World War II prisoner of war camp - Stalag Luft I

Books & Videos

 

World War II - Prisoners of War - Stalag Luft I 

A collection of stories, photos, art and information on Stalag Luft I


Home
The POW Stories
The Photos
The Roommates
The Art
The Poetry
The Newspaper
The Interrogators
The Guards
The Russians
The Evacuation
The Return
The Kriegies
Letters From Home
Books & Videos
Documents
Memorials
POW Benefits
POW Medal
Research Tips
Allison's Thoughts
Links
Guestbook
What's New


 

If you are a former Prisoner of War or a next of kin of a POW, we invite you to sign and leave your email address so others that come may find you. Please mention camp, compound, barracks and room numbers if possible.

 Sign or view our Guestbook

Visit our
Online Store

 

 

 


If you would like to
  help us keep this website online, please click on the above PayPal link, where you may make a monetary contribution to this site using your credit card.  Thank you.

 

 


Stalag Luft I - E-mail us

Click to send us e-mail

Stalag Luft I Books

Listed below are books that have been written on Stalag Luft I.  The books are listed roughly in the order they were published.

 

 

Parachute to Berlin by Lowell Bennett     Parachute to Berlin  

By Lowell Bennett - published 1945 by Vanguard Press, New York

The author was an International News Service Correspondent who was interned at Stalag Luft I after he was shot down while flying as an observer on a bombing mission to Berlin.  The book details his route to Stalag Luft I, in which he was given a "PR tour" of the country to see first hand the extent of the allies bombing campaign before being sent to Stalag Luft I.  Details of camp life and liberation by the Russians.

 

 

Behind Barbed Wire by Morris Roy  

Behind Barbed Wire

By Lt. Morris J. Roy - published 1946 by Richard R. Smith, New York.

This contains short stories of 14 Stalag Luft I POWs detailing their "horror stories" and experiences in route to the POW camp.  Also it contains copies of 4 issues of the POW WOW newspapers, photos taken at the camp, drawings and poems written by fellow POW's, and a directory listing by compound of almost all of the POW's along with their hometown listed by state. 

"One day a fellow prisoner of Stalag 1, Lt. Roy, said that if he ever got out of POW camp and back home alive he would write a book about his and others experiences during the war and in POW camp.  So several of us said if he did write the book we would like a copy.  One is reminded that no money was available to the POW’s therefore a method of payment had to be devised.  In my particular case I used the inside of a match cover and made out a check for two copies of the book.  Months after returning from the service this canceled match book was returned in my checking account and in July 1946 almost 14 months after the war ended I received my copies of the book. Needless to say I was a little surprised. It was called  “Behind Barbed Wire” it is a hard bound book  written by Lt. Morris J. Roy.  The book consisted of 12 flight missions as told by POW’s to Lt. Roy.  The book also has a complete listing of all prisoners indicating their rank, type of aircraft and their home address.  It also has many pictures that were taken at the POW camp and many sketches and drawings that were made by the prisoners."    Perk Chumley - Stalag Luft I POW

 

   

Vacation With Pay by Alan H. Newcomb  

Vacation with Pay (Being an account of my stay at the German Rest Camp for Tired Allied Airmen at beautiful Barth-on-the-Baltic)  Click here to read online.

By Alan H. Newcomb - published 1947 by Destiny Publishers, Haverhill, Mass.
Thank you to Bill Haney ex-POW - Stalag Luft I (North II Compound) for a copy of this book.  

This contains the diary that Mr. Newcomb kept while imprisoned at Stalag Luft 1, a detailed personal perspective. He wrote most of it on toilet paper and would kept it hidden on himself at all times. Here is one of his observations:

"It's funny that being here, deprived of what we used to consider the necessities of life and forced to conserve and save everything, seems to have made everyone more generous; that being forced to live in constant company in a small space, with little to do to pass the time, has made everyone more considerate and obliging. Men close doors carefully and conscientiously, knock before entering rooms, are careful not to disturb anyone who is lucky enough to be absorbed in reading, sleeping or cooking. Everyone takes pains to do a favor or to acknowledge courtesy, and is careful not to interrupt a conversation. Maybe it is a compliment to American character and breeding - maybe only a realization that any other situation would be intolerable and that as long as we are in prison and can't get out, we'd better take this course as the easiest and most pleasant. I am told that when friction does develop anywhere, it is sudden and explosive and thereby kills itself."

 

   

Greening's Not as Briefed

Not As Briefed 

By Col. C. Ross Greening - published 1947 by Brown and Bigelow, St. Paul, MN

A Limited Edition book of Col. Greenings watercolor drawings made while he was a POW in Stalag Luft I.  See our Art and Poetry page for more info and examples of artwork in this book. Please note this is not the cover of the book.

 

   

Time Out by John Vietor

Time Out

By John A. Vietor - published 1951 by Richard R. Smith Publisher, Inc. New York.

American Airmen at Stalag Luft 1. A personal perspective of life at the camp. The daily round of life of the imprisoned American and British aviators who were shot down over Germany is depicted vividly and with humor. It contains drawings made by the amateur artists among the prisoners, snapshots taken surreptitiously and cartoons which appeared in the German newspapers during the war. The title was chosen to indicate a time in which one existed but did not live.


 

   

Barbed Wire Horizons  

Barbed Wire Horizons

By Forrest W. Howell - published 1953.  Cecil L. Anderson Printing and Publishing - Tujunga, CA

The author was a POW at Stalag Luft IV and Stalag Luft I.  He writes, "This is not a pleasant, "clean" story, because the incidents portrayed in this book are true accounts of the lives of men whose existence Behind Barbed Wire in Germany during World War II was frequently unpleasant and unclean.  The characters depicted are real, live people who lived and dreamed and behaved as human beings under sometimes deplorable conditions. Some were good and some were evil, some were strong and some were weak.  However all tried desperately to hand on to a flicker of moral goodness and a shade of their sanity in a world gone mad." 

 

   

Moonless Nights by Jimmy James

Moonless Night - One Man's Struggle for Freedom 1940-1945 

By B. A. "Jimmy" James - published 1983.  William Kimber & Co., London

The author was one of the "Great Escapers of Stalag Luft III" and also an early resident of Stalag Luft I.  Here he relates how escaping became a way of life.  He relates in detail the only successful tunneling escape from Stalag Luft I (by his tunneling partner), the details of his escape as part of the "Great Escape" from Stalag Luft III and his escape from Sachsenhausen Concentration Camp.  A remarkable memoir, not only because the author carries the reader with him with his descriptions of the escape projects, but as a record of the triumph of the human spirit over adversity. 

 

   

Prisoner of War - My Secret Journal 

Prisoner of War - My Secret Journal

By Squadron Leader Bohdan Arct. Published 1988 by Webb & Bower (Publishers) Ltd.

A truly fascinating look at an actual log book kept by a prisoner of war at Stalag Luft I.  It contains a page by page authentic reproduction of Mr. Arct's actual Prisoner of War Log Book!!!  He was both a talented artist and a moving writer.  He mercilessly caricatures in watercolor cartoons many facets of camp life.  The other aspects in this book range from the contents of Red Cross parcels, camp recipes and slang to harebrained escape schemes, extracts from letters received and descriptions of conversations and pastimes.  It gives a unique insight into the tragedy and comedy of life as a prisoner of war.

 

   
                                "It All Began"  A True Story of Wartime Combat and the Prisoner of War Experience

By Harold L. Cooke

 

 

   

Bail Out by Mel TenHaken   

Bail-Out!

By Mel TenHaken = published 1990,  Sunflower University Press, Manhattan, Kansas

The author survived a plane crash while training to be a World War II radio-operator-gunner; he parachuted from a disabled bomber after hitting a German target, and spent five months as a prisoner of war at Stalag Luft I in Germany.

 

USA the Hard Way by Roger Armstrong   

USA the Hard Way

By Roger Armstrong - published 1991, Quail House Publishing Co., Orange County, CA

Bailing out over enemy territory in temperatures of 60 degrees below zero, capture by the Peoples' Home Guard, confrontations with German civilians, threats by the interrogators at the Luftwaffe Intelligence Center West, starvation diets, orders to be shot by Hitler, then liberation by the Russians.  This one seems to be a favorite of the Stalag Luft I Ex-POWs.

 

Zemke's Stalag by Hubert Zemke   

Zemke's Stalag - The Final Days of World War II

By Hubert Zemke as told to Roger A. Freeman. Published 1991 by the Smithsonian Institute

Col. Zemke was the Senior Allied Officer at the camp in charge of 9,000 POWs.  Faced with a slowly starving camp, brutal weather conditions on the Baltic coast, and an arrogant and oppressive Luftwaffe administration, Zemke's first and foremost priority became the survival of every POW in his command. He helped organize the POWs to outdo and outwit their German captors at every move. Zemke and his men used subterfuge to penetrate the camp's inner headquarters, eventually persuading their captors to hand over control of the camp before the Soviets arrived and without a shot being fired.

 

Fighter Pilot by Mozart Kaufman   

Fighter Pilot: Aleutians To Normandy To Stalag Luft 1

By Mozart Kaufman.  
M & A Kaufman Publishers, San Anselmo, CA. 1993. 

Personal account of a World War II air combat fighter pilot and POW . The author's exciting story is told with candor and humor, taking the reader along on some of the most daring escapades of WWII.  Flying p-47s on bombing and strafing missions, he was shot down on his 50th mission and spent the last ten months as a POW at Stalag Luft I.  53 Photos, 22 Dws, 5 Maps, 209 Pages. 

 

 

   

A Domain of Heroes   

A Domain of Heroes (An airman's life behind barbed wire in Germany in World War II)

By Carrol F. Dillon - published 1995, Palm Island Press, Sarasota, Florida.
 

An EXCELLENT Book !  This book is especially well researched and written. Mr. Dillon was not a POW, but his twin brother Harold was one of the famous Heydekrug Sergeants.  The first three chapters deal with how the airmen were shot down, their experiences en route to the Stalag Lufts, etc.  Three chapters cover Dulag Luft, the interrogation center where the Germans tried to get military information from them and their journey to a permanent camp.  The route to Stalag Luft I runs all through the book. However, one chapter and parts of other chapters deal specifically with Luft I.  The whole story of Luft I is included. However, the book also covers Luft III, IV, and VI.  This is available at Amazon.com or from Mr. Dillon on line.  Email him at attorneydillon@msn.com.  Mr. Dillon's price is a little cheaper and he personally autographs it for you. Or visit his website at http://ADomainofHeroes.homestead.com/ 

 

   

Welcome to POW Camp   

Welcome to POW Camp - Stalag Luft I - Barth, Germany 

By  Flight Sgt. Budgen of the RAF and Squadron Leader B. Arct, Belgian flier attached to the RAF.  Lithographed  in the United States of America.  Edwards & Broughton Company, Raleigh, N.C.

 A collection of black and white cartoons which depict daily life as "Kriegies". Each cartoon has an added commentary explaining the situation in Stalag Luft I that is being depicted.

 

From Wings to Jackboots by Berry Keyter   
 

From Wings to Jackboots

By Barry Keyter Published 1995. Janus Publishing Company, London, England

The author served with the South African Air Force during World War II.  He saw action in the campaigns of North Africa, Sicily, and Italy until he was shot down over Italy in January 1944.  He then spent three months "on the run" hiding in the mountains and was finally captured by the German army and sent to Stalag Luft I where he was a prisoner of war for thirteen months.  It is an exciting story told with humor and panache.  It illustrates the excitement, the fear and sometimes the boredom of fighting in the major theatres of war.

 

   

Not as Briefed by Wright Lee

Not As Briefed

By Wright Lee. Published 1995 by The Honoribus Press in Spartanburg, SC.

"Wright Lee had the foresight to keep a detailed diary during the period he served in combat during WWII with the 445th Bomb Group of The Eighth Air Force.  This diary now forms the core of a magnificent recounting of those difficult days for the courageous airmen of The Mighty Eighth.  His descriptions of the running aerial gun battles with the Luftwaffe, the terrible loss of human life and the miseries of the POW Camp at Barth, Germany make for interesting and informative reading.  This book is a must for civilians and military veteran alike."  Lt. Gen Buck Shuler, Jr. , Former Commander, Eighth Air Force.   

 

   

Staying Alive   

Staying Alive

By Carl Fyler, D.D.S.  Major (R) - AF  Published 1995 by J.H. Johnston III, Leavenworth, Kansas

Fyler's personal account as a World War II bomber pilot flying B-17's, shot down on what was to be his last mission.  He also recounts his sometimes tragic and sometimes comedic incarceration as a prisoner of war in Stalag Luft I and finally the jubilation of his liberation and the return to his waiting fiancée.

 

Cradle Crew by Ken Blyth   

Cradle Crew 

By Kenneth K. Blyth - published 1997, Sunflower University Press, Manhattan,   Kansas.  

Ken joined the Royal Canadian Air Force and  became a Halifax pilot. He  and his crew became one of the youngest bombing crews in the war and eventually guests of the Germans at Stalag Luft I.  This book describes Ken's training experiences, raids over enemy targets, being shot down over Germany, life in a prison camp and finally release at war's end by the Russians. Ken kept a detailed diary at the prison camp and recorded the stories of all the men in his room.  To purchase a personally autographed copy by the author email him directly at kkblyth@earthlink.net or visit his website at www.cradlecrew.com.

   

Wings and Barbed Wire  

Wings and Barbed Wire

By Gerald Duval - Published 2000    A preview:    The feeling of being pinned to the fuselage of a rapidly spinning bomber was one of impending doom. There was no way I could break the grip that mother nature applied. From the small window near the camera hatch I could see the world suddenly go into wild gyrations. The whoosh whoosh of the rapidly spinning aircraft testified to the fact that we were out of control. There was no chance of recovery. Try as I might I could not raise my chin from my chest where it was pressed so firmly. If I were on the flight deck at my regular duty station there may have been a chance. The mountain tops were getting closer and closer I could see them better now. I said goodbye to my Mom. Instinctively at a time like this the goodbyes are always for Mom. She is the closest blood tie. When death is staring you in the face, it's always Mom who is there with you. I realized that without a parachute and unable to open the camera hatch I did not stand a chance.

Suddenly a strange kind of peace came over me. I no longer struggled to survive. I was resigned to my fate. There was blood on the faces of my crew members. They appeared in a state of shock. Everything was moving in slow motion, the mountain tops were getting closer . . . Goodbye Mom!!!!
 

 

Kriegie - An American POW in Germany   



KRIEGIE - An American POW in Germany

By Oscar G. Richard III   Louisiana State University Press, Baton Rouge, LA

Richard relates the path that most POWs in Germany, or kriegies, took after capture: from the front lines to solitary confinement and interrogation at Dulag Luft, through a long and uncertain journey through Germany, to the final destination - for Richard, Stalag Luft I, near Barth on the Baltic coast.  Richard gives a superb description of camp life, detailing the monotonous daily roll calls, the bribing of the guards, the endless efforts to undermine camp rules,  and the attempts to escape.  Despite the prisoners' primitive existence behind barbed wire, they formed an infrastructure that was quite complex.

 

 

Not as Briefed by Colonel Ross Greening

Not As Briefed -  From the Doolittle Raid to a German Stalag

By Colonel C. Ross Greening    Compiled and Edited by Dorothy Greening and Karen Morgan Driscoll.  Published 2001 by WSU Press
 

"Greening's narrative is crisp and compelling. He speaks to the nature of war as he understands it, the character of good and evil, and the American purpose in fighting fascism.  He also expresses his fears, loneliness, and uncertainties, while seeing the best in his Allied comrades.  That quality - his humanity - comes through in the narrative.  Colonel Greening's artwork is ... magnificent."
  Stephen E. Barlzarini, History Department, Gonzaga University

May be ordered direct from the editor, Karen Driscoll (Col. Greening's niece).  All books will be autographed by the editor.  $ 42.00 plus shipping charges.  Contact  plumwild@olypen.com to order.

 

   

For You Der Var Ist Oufer

For You Der Var Ist Oufer 

By John "Jack" McCracken
Published by Bruce Meyer Printing, Belleville, IL  62220

Jack has written this tale of his last combat mission during World War II in hopes it will serve as a learning instrument for our younger generations. The writings represent his personal experiences and observations while confined in Dulag Luft, Stalag Luft IV and Stalag Luft I, as well as his liberation and trip home.  He tells the reader about some of the inadequate housing, sleeping accommodations and the insufficient food provided by his captors in Stalag Luft IV and I.  His writings are based on his memory and the diary kept during his incarceration.

To order send email to Jack at jmccracken@laurelweb.net  - the price is $7.50 (shipping included).

   

Thrice Caught by Odell Myers   

 

Thrice Caught

By Odell Myers.   Published  2002 by McFarland & Company, Inc., Box 611, Jefferson, NC 28640. 


Thrice Caught is the gripping memoir of 2nd Lt. Odell Myers, a pilot in the 438th Squadron, 319th Medium Bombardment Group, 12th USAAF who was captured by the Germans on three different occasions and imprisoned for almost three years.  Sometimes humorously, sometimes sadly but always eloquently, Myers tells not only what happened to him but what happened inside him.  His words speak, therefore, for every POW who did not and could not tell his own story to his loved ones.  Myers final destination was Stalag Luft 1 at Barth, Germany.  Arriving there on November 11, 1943 gave him the dubious distinction of being one of the first Americans to be imprisoned at Stalag Luft 1 where he remained until liberated by Russian forces on May 1, 1945.

Click here for flyer and ordering information (Requires Adobe Acrobat Reader)
or call 1-800-253-2187 .  For additional info or to order on-line click here -  McFarland & Company

   

Footprints on the Sands of Time       

Footprints On The Sands of Time

By Oliver Clutton-Brock,  Published by Grub Street, 2003. RAF Bomber Command PoWs

This extensive book is divided into two parts. The first, which has eighteen chapters, deals with German POW camps as they were opened, in chronological order and to which the Bomber Command POWs were sent. Each chapter includes anecdotes and stories of the men in the camps - capture, escape, illness, and murder - and illustrates the awfulness of captivity even in German hands. Roughly one in every twenty captured airmen never returned home.

The first part also covers subjects such as how the POWs were repatriated during the war; how they returned at war's end; the RAF traitors; the war crimes; and the vital importance of the Red Cross. The style is part reference, part gripping narrative, and the book will correct many historical inaccuracies, and includes previously unpublished photographs.

The second part comprises an annotated list of ALL 10,995 RAF Bomber Command airmen who were taken prisoner, together with an extended introduction.

The two parts together are the fruit of exhaustive research and provide an important contribution to our knowledge of the war and a unique reference work not only for the serious RAF historian but for the ex-POWs themselves and their families and anyone with an interest in the RAF in general and captivity in particular.

Contact the author at
oliver@clutton-brock.freeserve.co.uk

   

POWerful Memories   

POWerful Memories

By Augustine Fernandez, Published by Xlibris, 2005

The book tells of a first generation Hispanic-American teen-aged youth who is torn from his comfortable sheltered life in the Spanish community of Ybor City and thrust upon the global stage of World War !!.  He became an eager, courageous defender of his country as a B-17 bombardier on bombing missions over Germany until on his sixth raid disaster struck.  His plane was destroyed and he fell into enemy hands to spend the rest of the war as a prisoner in Stalag Luft 1.  POWerful Memories recounts his experiences as he under goes training, takes part in missions, is shot down, is captured and then must endure the dreadful, mind-numbing dreariness of prison camp life.  In camp he cooperated in and initiated secret maneuvers to outsmart and harass the enemy and participated in escape operations.  After his eventual liberation by Russian forces he left the safety of the camp to try to meet up with Allied forces, nearly losing his life in the attempt.

Ordering information:  Xllibris.com/Bookstore, 1-888-795-4174 ext 876 or
Amazon.com or Borders.com or Barnesandnoble.com

   

POW #3959   

POW #3959

By Ralph Sirianni, Published by McFarland, 2006

This memoir offers harrowing stories of combat, including detailed descriptions of each of Sirianni’s combat missions; reveals the horrors of confinement and the despair of skin-of-the-teeth survival; and remembers camaraderie in the face of German abuse. Valuable for its vivid account of aerial warfare and imprisonment, this memoir is also a story of postwar reconciliation, both psychological and social. Appendices offer excerpts from Sirianni’s POW log book and pilot George McFall’s firsthand account of the ill-fated final mission.
 
   
Falling Down for the Count    Falling Down For the Count  - the Letters and Diaries of Albert Williams

by Rebecca Sroda and Albert Williams

Falling Down for the Count is a fact based account of one enlisted man's experiences during WW II. Beautifully written letters, preserved by a loving mother of a large Italian-Welsh family give the reader a glimpse into daily life in the US Army Air Corp during two brutal years of WW II combat. Journal entries chronicle passage to England, missions on a B-17, and the awful truth about POW life at Stalag Luft I in Barth, Germany. Poems, diaries, and artful pen and ink drawings illustrate the tenacity and perseverance of the creative human spirit when forced to live in a hopeless situation. From beginning to end, the story captures and holds its audience, taking them on an emotionally charged armchair journey into WWII.


 

   
                              Miracles Do Happen - A B-17 Navigator's Story of the September 11, 1944, Mission to Destory the Ruhland, Germany Oil Refinery and His Prison Camp Experience in Stalag Luft I

by Donald H. Lienemann

 

   
The Man With Nine Lives   The Man With Nine Lives - Geoff Rothwell
 

by Gabrielle McDonald

"A white-knuckle ride through the life of a genuine 22-carat hero. From Bomber Command to Stalag Luft I, a German POW camp, to the Emergency in Malaya, this book takes you on a tour of the bleakest hours and most dangerous places with a doughty, officer-class Englishman. There are adventures, dangers, hair-raising escapes, and bravery in spades. This is a real-life tale of derring-do, surely they don't make them like Geoff Rothwell anymore." 

   

The Captured Ones

by Erik Dyreborg
 

The Captured Ones is a remarkable story about a few American airmen who served in Europe during WWII.  The stories are narrated by the airmen, and recount missions over enemy territory, encounters with enemy fighters, crash landings, and bail out from burning planes.  The 25 airmen in this book were all shot down over Germany or German occupied territory. They were captured and became POWs in Stalag Luft I in Barth, Germany. They stayed in the same barracks, and in the same room, until the Russians liberated them on 1st May 1945.   One of them, Lyle Shafer, made a list of all the roommates, just after the liberation of the camp. He looked for his fellow roommates for over 17 years and made it possible for them to reunite in 1989.
   

One Slow High Flying Target Survivor 

By A. J. Dobek

One Slow High Flying Target Survivor" is an autobiography by WWII B-17 Bombardier and POW A. J. Dobek. The now 83 year-old Dobek was 20 and living in Dunkirk, NY when he received his induction into military service in 1942. The book recounts his training days as a U.S. Army Air Cadet, his 14 missions and being shot down over Berlin on March 6, 1944. Dobek bailed out of the stricken plane at 24,000 feet and did a free fall for 17,000 feet before opening his parachute. When he finally touched the ground he was immediately captured by the Germans and held captive for 15 months in a POW camp on the North Sea until his liberation by the Russian Army in 1945. Dobek and few fellow prisoners, tired of waiting for the allies to show up, walked back to their lines with a little help from the Russians and people they met along the way.
   

Forever Flying

by R. A. "Bob" Hoover

Barnstormer, World War II fighter, test pilot, aerobatic genius -- Bob Hoover is a living aviation legend, the man General James "Jimmy" Doolittle called "the greatest stick and rudder pilot who ever lived." Hoover's career spans the history of American aviation, and now he tells his amazing story with all the flat-out honesty and gusto that have made his life an extraordinary adventure.

At twenty-two, Hoover was a decorated World War II fighter pilot, already famous both for his aerobatic abilities -- including looping under a bridge in Tunisia -- and for surviving seventeen equipment-failure crash landings as a test pilot. Then the Germans knocked his Mark V Spitfire out of the sky. He made three attempts to escape en route to the infamous Stalag Luft I prison camp, and after sixteen brutal months, finally escaped by stealing a German plane and flying it to Holland.

After the war, Hoover tested the first jets at Wright Field, dogfighting Chuck Yeager, the man who'd come to call him "Pard." In the quest to break the sound barrier in the Bell X-1, Hoover endured every step of the grueling G-force training along with Yeager. But soon after Yeager's historic flight, Hoover broke both his legs in a desperate bailout from a blazing F-84 Thunderjet -- dashing his dreams of flying the X-1 himself.

In Forever Flying, we relive the thrills and danger Hoover continued to face as a civilian test pilot: testing the first jets to take off and land aboard aircraft carriers; flying bombing runs over North Korea; and demonstrating new planes for fighter pilots, who had to be warned not to attempt to duplicate Hoover's spectacular spins, stalls, and rolls. He became an adviser to engineering on the X-15 rocket, and rose through the corporate ranks, famed for flying his daring aerobatics routines in a business suit and straw hat instead of a pilot's "G suit."

Bob Hoover has flown more than 300 types of aircraft, dazzled crowds at more than 2,000 air shows all over the world, and is still flying today. He's set both transcontinental and "time to climb" speed records, and known such great aviators as Orville Wright, Eddie Rickenbacker, Charles Lindbergh, Jacqueline Cochran, Neil Armstrong, and Yuri Gagarin, who saved Hoover from the KGB at an international aerobatics competition in Moscow during the height of the Cold War.

Spiced by reminiscences from fellow fliers, friends, and his wife, all of whom recount Hoover's devilish practical jokes as well as his death-defying flights, Forever Flying reveals the magnificent true story of a great American hero.

   

Old Glory Is the Most Beautiful of All
By  Richard P. Keirn


Autobiography of Col. Richard P. Keirn who
held the distinction of being one of only two American that were POWs in both World War II and Vietnam.  He spent eight months as a prisoner of war at Stalag Luft I in Germany and seven years in North Vietnam prison camps.  He was also the first American pilot to be downed by a surface-to-air missile. .


 

Stalag Luft IV Books

The following 5 books were all written by Joseph P. O'Donnell - POW #1414 Stalag Luft IV.  To inquire about purchasing one or more of them please email the author at   JPODPOW1414@aol.com

The Shoe Leather Express  - $12.00

The Shoe Leather Express - Book II - Luftgangsters Marching Across Germany  -  $12.00

A History of Stalag Luft IV - May 1944 - February 1945 -  $ 15.00

The Pangs of the Thorn Book III The Shoe Leather Express - $18.00

A Time of Great Rewarding - A Collection of Prayers and Poems for and by Prisoners of War - $12.00


 


Other World War II  & POW Books
 


The Last Escape - The Untold Story of Allied Prisoners of War in Europe  1944-45


The Last Escape - The Untold Story of Allied Prisoners of War in Europe 1944-45

By John Nichol and Tony Rennell.  Published 2003  by the Penguin Group, New York, NY.

News of the D-Day landings, heard on secret camp radios, filled the prisoners with hope, but their joy turned into foreboding as their captors reacted to the threat.  Many POWs feared they would be killed by the retreating German armies rather than be allowed to fall into the hands of the Russians.  Instead, in the depths of winter, their guards forced them to march out of the camps and farther into Germany, away from their would be liberators. 

The marches were long and desperately arduous.  Some POWs walked for more than five hundred miles and were on the road for many months.  Hundreds died of exhaustion, disease and starvation.  Those who survived were awed by their experience.  How they escaped with their lives and eventually reached home is a gripping story on endurance and courage.

 

 

   

                       

A Wartime Log

By Art Beltrone

A Wartime Log" is a collection of photos of World War II aviators' artwork created while held prisoner in Germany. During the war, the YMCA distributed logbooks to prisoners through the Red Cross. Bored and fatigued through hunger, the prisoners expressed their yearnings for freedom, the girl back home, a good meal, and other things through drawings, sketches, and cartoons in these books. The POWs created paint through colored Red Cross parcel labels and brushes from their own hair. The results are beautiful sketches that depict the frustration of sitting out the war in captivity, the wistfulness of missing your loved ones, and the simple joy of dreaming about the meals you'll eat when you're finally free. The pictures range from humorous drawings of daily camp life to the hauntingly stark sketches of a lonely Christmas in captivity. Many of the prisoners were artists before the war, or discovered latent talent while serving as POWs. The work included here rivals the best efforts of professional artists. More than anything, these drawings serve as a testament to the will, ingenuity, and faith of these great men.

   


Fading Warriors
  

Fading Warriors - Twilight Reminiscences from World War II.

By Lee Estes, FPSA  Published 2005

A collection of reminiscences by 47 World War II veterans, from all services, all theatres and all ranks, providing insight into the war. As a total read, it provides a much broader appreciation for the tremendous effort the United States put forth during World War II. Some of the stories are funny, some poignant and sad, there is a love story between a Red Cross girl and a Combat Engineer, and most importantly, one soldier tells with considerable detail how Goering obtained the cyanide pill he used to avoid the gallows.  Includes stories from POWs at Stalag Luft I, Stalag Luft III,  Stalag Luft IV, Stalag III-C, and Japan.

To order email author at estes2826@bellsouth.net.   Cost is $29.95 plus $3.00 shipping. Or regular mail to Lee Estes at 3200 Deborah Drive, Monroe, LA  71201-2145. Check or money order.

 

   

Under the Wire by William Ash and Brendan Foley  

Under The Wire

by William Ash and Brendan Foley, Published by Thomas Dunne Books (St Martin's Press)  ISBN: 0312338325

Bill Ash, who just celebrated his 88th birthday, is probably the greatest living US prisoner of war escape-artist of WWII. Born in Texas, he joined the RCAF in 1940 and flew Spitfires until shot down in 1942. He then became a serial escape artist, attempting 13 PoW-camp escapes - cutting through the barbed wire, climbing over it, or tunneling under it before finally escaping for good.  
 

'Under the Wire' is a well-written and exciting memoir of wartime captivity that is packed with incident and vividly recreates the oft-neglected early days of Stalag Luft III and the now forgotten mass escape from Oflag XXIB, Schubin - a sort of dress rehearsal for the famous Great Escape. The author himself is one of the great unsung heroes of the Second World War, as are some of those whose adventures he records in this remarkable book. It also makes a refreshing change to read a memoir by someone who is politically literate and knew exactly what he was fighting against and what he was fighting for.’ There are passages in this book - particularly those concerning the political awakening of POWs and their determination to create a better post-war world - that make the reader want to stand up and cheer. ‘   Charles Rollings, author of Wire and Walls, Wire and Worse


 

   

Handle with care

Handle With Care

by R. Anderson and D. Westmacott

A book of prison camp sketches drawn and written in prison camps in Germany.  On behalf of the RAF Ex-Prisoner of War Association (who hold the copyright), JoTe Publications reproduced this book in November 2005 and it is currently available from them - proceeds from the sale of these books is being donated to the Association who supply financial support for ALL airforce ex- prisoners of war.

The book is case bound (hard back) with dust jacket and is priced at £20 plus postage and packing (Airmail £2 within the UK, £4 to EU countries and £6 worldwide).

To purchase email tedthelad@bigfoot.com
 

 

Royal Air Force -  World War II   Books


Skypilot by Peter Graham

Skypilot  - Memoirs From Take-off to Landing

By Peter Graham.  Published 2001 by Pentland Books, Durham, England

Skypilot is the memoir of a unique and diverse career.  Indeed it is an intriguing tale of Peter Graham's transition from the excitement of being a World War Two fighter pilot, to life as a man of God, which proved to be almost as eventful as his previous vocation.

Peter writes with light-heartedness and poignancy in equal measure as he recalls the innocence of his childhood, and somewhat privileged education, in stark contrast to the often horrific experiences of war, including life as a POW at Stalag Luft I in Germany.  Peter fell in love with the Spitfire when it first appeared and resolved that one day he would fly it, which of course he did, leading to many memorable experiences in his four years in the RAF.

A life in the clergy was something which had always beckoned Peter, but it was a career path he resisted and swore he would never follow until 1952, when after a variety of teaching positions he was finally ordained to the ministry of the Church of England,  in which he specialized in pastoral care and counseling, a specialization he has kept up with since his retirement from the ministry in 1988.

Although the author was a POW at Stalag Luft I, this is not the focus of his book and only a few pages are written about that period of his life, therefore I have listed it as a RAF Memoir rather than a Stalag Luft I book.


To inquire about purchasing this book contact the author at:
Peter-skypilot@carrierscottage.freeserve.co.uk

 

 


Prisoner of War Videos

Behind the Wire Video Behind the Wire - Allied Airmen in German Captivity in the Second World War 

Actual interviews with surviving aircrew from the 8th, 15th U.S.A.A.F and R.A.F. Bomber Command.    Al Zimmerman (493rd B.G.) writer/producer  Funded by the 8th Air Force Historical Society. 1 hour 21 minutes.

 

   
P.O.W.  Video P.O.W. Americans in Enemy Hands:  World War II, Korea and Vietnam.  -   A Public Media Video - by Arnold Shapiro Productions - hosted by Robert Wagner. 1987.  1-800-262-8600.  90 minutes.
   
Echoes of Captivity Video Echoes of Captivity  -  National Prisoner of War Museum.  Andersonville National Historic Site.  Andersonville, GA  

Tells the story of American prisoners of war, from the American Revolutionary War to the Persian Gulf War.  Interviews with former POWs, combined with diary accounts, photographs and motion picture footage.  43 minutes.

 

   
Nothing Has Been Forgotten Nothing Has Been Forgotten -  A film by Jeff Blyth ( a professional filmmaker and son of a Stalag Luft I POW ). Not available for sale. For private use only. 

This video re-traces the WWII history of Ken Blyth a WWII RCAF Halifax pilot and author of "Cradle Crew".  Ken was shot down during the war and was imprisoned at Stalag Luft I. 

Filmed in 2000 the footage shows present day Barth, the Stalag Luft I Memorial in Barth, the train stations in Barth and Rostock.  Also included is footage of the April 2000 Reunion and Conference held in Barth. In it you will see Helga Radau the town archivist whom many of you have corresponded with. 

I have a limited number of these videos that I will "loan" to you.  I must request that it be returned to me, because I do only have a few left.   If you would like borrow the video to view it,  just click here to email me with your request. Please remember to include your full name and mailing address. I must request $3.50 from you to reimburse my packaging and shipping cost, which  can be paid when you return the the video to me.  This is a very professionally done video that I am sure anyone interested in Stalag Luft I would love to see.

   
The Evacuation
of Stalag Luft I

May 1945

Footage from the National Archives
The Evacuation of Stalag Luft I  -   A video copy of a film in the National Archives of the evacuation of the POWs from Stalag Luft I.  It is black and white with no sound and approximately 12 minutes long.  It contains mostly footage of the POWs standing in lines and marching to the airdrome to be evacuated.  There is a little of the Russians and a shot of Gabreski (in a newly acquired uniform  obviously!) as well as Zemke and others.  Some of the guys are on bicycles and  have the white armband with FF (Zemke's Field Force).  You can also see many of the 91st Bomb Group's B-17s lined up with engines still turning and some taking off and landing, POWs getting into them, etc.  Also shown briefly are some of the damaged German aircraft on the fields. There is a little footage of the camp and barracks, with the church in the background as well as a few very dark interior shots of the bunk beds in the barracks (might help to turn up brightness).  I have uploaded the video to You Tube in 3 parts (due to 5 minute limitation of You Tube videos).  Click here to read accounts of the evacuation and see the videos.

Link to You Tube part 1 - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HpVnOsX21oE

Link to You Tube part 2 - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CXFHHD0gBlQ

Link to You Tube part 3 - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PGFDlMhfwgs


 

 

 


Links to out of print book site searches
 

Bookfinder - This is a wonderful search site for used books or books that are out of print. http://www.bookfinder.com    I have found almost every book listed on this page by using this service.  Prices will vary and books change daily, so if you don't find it the first time you look (or at a price you are willing to pay), check again a few days or weeks later.

Powell's Notification Service -  They have a "notify me" button you can click on and they will notify you should they run across the book you are looking for.  You will have to set up an account with them in order to have this "notify me" option.  I have had good luck with this one.

Stone and Stone - Second World War Book finder list   


 

World War II Book Reviews

Berlin Diary

William L. Shirer,...

Best Price $9.95
or Buy New $25.00

Privacy Information

Berlin Diary 
by William L. Shirer

William L. Shirer, one of the very first radio correspondents, broadcast from Nazi Germany from 1934 until December 1940. This is his diary as the title says and he brings to life those who strode across Europe in the third decade of the last century.

They are all alive again in this fascinating book. Ambitious Hitler, cocksure Hermann Goering, the foul Nazi underlings, the weak-willed Allied leaders. We were especially fascinated how United States Ambassador William E. Dodd's daughter Martha lurks in the background in so many scenes. She was a Communist spy and kept the Soviets up to date on what the United States and its friends were planning.

Eighth Air Force people will be fascinated by Shirer's accounts of the first air raids on Berlin. The Berliners, not imagining what the future would bring, paid scant attention to the meager British efforts and became even more complacent. Hermann had them convinced no bomb would fall on the Fatherland.

Wings of Morning The Story of the Last American Bomber Shot Down over Germany in World War Two
 by Thomas Childers. Addison-Wesley Publishing Company. 1995
 
Reviewer: Russell Stayanoff (Atlanta, GA USA) -
There are very few books written, and even fewer read, that will motivate or so move a reader to go to unusual lengths to want to know or try and understand who the protagonist of the story really was; who he must have been. This is just such a book, and this is no ordinary story. First, and foremost, it is a true personal account of one of thousands of American young men from a typical all American small town of the 1940's, who had everything going for him in his small southern town, with a bright future before him. Sports, a steady girl, maybe college. But the war in Europe and Pearl Harbor interrupted that future for Howard Goodner and the many like him. He stood on a train platform one morning and, like so many others, kissed his mother goodbye, assured her he'd be alright and went off to the army to become an aviator. But not everyone who trained could sit in that pilot or co-pilot's seat of the new B-24 Liberator heavy bomber.

This amazing story is taken from the letters of SGT. Howard Goodner to his mother, and found, quite by accident, by Professor Thomas Childers locked in a desk, that Howard's mother, Childers' grandmother, had left for him upon her death. The letters, stuck in a drawer that must have been much too painful to open, describes in vivid detail the complete stateside training of a typical B-24 aircrew...the selection process, the daily routines, the nuances of the B-24, the incredible training accident rates and the midair accidents that Howard witnesses, that kill 10-20 men at a time, before even leaving the United States. The narrative is compelling and written so well that you feel that you are getting to know Howard Goodner as he operates the radio on board his plane and interacts with his crew. Goodner describes what a B-24 aircrew was like, personally, on the ground and in the air. The men in his crew...the quiet ones, the screwballs and the crewmember they even vote off the airplane. He describes the terror of the missions and the relief of seeing that home base runway. This is perhaps the best description of the training, deployment, combat and daily life in wartime England of an average WW2 American bomber aircrew ever written.

The story is also a family one. Goodner's brother in law, also an airman, is within bike riding distance of his airfield in England and they often meet after either one returns from a mission over Germany or Holland. They write letters home telling of seeing each other and that all is okay, until the day that Howard's ship, The Black Cat, does not return from a mission. The entire crew but one is lost and the family's share an anguish for years afterward that Childer's describes in one of the few "Gold Star" families accounts you will read. Childer's writes movingly of the families of the crew as they desperately attempt to learn something from the War Department. Childer's narrative is such that you can feel the fear as though the fateful telegram is arriving at your own door. Victor Davis Hanson describes in his "Ripples of Battle" the ramifications of lives lost in wartime and the ripple effects, we almost never consider, on the surviving families. His theory is spot on in "Wings of Morning."

It is a moving story of a nephew, Childers, who, decades later and against astronomical odds finds the lone survivor of the Black Cat and persuades him to return to England to a quiet deserted, unused airfield, where machines of war once roared and hundreds of men lived and worked. You will thrill as they find the cement pad where the Black Cat crew hut once stood and where Childer's uncle may have even had his bunk. You will become emotional when the surviving crewmember, now a senior citizen, while on the commercial flight into Germany to find the crash site of the Black Cat, tells Childers, "The last time I flew here was that day, with your uncle." The fatal flight was only two weeks before the war in Europe ended.

This is a human history, a detailed incisive aviation history and a truly American family story. After reading this book I was so moved, unlike any book I have read of this period, that I drove to Cleveland, Tennessee with a colleague who also had read the book. We went to "Find" Howard Goodner. We saw all the surprisingly surviving places that Howard knew and that Prof. Childers describes in the book. The old hotel, the soda shop and even the old train platform where he said good-bye. Finally, we found Sgt. Howard Goodner. Or rather, he found us. Why we turned into that particular cemetery of the three that serviced the area we didn't know, and although we searched for his grave, after three hours searching in the hot sun we were ready to give up and drive the three hours home. We had ranged far from where we parked our car on the top of a hill and were heading back up to retrieve it, when just five feet from the car, we "accidentally" found the grave of SGT. Howard Goodner. Or, did we? We thanked him for his service and his sacrifice and we thanked Prof. Childers for writing such a vivid, moving and accurately engaging account of the short life of an average American hero.

 

 If you haven’t read "Wings of Morning" you must read it. Make sure your children and grandchildren have read it. This is the book that tells it like it was.

Bomber Pilot. A Memoir of World War II
by Philip Ardery, The University Press of Kentucky

The cover of Bomber Pilot displays a photograph of a Liberator skimming the ground on a low level attack on the Ploesti raid. This photograph alone makes you want to reach out to grab Bomber Pilot assured that you will have an exciting read. And you won’t be disappointed. Pilot Phil Ardery won a Silver Star, two DFCs, four Air Medals and the French Croix de Guerre with palm. He didn’t get those sitting around some Officers’ Club.

He flew 24s on missions ranging from icy Norway to baking North Africa. Some Eighth Air Force crews were detached to Libya to join in the fight to drive the Axis from Bengasi, Tripoli and all of the Mediterranean. You’ll be able to compare bombing in hot and dusty Libya and lurching through the Norwegian sky trying to find any identifiable landmark.

Ardery flew missions to eastern Mediterranean islands. He says when he was stationed in Bengasi with Ninth Bomber Command there was no Protestant Chaplain and no Jewish one but there was a remarkable Catholic chaplain who was capable of conducting services for Jewish personnel. Ardery, a Protestant, notes that Fr. Beck could conduct a Jewish funeral with perfect form and dignity. He never missed an opportunity to give all possible aid and comfort to the Protestant boys. He never pushed his religion on any of them.

Fr. Beck actually flew on combat missions from time to time . Crews thought it was lucky to have him aboard. One day the Group Commander found out and grounded him. He apparently feared having to explain what the chaplain was doing up in the air if he got wounded, taken prisoner or shot out of the sky.

Read this book. Ardery, who later became a successful attorney, will take you on raids as far north as Oslo as well as deep into Naziland. He describes the buzz bombing of London, flying over the D-Day beaches, the courage of the British civilians. He dedicates this book to the officers and men of the 564th Bomb Squadron, the 389th Bomb Group and the Second Combat Wing. Do these outfits sound familiar to any of you? Bet they do!
 

 

In The Shadows of War:  An American Pilot’s Odyssey through Occupied France and the Camps of Nazi Germany.
by Thomas Childers

This is a thrilling chronicle of three ordinary young people who did extraordinary things under the intense pressure of war and clandestine resistance. Colette Florin was a schoolteacher in rural France who was gradually drawn into supporting the Resistance; Roy Allen, an American pilot, was shot down just after D-Day and hidden by Colette in her school. Pierre Mulsant was trained in Britain and assumed control of the local Resistance organization in the spring of 1944. The author, a professor of history at the University of Pennsylvania, has used interviews, correspondence, and documentary evidence to re-create the interwoven stories of these three brave people. At the same time, Childers illustrates the constant fear, shocking betrayals, and often random brutality that characterized their environment. This outstanding true-life thriller combines the best elements of espionage novels and wartime memoirs, and is a treasure for both scholars and laymen who appreciate a superbly told story.
 
 


 Top of this page                 Next Page - The Kriegies



Google
 

This site created and maintained by Mary Smith and Barbara Freer, daughters of Dick Williams, Jr.