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Product Description
Product Description
From the moment he was shot down to the final whistle, Jimmy James' one aim as a POW of the Germans was to escape. The Great Escaper describes his experiences and those of his fellow prisoners in the most gripping and thrilling manner. The author made more than 12 escape attempts including his participation in The Great Escape, where 50 of the 76 escapees were executed in cold blood on Hitler's orders. On re-capture, James was sent to the infamous Sachsenhausen Concentration Camp where, undeterred, he tunnelled out. That was not the end of his remarkable story. Moonless Night has strong claim to be the finest escape story of the Second World War.
About the Author
Squadron Leader Jimmy James survived captivity against all the odds. Now retired, he lives at Ludlow, Shropshire
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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
8 of 8 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
I bought this book because I wanted to know about my grandfather who was in the Great Escape (he gets a few mentions). At first I found it a bit slow but soon got absorbed into it. In the early days of the war, the officers of the allies behaved like boysterous schoolboys and the Germans were generally polite given the circumstances. As the war continues the ingenuity of the escapers develops, seemingly boundlessly, and the attitudes of the Germans hardens. You will need a strong stomach for some of the scenes in the concentration camps towards the end of the book. The ending is extraodinary - almost surreal: it would beat any fiction! I enjoyed the book because I felt I could appreciate what it was like to have lived through those experiences and I found the appendices to be very informative.
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
The review title just about says it all. Not only did Jimmy James spend almost 5 years as a POW, but he escaped countless times. After being one of the "lucky" 23 recaptured from The Great Escape NOT to be murdered by the Nazis, he was sent to Sachsenhausen concentration camp, and he ESCAPED from there!!!
This is the seemingly incredible tale of a man who simply will not accept life behind barbed wire, and does everything humanly possible to escape, over and over again, without regard to his own personal safety.
As the author of a book about another POW escaper ('Escape, Evasion and Revenge, The True Story of a German-Jewish RAF Pilot Who Bombed Berlin and Became a POW', a biography of my father), my extensive research showed me that Jimmy James was probably the greatest escaper of the war. A man without fear. In fact, he was one of very few RAF officers (including my father) to be awarded the Military Cross for extreme bravery on the GROUND.
Moonless Night is an amazing true story!
This is the seemingly incredible tale of a man who simply will not accept life behind barbed wire, and does everything humanly possible to escape, over and over again, without regard to his own personal safety.
As the author of a book about another POW escaper ('Escape, Evasion and Revenge, The True Story of a German-Jewish RAF Pilot Who Bombed Berlin and Became a POW', a biography of my father), my extensive research showed me that Jimmy James was probably the greatest escaper of the war. A man without fear. In fact, he was one of very few RAF officers (including my father) to be awarded the Military Cross for extreme bravery on the GROUND.
Moonless Night is an amazing true story!
Most Helpful Customer Reviews on Amazon.com (beta)
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2 reviews
14 of 14 people found the following review helpful
Best WW2 Escape Book I've Read
6 July 2004
Format:Paperback
The review title just about says it all. Not only did Jimmy James spend almost 5 years as a POW, but he escaped countless times. After being one of the "lucky" 23 recaptured from The Great Escape not to be murdered by the Nazis, he was sent to Sachsenhausen concentration camp, and he ESCAPED from there!!!
An amazing true story!
11 of 12 people found the following review helpful
The Great Escape in Broader Context
30 May 2006
Format:Paperback
The author, Jimmy James, provides many lucid details dealing with his experiences before, during, and after the Great Escape. James discusses his experiences at Barth, Stalag Luft III, Szubin, and Sachsenhausen. (He later visited the site of Stalag Luft III in 2004, 60 years after the Great Escape. At that time, he also observed the forensic dig that amazingly unearthed remnants of the tunnel Dick). James provides tables at the end of the book which include various statistics on the three tunnels dug at the time of the Great Escape (tons of sand removed per tunnel and per interval of time, numbers of pieces of lumber used for shoring per tunnel, etc.).
James provides a summary of events that occurred on the night of the Great Escape itself. After he left tunnel Harry during the night of the Great Escape, James trekked to Tschiebsdorf (now Trzebow), took a train to Boberrohrsdorf (or Bober-Rohrsdorf; now Siedlecin), and then was caught just north of the German-Czech border. Most of his comrades were murdered by the Germans, in open violation of the Geneva Convention.
James' description of what went on in Sachsenhausen concentration camp is graphic. Unlike modern treatments that tend to emphasize the experiences of Jews, James provides a balanced account of the many different victims of the Germans and the unspeakable cruelties that they were forced to endure. James makes it clear that Poles and other Slavs, religious and political dissidents, etc., were treated every bit as bad as the Jews. Inmates of western European nationalities, by contrast, were treated considerably better. James mentions numerous details seldom encountered in English-language publications. These include the dressing up of some of the corpses of Sachsenhausen inmates in Polish army uniforms for a faked Polish provocatory "attack" on German territory (along the German-Polish border) used to justify the ensuing German conquest of Poland in September 1939, the murder of 17,000 Polish POWs at Sachsenhausen in March 1940, and the suicide of inmate Jakob Djugashvili (son of Joseph Stalin) following news of the Katyn massacre of Polish POWs (correctly blamed on the Soviets).
James provides a summary of events that occurred on the night of the Great Escape itself. After he left tunnel Harry during the night of the Great Escape, James trekked to Tschiebsdorf (now Trzebow), took a train to Boberrohrsdorf (or Bober-Rohrsdorf; now Siedlecin), and then was caught just north of the German-Czech border. Most of his comrades were murdered by the Germans, in open violation of the Geneva Convention.
James' description of what went on in Sachsenhausen concentration camp is graphic. Unlike modern treatments that tend to emphasize the experiences of Jews, James provides a balanced account of the many different victims of the Germans and the unspeakable cruelties that they were forced to endure. James makes it clear that Poles and other Slavs, religious and political dissidents, etc., were treated every bit as bad as the Jews. Inmates of western European nationalities, by contrast, were treated considerably better. James mentions numerous details seldom encountered in English-language publications. These include the dressing up of some of the corpses of Sachsenhausen inmates in Polish army uniforms for a faked Polish provocatory "attack" on German territory (along the German-Polish border) used to justify the ensuing German conquest of Poland in September 1939, the murder of 17,000 Polish POWs at Sachsenhausen in March 1940, and the suicide of inmate Jakob Djugashvili (son of Joseph Stalin) following news of the Katyn massacre of Polish POWs (correctly blamed on the Soviets).
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