About the Author:
Author/historian/designer/photographer Philip Kaplan has written and co-authored forty-seven books on aviation, military and naval subjects. His previous books include: One Last Look, The Few, Little Friends, Round the Clock, Wolfpack, Convoy, Fighter Pilot, Bombers, Fly Navy, Run Silent, Chariots of Fire, Legend and, for Pen and Sword, Big Wings, Two-Man Air Force, Night and Day Bomber Offensive, Mustang The Inspiration, Rolling Thunder, Behind the Wire, Grey Wolves, Naval Air, and Sailor. He is married to the novelist Margaret Mayhew.
Review:
Behind the Wire superbly describes the typical experience of Allied prisoners of war in Germany. The chapters take a chronological approach by describing each phase confronting a prisoner, starting with their capture, interrogation, arrival in the camp and what they would encounter there, in terms of their fellow prisoners, guards, meals, and the wide variety of entertainments which were devised as a means of diverting the mind from what would otherwise be an extremely tedious and uncertain existence. Other chapters touch on escape, the terrible conditions which many endured on the long march of 1945, their eventual liberation, and an area which is often overlooked; returning to civilian life and the difficulty of adjusting to a world with which they had little in common. Each chapter is generously laced with veterans accounts, and their rich insights are invaluable because researching prisoner of war camps is a notoriously difficult area, and uncovering any more than the most basic information on specific individuals is next to impossible. The words of ordinary prisoners do much to fill this vacuum, and so for anyone who wishes to understand what typical life behind the wire was like, there really is no need to look any further than this book. - Pegasus Archive It takes the reader from those desperate first hours when ones aircraft is downed, or when the descent is made to parachute. The Bulletin
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