Entries tagged as 'book'

Canadian Escapades now available as an ebook

Link to Canadian Escapades now available as an ebook
 

I took a break from the blog to work on other formats for the book. I'm happy to announce that Canadian Escapades is now available as an ebook for Kindle!

[Update: the link now points to Amazon for the Kindle edition.]

Denis at Fifobooks let me know that our 2-column format would work fine on most ereaders, and did some of the format conversion and testing. As thanks, the ebook is available there exclusively at launch. We'll add other outlets soon.

I would guess that Canadian Escapades is the first bilingual ebook with side-by-side alignment by sentence. If anyone has links and/or screenshots for other dual-language ebooks, please send them along.

Pricing:

  • ebook: $7.99 introductory price $3.99
  • paperback: $12.95

If you're stopping by for the first time, please check out the details on our home page, use the nav bar above for a preview, and see what you think of our video trailers and posters. If you have questions, please contact us.

3 comments, 0 trackbacks (URL) , Tags: book

Book (1993): German Prisoners of War in Canada and Their Artifacts, 1940-1948

Link to Book (1993): German Prisoners of War in Canada and Their Artifacts, 1940-1948
Henderson and Madsen

Bob Henderson also co-authored a book in 1993: German Prisoners of War in Canada and Their Artifacts, 1940-1948

by Robert J. Henderson and C.M.V. Madsen
ISBN 0-9697888-0-0
SOFT COVER,  6" X 9",  203 pages

Details from AirMuseum.ca:

The definitive book on the history, activities and collectable artifacts of German Prisoners of War (with some Veteran Guard of Canada) ... from the Second World War.

Documented details including photographs, locations of branch camps, Labor Projcts, Military Hospitals, and Detention Centers. The book includes a special section on the collecting of artifacts relating to these Prisoners, including eighty photographs of "Collectibles" currently held in the Homefront Archives & Museum at Regina, Saskatchewan.

The book provides the historian, the researcher, and the colletor with details not found in any other publication!

There's a listing at Amazon but no copies available there or via AbeBooks.

Chris Madsen is also the author of another book on the period: The Royal Navy and German Naval Disarmament 1942-1947.

0 comments, 0 trackbacks (URL) , Tags: book Canada

"so correct and indeed friendly"

Treatment of Allied POWs (at least those from the West) in German POW camps was largely professional.

Here's the text of an excerpt (7:10-7:28) from the above interview with Walter Morison, a British former POW held at Sagan and then Colditz.

Well, you see, if you were a British officer, or, come to that, an American officer, the treatment which you received (from, in our case, primarily the Luftwaffe), was so correct and indeed friendly, really, that you didn't expect anything unpleasant.

For more information about his escapes and daily camp life, see his book Flak and Ferrets: One Way to Colditz.


(Enlisted men and those in larger camps probably had it rougher, especially in terms of food. Things also got considerably worse towards the end of the war -- and even in the immediate aftermath.)

Related Posts:
   1. Stalag Luft III; conditions in a German POW camp (May 06, 2010)
0 comments, 0 trackbacks (URL) , Tags: book video Germany

Colditz Castle (Oflag IV-C): Books

Link to Colditz Castle (Oflag IV-C): Books
Mario-Bosch.nl

There were numerous successful Allied escapes from the (supposedly) high security POW "camp" in Colditz Castle (overlooking the town of Colditz in the German state of Saxony, which became part of East Germany after the war). Wikipedia covers the attempts with links to other details.

Mario Bosch has a long list of Colditz books in his collection -- spanning several languages.

One of the originals, Pat Reid's 1952 "Escape from Colditz" is available from Archive.org for those with an encryption key from the Library of Congress' National Library Service for the Blind and Physically Handicapped.

For the rest of us, Archive.org offers a free download (in several formats) of "Colditz: The German Side of the Story" (1962), an English translation of a book by Reinhold Eggers, the German Security Officer at Colditz.

0 comments, 0 trackbacks (URL) , Tags: book escape

Book (1950, 2004): The Great Escape by Paul Brickhill

Link to Book (1950, 2004): The Great Escape by Paul Brickhill
 

Paul Brickhill was born in Melbourne, Australia and began his career as a journalist at the Sydney Sun. He joined the war effort, trained as a pilot, was shot down in March 1943 and sent to Stalag Luft III. In addition to helping plan the famous escape, he put his writing skills to good use.

In 1946, he first published Escape to Danger with fellow POW Conrad Norton, illustrated by Ley Kenyon. Here's a review:

Simply an amazing collection of stories.... Very easy to read and hard to put down.

His famous book came next

It was suggested that ... the mass escape - might merit a book of its own.

(Source: a reprint of the April 1991 obituary in The Guardian: "Inescapable fears of the wartime hero".)

The Great Escape was published in 1950 or 1951, and was the primary source for the 1963 movie of the same name.

Two of his later books were also made into movies:

  • The Dam Busters (1951 book, 1955 movie, 2001 documentary ... and a new movie in production)
  • Reach for the Sky: Legless Ace of the Battle of Britain (1954 book, 1956 movie)
0 comments, 0 trackbacks (URL) , Tags: book

Book (1980, 2004): POW Behind Canadian Barbed Wire

Link to Book (1980, 2004): POW Behind Canadian Barbed Wire
 

David J. Carter's book "POW Behind Canadian Barbed Wire" is subtitled "Alien, Refugee and Prisoner of War Camps in Canada, 1914-1920 and 1939-1946". There are lots of details on his site.

The book consists of 254 pages packed with information, plus 8 pages of glossy photos. The appendix has lists of the camps, a sample daily routine, a weekly list of rations for POWs, and more.

Among countless other stories, here are some excerpts from page 80 regarding an escape from the Angler POW camp:

Horst Liebeck and Karl Heinz Grund were both Luftwaffe pilots.... [They] reached a curve in the railway line where a freight train had to slow down and they climbed aboard....

There were still hoboes riding the rails and so the escapees didn't look completely out of the ordinary.

"By the time we reached Saskatchewan we realized people took us for tramps. We weren't even attempting to hide."

Five days after their escape, near Medicine Hat, Alberta their luck ran out, almost twelve hundred miles west of Angler.

(Wikipedia has an overview of the escape.)

You can order the book directly from Eagle Butte Press (in Canada but ships worldwide), or from Amazon -- including one seller in Montana that offers signed copies.

Related Posts:
   1. Big red circle (Jul 21, 2010)
   2. Karl Rabe's 4 escape attempts from Lethbridge (May 19, 2010)
   3. Video (2003): Behind Canadian barbed wire (Apr 28, 2010)
0 comments, 0 trackbacks (URL) , Tags: book Canada

Historian speaking in Norwich, VT this Weds.

Link to Historian speaking in Norwich, VT this Weds.
Dartmouth

(We'll start more active blogging soon. Meanwhile, here's a timely item that we came across.)

Historian Allen Koop, author of Stark Decency: German POWs in a New England Village, will be telling the story of New Hampshire's only World War II prisoner of war camp this week in Norwich, VT.

The event is part of the Vermont Humanities Council's Humanities Lecture Series called First Wednesdays.

According to the Norwich Public Library's website:

[Koop] describes how ordinary people in Stark turned bitter division into camaraderie.

title: Stark Decency: German POWs in a New England Village
speaker: Allen Koop
where: Norwich, VT
location: Norwich Congregational Church, 15 Church Street
date: Wednesday March 3, 2010
time: 7:00pm
cost: Free!
notes: Open to the public. For more information, call 802-649-1184.

(Update: changed the post title.)

0 comments, 0 trackbacks (URL) , Tags: book USA event New Hampshire Vermont