A true story of the great escape : a young Australian POW in the most audacious breakout of WWII /
Shot down in 1942, young Australian fighter pilot John Williams DFC became a POW in the notorious Stalag Luft III camp in Germany. John had joined the air force shortly before the outbreak of war and, in the larrikin tradition, led his squadron into air combat over the deserts of Libya and Egypt dre...
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| Format: | Book |
| Language: | English |
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Sydney :
Allen & Unwin,
[2017]
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Table of Contents:
- Introduction
- 1. The lost letter
- 2. The other side of the wire
- 3. How to tell a true war story
- 4. Great expectations
- the making of a young man
- 5. The next leg
- 6. Introducing Michal
- 7. Paradise on sea
- 8. In search of a decent education
- 9. The arrest
- 10. The rise of an Aussie icon
- 11. Choosing the future
- 12. The mother country
- 13. Ivo Tonder
- the last glimpse
- 14. In search of the elusive English gentleman
- 15. Scotland, and the brave
- 16. The first POW
- 17. The Australians are coming
- 18. Out in Africa
- 19. A tale of two men and two messes
- 20. To war in the desert
- 21. Reunion
- 22. Holding your nerve
- 23. Flipping the bird
- 24. A big flap
- 25. While we still have breath in our bodies
- 26. Down but not out
- 27. The face of the enemy
- 28. In the bag
- 29. Big X
- 30. Second time unlucky
- 31. The swimming pool
- 32. Another German friend
- 33. Cooking and carpentry
- 34. A ticket in the lottery
- 35. Shuffling the cards
- 36. The bereaved mother's badge
- 37. In Memoriam
- 38. Surfing at Manly
- Postscript
- the lost letter, found
- Notes
- Bibliography
- Acknowledgements
- Index.