Two former prisoners of the Vietnam War, one an Indian from the Blackfeet Indian Reservation and the other a veterinarian, both alcoholic and psychologically scarred, reunite and fly to Montana’s Glacier National Park. When they make a forced landing in the wilderness, their plane breaks a strut and they have no choice but to make camp for the winter. Eventually, two young sisters who have wandered off their trail join them. Marooned together in a small cabin during fierce winter storms, they struggle to keep warm, find enough to eat and, hopefully, wait for a break in the weather. All four are lost, not only physically, but also psychically, and it is this unplanned intimacy, the struggle to survive, and the developing friendships that lead to the transformations that lie at the heart of this novel.
Colditz Castle was one of the most famous Prisoner of War camps of the Second World War. It was there that the Germans interred their most troublesome or important prisoners. Hundreds of ingenious escape attempts were made but the most ambitious of all was to build a glider and fly to freedom.Though the glider was built, the war ended before it could be used, and it was subsequently destroyed. Using the original plans and materials used by the prisoners, in March 2012 a replica of the glider was constructed in a bid to see if the escape attempt would have succeeded. The glider was then launched from the roof of the castle roof.Anthony Hoskins is the man who built, and helped launch, the glider. As well as examining the story behind the building of the original glider, he details the construction of the replica and the nail-biting excitement as the Colditz Cock finally took to the skies. Packed with photos of the glider and its flight over Colditz, this is the inside story of the recreation of one of the most intriguing episodes of the Second World War.
Originally published in 1956, former Second World War prisoner-of-war Calton Younger’s No Flight from the Cage received critical acclaim. One critic wrote, ‘the book goes below the surface of prison camp life and shows a remarkable insight into the minds of men forced to live under conditions of tension and strain.’ The former Royal Australian Air Force Bomber Command airman has now revised, expanded and updated his original work – the story of a young man’s journey to war, of being shot down in May 1942, of three years spent behind barbed wire, and of enduring forced marches as the Nazi state crumbled. The author also recounts his adventures on the run in France prior to capture and his return, in 1949, to search for the people who helped him. In sensitive, gripping, yet often humorous prose, Cal Younger describes the toils and deprivations of prison camp life. There are the extraordinary characters, notably the inspirational camp leader James ‘Dixie’ Deans, who, as the war neared its end, and following a tragic attack by ‘friendly’ Allied aircraft on a marching column, cycled through the fighting to British lines, and then returned to rejoin the march. There is the brutality Cal witnesses. At Stalag Luft VI, an escape campaign, ruthlessly carried out, ends with the suicide and execution of guards and prisoners. Then there is the amusing but dangerous brinksmanship of Hun-baiting. This revised edition incorporates previously unpublished photographs along with numerous illustrations and cartoons depicting camp life, as sketched by the author while a prisoner-of-war. No Flight from the Cage has become one of the classic prisoner-of-war memoirs. A book, as stated by General Sir John Hackett, that ‘deserves to be read and reread’, and ‘an adventure in the exploration of the human spirit whose total effect is both sobering and uplifting’.
Dramatic, highly readable, and painstakingly researched, The Great Desert Escape brings to light a little-known escape by 25 determined German sailors from an American prisoner-of-war camp. The disciplined Germans tunneled unnoticed through rock-hard, sunbaked soil and crossed the unforgiving Arizona desert. They were heading for Mexico, where there were sympathizers who could help them return to the Fatherland. It was the only large-scale domestic escape by foreign prisoners in US history. Wrung from contemporary newspaper articles, interviews, and first-person accounts from escapees and the law enforcement officers who pursued them, The Great Desert Escape brings history to life. At the US Army’s prisoner-of-war camp at Papago Park just outside of Phoenix, life was, at the best of times, uneasy for the German Kreigsmariners. On the outside of their prison fences were Americans who wanted nothing more than to see them die slow deaths for their perceived roles in killing fathers and brothers in Europe. Many of these German prisoners had heard rumors of execution for those who escaped. On the inside were rabid Nazis determined to get home and continue the fight. At Papago Park in March 1944, a newly arrived prisoner who was believed to have divulged classified information to the Americans was murdered—hung in one of the barracks by seven of his fellow prisoners. The prisoners of war dug a tunnel 6 feet deep and 178 feet long, finishing in December 1944. Once free of the camp, the 25 Germans scattered. The cold and rainy weather caused several of the escapees to turn themselves in. One attempted to hitchhike his way into Phoenix, his accent betraying him. Others lived like coyotes among the rocks and caves overlooking Papago Park. All the while, the escapees were pursued by soldiers, federal agents, police and Native American trackers determined to stop them from reaching Mexico and freedom.
What happens to a successful woman when her world falls apart and she is faced with betrayal, breast cancer, and prison? What happens when her pain Is unimaginable and her choices look bleak. When all this happened to Sue Ellen Allen, she chose to turn her pain into power. The death of Gina, her young roommate, coupled with an atmosphere of darkness and negativity, led her to find her passion and purpose behind the bars. Her experience of cancer, prison, and Gina s death is an inspirational story of courage, wisdom, and choices.
This up-to-date collection begins with an account and analysis of the role of psychologists in prisons in relation to research. Looks at the results of evidence based psychological approaches to working with prisoners First half of the book has its primary focus on psychological evaluation research Includes chapters on psychological research on suicide, bullying, life sentenced prisoners and staff sickness
