author
Pat O'Brien
d. 1920
A World War I aviator turned memoirist, he became known for a vivid firsthand escape story that captured the danger, grit, and strange luck of wartime survival. His writing carries the urgency of someone who had actually lived every page.
1 Audiobook
Outwitting the Hun: My Escape from a German Prison Camp
by Pat O'Brien
About the author
Pat O'Brien was an American aviator and author best remembered for Outwitting the Hun: My Escape from a German Prison Camp, published in 1918. Archive records identify him as Pat O'Brien, deceased in 1920, and the book presents his own account of service in the Royal Flying Corps, capture during World War I, and escape from German custody.
Available historical sources connect him with Momence, Illinois, and describe him as an American who flew with British forces before the United States entered the war. That unusual path gives his memoir much of its appeal: it is both an adventure narrative and a personal witness to early air combat, imprisonment, and endurance.
Although his life was short, his book has lasted because it offers a direct, readable voice from the First World War rather than a distant retelling. For listeners who enjoy true war stories, escape narratives, and memoirs shaped by lived experience, his work still feels immediate.