The Great Escape: A Canadian Story
A unique retelling of WWII’s most dramatic escape, told through first-hand recollections of the soldiers who experienced it.

On the night of March 24, 1944, 80 Commonwealth airmen crawled through a 336-foot-long tunnel and slipped into the forest beyond the wire of Stalag Luft III, a German POW compound near Sagan, Poland. The event became known as &8220;The Great Escape,&8220; an intricate breakout more than a year in the making, involving as many as 2,000 POWs working with extraordinary coordination, intelligence, and daring. Yet within a few days, all but three of the escapees were recaptured. Subsequently, 50 were murdered, cremated, and buried in a remote corner of the prison camp.

But most don’t know the real story behind The Great Escape. Now, on the eve of its 70th anniversary, Ted Barris writes of the key players in the escape attempt, those who got away, those who didn’t, and their families at home.

Barris marshals groundbreaking research into a compelling firsthand account. For the first time, The Great Escape retells one of the most astonishing episodes in WWII directly through the eyes of those who experienced it.

Joint Winner of the Libris Award for Non-Fiction Book of the Year 2014
Globe and Mail Bestseller
Toronto Star Bestseller

1116527243
The Great Escape: A Canadian Story
A unique retelling of WWII’s most dramatic escape, told through first-hand recollections of the soldiers who experienced it.

On the night of March 24, 1944, 80 Commonwealth airmen crawled through a 336-foot-long tunnel and slipped into the forest beyond the wire of Stalag Luft III, a German POW compound near Sagan, Poland. The event became known as &8220;The Great Escape,&8220; an intricate breakout more than a year in the making, involving as many as 2,000 POWs working with extraordinary coordination, intelligence, and daring. Yet within a few days, all but three of the escapees were recaptured. Subsequently, 50 were murdered, cremated, and buried in a remote corner of the prison camp.

But most don’t know the real story behind The Great Escape. Now, on the eve of its 70th anniversary, Ted Barris writes of the key players in the escape attempt, those who got away, those who didn’t, and their families at home.

Barris marshals groundbreaking research into a compelling firsthand account. For the first time, The Great Escape retells one of the most astonishing episodes in WWII directly through the eyes of those who experienced it.

Joint Winner of the Libris Award for Non-Fiction Book of the Year 2014
Globe and Mail Bestseller
Toronto Star Bestseller

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The Great Escape: A Canadian Story

The Great Escape: A Canadian Story

by Ted Barris
The Great Escape: A Canadian Story

The Great Escape: A Canadian Story

by Ted Barris

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Overview

A unique retelling of WWII’s most dramatic escape, told through first-hand recollections of the soldiers who experienced it.

On the night of March 24, 1944, 80 Commonwealth airmen crawled through a 336-foot-long tunnel and slipped into the forest beyond the wire of Stalag Luft III, a German POW compound near Sagan, Poland. The event became known as &8220;The Great Escape,&8220; an intricate breakout more than a year in the making, involving as many as 2,000 POWs working with extraordinary coordination, intelligence, and daring. Yet within a few days, all but three of the escapees were recaptured. Subsequently, 50 were murdered, cremated, and buried in a remote corner of the prison camp.

But most don’t know the real story behind The Great Escape. Now, on the eve of its 70th anniversary, Ted Barris writes of the key players in the escape attempt, those who got away, those who didn’t, and their families at home.

Barris marshals groundbreaking research into a compelling firsthand account. For the first time, The Great Escape retells one of the most astonishing episodes in WWII directly through the eyes of those who experienced it.

Joint Winner of the Libris Award for Non-Fiction Book of the Year 2014
Globe and Mail Bestseller
Toronto Star Bestseller


Product Details

ISBN-13: 9781771024754
Publisher: Dundurn Press
Publication date: 09/16/2013
Sold by: Barnes & Noble
Format: eBook
Pages: 320
Sales rank: 286,686
File size: 6 MB

About the Author

Ted Barris is an accomplished author, journalist and broadcaster. As well as hosting stints on CBC Radio and regular contributions to The Globe and Mail, the National Post, and various national magazines, he is a full-time professor of journalism at Centennial College in Toronto. Barris has authored 17 non-fiction books, including the national bestsellers Victory at Vimy and Juno.

Ted Barris is an award-winning author, journalist, and broadcaster. For more than forty years his writing has appeared in the national press, as well as in history, news, and arts magazines, and he has authored seventeen non-fiction books, including the national bestsellers Victory at Vimy, Juno, and The Great Escape. In 2014, The Great Escape received the national Libris Non-Fiction Book of the Year Award. He teaches journalism at Centennial College in Toronto and lives in Uxbridge, Ontario.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgements xi

Introduction: "Heroes Resurface" 1

1 The King's Regulations 9

2 Bond of Wire 23

3 "Spine-Tingling Sport" 45

4 Escape Season 67

5 Servant to a Hole in the Ground 87

6 "Shysters and Crooks and Con Men" 111

7 The Play's the Thing 135

8 "Through Adversity to the Stars" 159

9 The Hate Campaign 181

10 Long Road Home 203

11 "A Proud, Spectacular Distraction" 233

Notes 257

Photograph Credits 275

Index 277

What People are Saying About This

Lloyd Robertson

With new insights and a fresh perspective, Ted Barris takes us deep inside The Great Escape. In fascinating and meticulous detail, he unravels the plotting and planning, completely befuddling German prison guards, that led to one of the most daring real-life dramas in modern history.

Albert Wallace

A magnificent story. I spent eighteeen months in Stalag Luft III North Compound [as a POW, but] I was unaware of the vast work that went on. . . . So many of the interviews are all news to me. [This book] brings it all to life.

From the Publisher

A magnificent story. I spent eighteeen months in Stalag Luft III North Compound [as a POW, but] I was unaware of the vast work that went on. . . . So many of the interviews are all news to me. [This book] brings it all to life.

As always, Ted Barris, our best writer on Canadians at war, paints small personal stories on the broad canvas of epic conflict, and in The Great Escape, gives us the real truth on a story we thought we knew. Riveting.

With new insights and a fresh perspective, Ted Barris takes us deep inside The Great Escape. In fascinating and meticulous detail, he unravels the plotting and planning, completely befuddling German prison guards, that led to one of the most daring real-life dramas in modern history.

Linwood Barclay

As always, Ted Barris, our best writer on Canadians at war, paints small, personal stories on the broad canvas of epic conflict, and in The Great Escape, gives us the real truth on a story we thought we knew. Riveting.

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