Colditz by Ben Macintyre.

Most of us have heard the Colditz story, a story dominated by the experiences of Pat Reid (Major P. R. Reid. M.B.E, M. C.).  Reid ensured the story of the castle was not forgotten, it was also a story written in his image and not one that found favour with all the other prisoners.  Ben Macintyre attempts to reveal a more in-depth tale of life in the castle prison.  Less daring-do and more realism of the young, fit men, forced into captivity, with many desperate for a variety of reasons to escape.

The author has researched the many books, letters, reports and files that are available for Colditz and its occupants, both allied and German.  These do not always agree, and do not always agree with Pat Reid in particular.  What does come out is the attitudes of the day, and the personalities of those forced on both sides into such confinement.

German troops placed into POW camps were mostly of the elder sort.  Many had experience of the previous was, indeed one of the major names in the book, Leutnant Reinhold Eggers, one of the main men ordered to keep the POWs inside, was far from being a Nazi.  He was however, a man who had been at the Somme and Ypres and left the war with a bullet wound in his leg.  A proud German, like most, but also like most he was not keen on Adolf.  Doesn't it amaze you when men will support their nation even though the leaders are corrupt and despotic?  You wonder why they do not rebel?  Apart from being shot of course.

We quickly learn from this book of the rampant snobbery among England's cultured elite.  Those who had attended Eton looked down on other officers who went to lesser public schools.  You can imagine the attitudes to their Batmen!  Douglas Bader, built up by propaganda as a great war hero, was in fact an obnoxious snob who treated his Batman contemptuously at all times.  Even some of the other officers rebuked him.  In this book, as we have heard elsewhere, he was a mere snob looking down on others, in spite of the charitable work he managed to do after the war.  This book holds no punches on him.  An Indian officer, Birendranath Mazumdar, a surgeon, also entered the camp.  The English snobbery naturally saw him as 'unclean' and a rebel Indian, one wishing to end the Raj.  I was with him all through here.  He suffered terribly from this racist attitude.

Escape adventures were of course common.  The French, the Dutch, the Poles and the Americans who all at one time were placed here all immediately began to search for ways of escape.  The castle itself aided this.  Having been around since 1043 and constantly rebuilt according to requirements or the wishes of the owner many bricked up walls hid possible escape routes.  Soon tunnels were being dug everywhere, walls broken, false walls built, escape routes out found, some from hiding after exercise or sport, one from jumping the fence.  Most failed, occasionally someone would disappear for a while then return, jaded, tired and not best pleased.  In the last year a rather desperate attempt was prepared, by creating a glider in the attic.  This was not used as an escape, rescue came first, but after the war it was flown and did indeed reach the planned landing area safely!

Guards constantly interrupted the prisoners, day and night, if they suspected escape escapades were under way.  So many were attempting escape each had to be authorised by the commanding officer, to ensure the more absurd were halted.  Occasionally one would succeed and a man would make it to Switzerland, indeed Pat Reid was one of the first to do so.  

Serving up to five years in a POW camp is demeaning and depressing.  The longer time is served the more a man struggles to forget his experience.  Some of course never could forget.  

The book covers the Colditz story in depth, and in a readable depth at that.  It only took a few days for me to reach the end, including feeling the depression of the POWs, and the relief that rescue was close.

The individuals are reveals as real men, not the ones from Black and White war movies, real men with all their flaws and indeed courage and integrity also.  Only one prisoner was shot, and that accidental for the most part, both sides agreed to follow the Geneva convention, and while competent for the most part Eggers and his men treated the POWs as well as was possible.  As time passed they too suffered from lack of resources and war fears.  

I recommend this book.