
In this vivid first‑person memoir, a former prisoner of war recounts the painstaking preparations required to flee an enemy nation. He breaks down the essentials—compass, maps, a sturdy water bottle, and the right clothing—explaining how each piece can tip the balance between capture and freedom. The narrative reads like a rugged field manual, infused with the author's own observations about nature, the stars, and the harsh realities of life behind barbed wire.
Once the escape begins, the story follows a tense trek across unfamiliar countryside, where night‑time travel and silent crouches become matters of survival. The author describes the mental shift from solitary, decisive action on the rails to the supportive presence of companions on foot, highlighting the strain on nerves as landmarks vanish and patrols loom. Readers are drawn into the relentless march toward an uncertain frontier, feeling every drop of thirst and every flicker of hope.
Language
en
Duration
~6 hours (397K characters)
Publisher of text edition
Project Gutenberg
Credits
Produced by The Online Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This file was produced from images generously made available by The Internet Archive)
Release date
2015-07-23
Rights
Public domain in the USA.
A firsthand World War I escape memoir follows a British civilian prisoner who kept trying to slip out of Germany and finally made it back to freedom. The story is practical, tense, and surprisingly readable more than a century later.
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