, short of being put to death, ever acted as a deterrent.
The Holzminden escape saw ten aviators succeed and another nineteen be recaptured. The audacity behind the escape plan, and the success, was unprecedented. The author provides the intricate details. His account is thrilling and inspirational. You need to read the book to bring some zing to your prosaic life.
July 18, 2018
Neal Bascomb is the author of many books about WW1, WW2, and other 20th century events. He's a superb author; writing about complicated history with an ease it's a pleasure to read. His new book, "The Escape Artists", is about British airmen and soldiers captured by the Germans in WW1 and sent to a hell-hole POW camp, Holzminden. The subtitle of the book is "A Band of Daredevil Pilots and Greatest Prison Break of the Great War", and that's what Bascomb concentrates his text on.
When I picked this book to read for review, I looked at the title and thought it was about the famous POW break from Colditz in WW2. That was the prison breakout filmed as "The Great Escape". Bascomb, though, takes the reader back to WW1 where planes-at-war are still primitive (Orville Wright predicted powered flights "would make further wars practically impossible". He wasn't exactly correct, but rather, they became "a multipronged weapon" in the war,) Bascomb writes about the pilots, their training, their fighting, their captures. He also includes soldiers, who end up at "Hellminden", with the pilots.
Neal Bascomb has written a wonderful book that captures a little known part of WW1. It's very detailed, so if you're looking for a light read on the subject, this is not the book. But for armchair historians who want to go behind the story, it's a great read. By the way, there is a Young Adult book called "The Grand Escape" on the same subject by Neal Bascomb. It's being issued on the same day as "The Escape Artists".
When I picked this book to read for review, I looked at the title and thought it was about the famous POW break from Colditz in WW2. That was the prison breakout filmed as "The Great Escape". Bascomb, though, takes the reader back to WW1 where planes-at-war are still primitive (Orville Wright predicted powered flights "would make further wars practically impossible". He wasn't exactly correct, but rather, they became "a multipronged weapon" in the war,) Bascomb writes about the pilots, their training, their fighting, their captures. He also includes soldiers, who end up at "Hellminden", with the pilots.
Neal Bascomb has written a wonderful book that captures a little known part of WW1. It's very detailed, so if you're looking for a light read on the subject, this is not the book. But for armchair historians who want to go behind the story, it's a great read. By the way, there is a Young Adult book called "The Grand Escape" on the same subject by Neal Bascomb. It's being issued on the same day as "The Escape Artists".
November 12, 2018
This book was about POW prison camps in Germany during World War I. The escape attempts and the drive to keep trying even after re-capture and solitary confinement was amazing. The biggest attempt in which the end of the book focused, was interesting. I was a little bored and sometimes confused earlier in the book. The story would probably be a great movie. I finished reading it because I wanted the history lesson. Ironically, I finished it on November 11, exactly 100 years after the conclusion of World War I. It was a fitting way to contemplate that day.
December 16, 2019
The premise was promising. A group of POWs in a German prison camp during WWI decide to escape. This story chronicles the individuals lives of the men and also their escape. Frankly I had a hard time getting into it. The writing just wasn't all that interesting to me. Or maybe reading about men escaping from a prison is not as interesting as I thought it would be.
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August 13, 2019Rollicking read about a prison escape bigger than the one The Great Escape was based on. Can't believe I knew nothing of it. The principles were veterans of many previous break attempts at earlier prisons. But it was together at Holzmidden a camp the Germans set up to hold incorrigible prison break-types that they pulled off their big coup. Holzmidden was situated halfway between Hanover and Cologne in west-central Germany miles from the Dutch border so it posed major difficulties for any escape attempt. Nevertheless a dedicated group of tunnellers hacked their way through soil and stone under the wall towards a rye field. It took months but by July 1918 they were ready to go. Twenty nine got out and ten of those made it to Holland. The stories of hardship, privation and near capture during the escapes is page-turning stuff. Great read.
October 27, 2018
I liked it. 4.5 stars -- wish they'd let us do that.
Why not 5? Having a hard time pinning it down and putting it in to words. It is just more of a feeling that it is a great book, certainly well worth the read, interesting and engaging and if you are at all familiar with later escapes say in WWII -- you will see where a lot of those lessons were learned (and later taught).
Alas, still can't give it that 5. But please do not let that detract you. This one is worth the time investment if you are at all interested in WWI, the early days of the RAF, or Prison Escapes.
Why not 5? Having a hard time pinning it down and putting it in to words. It is just more of a feeling that it is a great book, certainly well worth the read, interesting and engaging and if you are at all familiar with later escapes say in WWII -- you will see where a lot of those lessons were learned (and later taught).
Alas, still can't give it that 5. But please do not let that detract you. This one is worth the time investment if you are at all interested in WWI, the early days of the RAF, or Prison Escapes.
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