Type of bind: Unknown Type of bind
EAN num: 9780002168755
ISBN number: 0002168758
Label: Collins
Manufacturer: Collins
Page Count: 264
Printing Date: 1979
Publishing house: Collins
Sale Popularity Level: 3419924
Studio: Collins
Other books you might be interested in perusing:
Editor's Notes and Comments:
Product Description:
Published to coincide with a 6-part dramatized production on BBC Radio, this book tells the story one of the most ingenious and daring escapes of World War II. By concealing the entrance to a tunnel beneath a vaulting horse, three British officers were able to escape from a German prison camp.
User popularity level:
Rated by buyers -
This amazing escape episode involved three men, and was not part of the much-publicized Great Escape, but took place from the same camp (Stalag Luft III). This review is an expansion of an earlier one that I had written.
The original Trojan Horse contained soldiers in the process of sneaking into a city. This real-life WWII thriller describes a Trojan Horse used by Allied POWs to tunnel their way out of a German POW camp. While the horse was ostensibly being used for vaulting exercise, a small group of men hidden within the horse dug a tunnel underneath. Eventually it led them to freedom. Years later, "Eric Williams" was surprised that a mere plywood box could have fooled the Germans for so long. Indeed, the Germans apparently never became suspicious of the fact that the horse was always placed at the identical location, and not far from the wire.
The idea was conceived out of the frustration of digging tunnels long distances from the huts to past the camp wire, and the Germans expecting the traps to originate from the huts and finding them. What if there was some way to get much closer to the wire, to dig a tunnel from there, and to conceal the trap from that unexpected location?
The Trojan Horse episode came to mind. It would be a long and laborious tunneling process, as only a few tunnelers and relatively small amounts of sand could be concealed within the horse per exercise session. Otherwise, the horse would be too heavy to be carried.
The vaulting horse was at very first used without any tunnelers concealed in it. In fact, the vaulters purposely knocked it over a number of times so that the Germans would see nothing on the inside of it. The Germans were told that the vaulting stemmed from the English craze for exercise.
After innumerable episodes of vaulting and tunneling, the tunnel was past the wire. Three escapees went from inside the horse down the tunnel, and, after many hours, dug there way to freedom. All three made it safely to the Allied lines.
Rated by buyers -
There are two editions of this book. In the original edition and in subsequent reprints there is a last desperate moment where all the remains between Williams and freedom is a German guard on a bridge. He kills him and escapes...
Only as Williams admitted years later in an anniversary update - that part never happened and was put in to satisfy the publishers who wanted a more "exciting" ending.
...and he is right to come clean on the point - the story was exciting enough without needing tweaking - ingenuity under strain of captivity is well portrayed in the book and after the frightening journey across Germany - his debriefing by an Intelligence Officer counterpoints what went before in a very British and understated way.
Rated by buyers -
Eric Williams' The Wooden Horse is another military classic which shouldn't be missed, even though it very first appeared over fifty years ago. Here's the story of a daring escape during World War II in an expanded, revised edition that tells of a break from one of Germany's most escape-proof camps. The account doesn't just tell how they did it - it covers the aftermath of the break-out, which involved getting out of Germany entirely. It may read like fiction with high drama, but The Wooden Horse is pure fact and an important chronicle in the history of the war.
Rated by buyers -
A Gripping True WWII POW Escape Story!!
This book took me over until the very last page.
I usually don't care for reading as a past time and especially novels that take too long to get through.
I read this book over 20 years ago (and only did so by chance after finding it in the school library), because I had to submit a book report during my junior high school years.
I enjoyed the book so much I eagery and ultimately compiled a great book report and was awarded 9/10 as a grade.
Funny enough, I did so well with it that I took the liberty to re-submitted the same book report the following year and again was awarded another high mark (of course it was a different teacher and I had to re-write and date it).
In fact here I am over 20 years later I plan to get my very own copy. That's how much I enjoyed it!
"The Wooden Horse" by Eric Williams is a fabulous book and would make a perfect gift to that person who you think should read more...but doesn't.
They'll thank you for it!
Rated by buyers -
Don't be put off by the recent "out of print" status, this book is a great true story of a prison breakout in WW2. You can also easily pick it up through Amazons second hand bookstores for a relatively cheap price.
Written by the escapee himself, it retains all its charm and spirit since it very first received rave reviews in the late 1940s to early 1950s.
The breakout came from a novel, yet brilliant idea inspired by the Legend of the Trojan Horse- ie to use a gym vaulting horse as cover to hide an inmate who dug a tunnel to the nearest concentration camp fence. It succeeded, but I won't ruin the story with all the details, you will have to read it yourself! Rest assured the book is well written, and as it is told by one of the escapees himself it has a certain charm, readability and authenticity about it.
Getting out was just the very first part, the escapees still had to travel across most of Germany to reach home, right amidst the heartlessness and desparation of WW2. I found the description of the lives of everyday German people within a major war as soulful, revealing and harrowing as the concentration camp itself.
A remarkable story, a great and uplifting novel, sure to inspire for many years to come. No mundane "political correctness" here, truthfully told and recorded with all the desperation, fear, and courageous spirit of many involved in the war-on both sides.
There was a film also made in the 1960s I think, which was almost as good as the book, but not quite. Of similar genre to The Wooden Horse is "the Great Escape", also made into a film, but the Wooden Horse is more realisitic and better done overall in my opinion.
Uplifts the spirit.
Find other books like this one:
