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Escape from Stalag Luft III

The True Story of My Successful Great Escape: The Memoir of Bob Vanderstok

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Escape from Stalag Luft III

By: Bram Vanderstok
Narrated by: John Lee
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About this listen

On the night of March 24, 1944, Bram Vanderstok was number 18 of 76 men who crawled beyond the barbed wire fence of Stalag Luft III in Zagan, Poland. The 1963 film The Great Escape was largely based on this autobiography but - with Vanderstok's agreement - filmmakers chose to turn his story into an Australian character named Sedgwick.

His memoir sets down his wartime adventures before being incarcerated in Stalag Luft III and then, in extraordinary detail, describes various escape attempts which culminated with the famous March breakout. After escaping, Vanderstok roamed Europe for weeks, passing through Leipzig, Utrecht, Brussels, Paris, Dijon, and Madrid, before making it back to England.

He reported to the Air Ministry and two months after escaping returned to the British No. 91 Squadron. In the following months, he flew almost every day to France escorting bombers and knocking down V1 rockets.

In August, 1944, he finally returned to his home. He learned that his two brothers had been killed in concentration camps after being arrested for resistance work. His father had been tortured and blinded by the Gestapo during interrogation. He had never betrayed his son.

©1983 Estate of Bram Vanderstok; Foreword copyright 2019 by Robert Vanderstok; Simon Pearson Preface copyright 2019 by Greenhill Books (P)2019 Tantor Europe Great Britain Historical Military Military & War World War II Memoir War Veteran England Air Force
All stars
Most relevant
A truly inspiring story. So glad I found this book as it’s one of the best I’ve listened to

Incredible

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Why listen to fiction when real lives are more gripping. This book add so much to the film The Great Escape it is worthy of standing on its own.

Captivating listen

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A full account of world war II, by an extraordinary individual. This is a piece of history. So interesting to hear an account from a Dutch perspective.

True exciting account of the war

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Narrator was near perfect for the job, and the way the book moved around was just right. The author is very class conscious, and clearly comes from an upper class family, and while this shouldn't matter, it clearly does - and this is used to his advantage throughout the experiences.

Sometimes there were minor differences even within repetitions, I assume where the author wrote about the same event, having slept and then across multiple days in writing, written again - this happened 3 times that I noticed. The detail of the build up to, and the escape was fascinating. Ny only question here, that was never addressed, was why the prison seemed so slack, with endless escape attempts treated as laughable jokes, and prisoners allowed to wonder to the local town on "a gentlemen's agreement" - an opportunity to gather much needed intel, to the piano delivered to the prisoners at the camp from abroad, and endless food parcels which had the prisoners better fed than the guards, with "unlimited cigarettes, chocolate and coffee" how nobody saw the bribery risk from a mile off, I'll never know. Great fun and many close calls, and yes, taking full advantage of all that stuff to bribe!

My only real criticism, is his first hand experiences, are suddenly combined in the final long chapter, alongside mostly generic historical reports. While this may seem petty, and most people should find it obvious which is which, I didn't like it. I find memoirs often paint the most accurate version of history possible, all be it limited to 1 individual experience. When you begin to mix up personal experience with general history, especially when it's the agreed upon by the victors 40-50 years later, it blurs the lines some, and takes away from the legitimacy of the overall book. Although I very much wanted to finish the book, I wish the last chapter had not been included... so blast chapter aside, brilliant!

Last chapter aside, BRILLIANT!

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Highly recommended for all. A gripping tale of remarkable courage, ingenuity, resourcefulness and luck in staying alive.

Excellent and fascinating account

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