Pow allied prisoners

2006. Soft cover, 398 pages. Very good condition. One slight crack forming in binding. Under 1kg. Just under 300,000 Allied servicemen from Britain, the Commonwealth and the United States were captured in Europe and North Africa between 1939 and 1945. Using a wealth of new sources and archival material, POW describes their experiences in both German and Italian prisoner-of-war camps. Prisoners’ daily lives are vividly rendered: the workings of the prison-camp system; the distinctions of rank, service nationality and race; the ways in which prisoners maintained contact with the outside world; artistic and intellectual endeavours; and an acknowledgment of the dark undercurrents of corruption and collusion with the enemy. Everyday life is offset by high drama: the secret organizations that smuggled aid into the camps, the prisoners’ daring escape plots, sabotage plans and other resistance activities. Adrian Gilbert brings to the fore the often forgotten voices of the prisoners to provide a compelling window on to a crucial aspect of the Second World War.

Buy ALLIED INTERNATIONAL PRISONERS OF WAR MEDAL - FULL SIZE WITH RIBBON for R700.00

  Captives Courageous South African Prisoners of War World War ll by Maxwell Leigh  Published by Ashanti Publishing, 1992, 1st Edition Hardcover, 219 pages, black & white photographs and schetches Dust cover in good condition, slight shelf wear on the edges. Original price sticker on the back. Hardcover in red, white lettering. Corners and bottom of spine show slight shelf wear. Tight binding, clean inside, a beautiful book. Captives Courageous; South African prisoners of war in World War II is the ninth work in the South Africans at War series published by Ashanti Press. "Leigh has divided his book into two parts. In the first part, entitled "Into the bag", he details the capture of South Africans in the Western Desert and their rapid transition from efficient fighting men to often sickly and weak prisoners of war (POW). The Western Desert was an unforgiving environment in which to find oneself a prisoner of war. If passing fighters or bombers (of either side) did not "get" you the dysentry invariably did. The heat, lack of water and lack of compassion shown by Axis non-frontline troops towards South African prisoners of war are all documented by Leigh. He also highlights the differences South Africans experienced in the treatment meted out by Italians on the one hand and Germans on the other. Ironically this relationship was to change later in the war, when many South Africans were moved north into Germany after the collapse of Italy in mid-1943. The conditions in POW camps in Germany were much tougher than those experienced in Italy."      Please judge by these images:         Please note: Payment must be made within three days of auction close.     Please have a look at all my Items here!!  

Books on World War II abound, yet there are remarkably few publications on South Africa’s role in this war, which had such an influence on how we live today. There is even less written about those who participated on the margins of the war, especially those who were physically removed from the battlefields through capture by enemy forces. South Africa’s prisoners of war during World War II, their experiences and recollections, are largely forgotten. That is until now.  Historian Karen Horn painstakingly tracked down a number of former POW's. Together with written memoirs and archival documents, their interviews reveal rich narratives of hardship, endurance, humour, longing and self-discovery. Instead of fighting, these men adapted to another war, one which was fought on the inside of many prison camps. It was a war against hunger and deprivation, at times against ever-encroaching despondency and low morale amongst their companions in captivity.  In their interviews, all the POW's expressed surprise at being asked to share their experiences. The author found it astonishing that almost all of them claimed not to be heroes of any kind. This is not surprising when one considers that they returned to a country which soon tried its utmost to promote national amnesia with regard to the country’s participation in the war. With great insight and empathy, Karen Horn shines a light on a neglected corner of South African history.  The Author Karen Horn is a lecturer at Stellenbosch University. She has travelled to at least three of the four corners of the earth and has pursued many different occupations. With a Master’s degree in History from Edinburgh University, followed by a PhD at Stellenbosch, she now spends many hours of research reading diaries, interrogating older generations and rummaging around in the archives. Softcover, published 2015.

Books on World War II abound, yet there are remarkably few publications on South Africas role in this war, which had such an influence on how we live today. There is even less written about those who participated on the margins of the war, especially those who were physically removed from the battlefields through capture by enemy forces. South Africas prisoners of war during World War II, their experiences and recollections, are largely forgotten. That is until now.  Historian Karen Horn painstakingly tracked down a number of former POW's. Together with written memoirs and archival documents, their interviews reveal rich narratives of hardship, endurance, humour, longing and self-discovery. Instead of fighting, these men adapted to another war, one which was fought on the inside of many prison camps. It was a war against hunger and deprivation, at times against ever-encroaching despondency and low morale amongst their companions in captivity.  In their interviews, all the POW's expressed surprise at being asked to share their experiences. The author found it astonishing that almost all of them claimed not to be heroes of any kind. This is not surprising when one considers that they returned to a country which soon tried its utmost to promote national amnesia with regard to the countrys participation in the war. With great insight and empathy, Karen Horn shines a light on a neglected corner of South African history.  The Author Karen Horn is a lecturer at Stellenbosch University. She has travelled to at least three of the four corners of the earth and has pursued many different occupations. With a Masters degree in History from Edinburgh University, followed by a PhD at Stellenbosch, she now spends many hours of research reading diaries, interrogating older generations and rummaging around in the archives. Softcover, published 2015.

1994 first edition hardcover with dust jacket in very good condition.  A thick book of 709 pages.  R55 postage in SA or R60 courier to most bigger cities. Sir Edward Dunlop, or 'Weary' as many knew him, became a hero to thousands of prisoners of war on the Burma-Thailand 'Death Railway' during World War II. When the War broke out he took charge of a surgical team at St. Mary's, Paddington in the Emergency Medical Service, then joined the Australian Army and served in Palestine, Egypt, Greece, Crete and North Africa. In 1942 he sailed with his medical unit to Java and elected to be captured with the Allied General Hospital he began there. During more than three years as a prisoner of war, his gift for organizing vast hospital camps in Java and on the railway in Thailand, his courage, compassion and determination to get men home alive, made him a legend in his lifetime. Had his frank diaries of captivity been found by the Japanese, he would have been beheaded. Returning to Australia in 1945, Weary dedicated his life to caring for former Allied prisoners of war. Sadly he died before this biography, written with his full cooperation, could be published.

TITLE........................:  THE CHURCHES OF THE CAPTIVITY IN MALAYA SUBTITLE..................:  AUTHOR...................: REV. J. N. LEWIS BRYAN PUBLISHER...............:SOCIETY FOR THE PROMOTION OF CHRISTIAN KNOWLEDGE DATE & EDITION.......:st COVER SIZE (mm)....: 190 x 250 CONDITION...............: fair - good DUST JACKET...........: no COVERS.....................: orange boards, heavy age soiling with slight wear to edges, corners bumped & worn  SPINE.........................: with title,  wear to extremities, sunned END & FLY PAPERS.: good, browned and spotted PAGES.......................:  72pp generally bright & clean    BINDING....................: tight PLATES & MAPS.......: 27 full page plates of mainly artwork (many are colour) & many vignettes – photos & drawings INSCRIPTIONS..........: owners name inside front cover SYNOPSIS, BLURB...:  A poignant record of the spiritual effort and life of Allied Prisoners of War during the occupation of SE Asia by the Japanese Imperial Army. A very keenly felt work made and published very soon after the war.  

Imprisoned during World War II in a German POW camp, a group of Allied soldiers are intent on breaking out, not only to escape, but also to draw Nazi forces away from battle to search for fugitives. Among the prisoners determined to escape are American Captain Virgil Hilts (Steve McQueen) and Britis h Squadron Leader Roger Bartlett (Richard Attenborough). Outwitting their captors by digging a tunnel out of the prison grounds, the soldiers find the stakes much higher when escape becomes a reality.

This item is sold brand new. It is ordered on demand from our supplier and is usually dispatched within 7 - 11 working days On capture, British officers and men were routinely told by the Germans 'For you the war is over'. Nothing could be further from the truth. British Prisoners of War merely exchanged one barbed-wire battleground for another. In the camps the war was eternal. There was the war against the German military, fought with everything from taunting humour to outright sabotage, with a literal spanner put in the works of the factories and salt mines prisoners were forced to slave in. British PoWs also fought a valiant war against the conditions in which they were mired. They battled starvation, disease, Prussian cruelties, boredom, and their own inner demons. And, of course, they escaped. Then escaped again. No less than 29 officers at Holzminden camp in burrowed their way out via a tunnel (dug with a chisel and trowel) in the Great Escape of the Great War. It was war with heart-breaking consequences: more than PoWs died, many of them murdered, to be buried in shallow unmarked graves. Using contemporary records - from prisoners' diaries to letters home to poetry - John Lewis-Stempel reveals the death, life and, above all, the glory of Britain's warriors behind the wire. For it was in the PoW camps, far from the blasted trenches, that the true spirit of the Tommy was exemplified. Features Summary The War Behind the Wire is the new book by the acclaimed author of Six Weeks which depicted the extraordinary story of British junior officers in the First World War in such harrowing detail... Author John Lewis-Stempel Publisher Phoenix (an Imprint of The Orion Publishing Group Ltd) Release date Pages 288 ISBN ISBN

 And direction was given - Alan Flederman (SIGNED!) - 2005 - many black and white photographs - Paperback in good, clean and tight condition. In the dying days of World War II, Alan Flederman was a POW in Italy. As the Allies advanced, there was an ever-present threat that he and his fellow prisoners would be despatched deep into the land of their fears - Germany. Not one to sit around waiting for such a potential fate, Flederman, along with a small band of other prisoners, planned an escape, which, though successful, did not end beyond the perimeter fence of the camp. This book tells the story of the journey from the prison camp to true freedom, through war-torn Italy, where danger lurked in even the most rural hamlets, to the heavily patrolled Swiss border. Flederman reflects on how, without the help, kindness and shelter of the families and individual men and women of the tiny villages that he traced his journey through, he might never have made it. The enormous personal risk these people put themselves in by sheltering him is a debt he passionately acknowledges.

 And direction was given - Alan Flederman (SIGNED!) - 2000 first edition - many black and white photographs - Paperback in good, clean and tight condition. R50 postage in SA. In the dying days of World War II, Alan Flederman was a POW in Italy. As the Allies advanced, there was an ever-present threat that he and his fellow prisoners would be despatched deep into the land of their fears - Germany. Not one to sit around waiting for such a potential fate, Flederman, along with a small band of other prisoners, planned an escape, which, though successful, did not end beyond the perimeter fence of the camp. This book tells the story of the journey from the prison camp to true freedom, through war-torn Italy, where danger lurked in even the most rural hamlets, to the heavily patrolled Swiss border. Flederman reflects on how, without the help, kindness and shelter of the families and individual men and women of the tiny villages that he traced his journey through, he might never have made it. The enormous personal risk these people put themselves in by sheltering him is a debt he passionately acknowledges.

Hard cover with jacket Published by Ian Allan in -  first edition 136 pages with some B&W photographs Red boards in very good conditi on with only minor bumping to spine ends. Internally too the book is in very good condition. Jacket has edgewear with some minor tears to the foldover edges. Light tanning to foldovers mainly at ends. Jacket is not price-clipped.    Most great escape stories so far told have been concerned with the exploits of officer prisoners of war in well-known camps like Colditz and Stalag Luft III. Less well-known but equally heroic were those of the large numbers of RAF NCO pilots, observers and air gunners who fell into German hands. Although early in the war they shared camps with their officers at places like Sagan and cooperated closely in developing effective escape organisations, the NCOs were soon segregated into their own compounds and left to their own resources in the ceaseless struggle to escape. A particularly notorious NCO camp was Heydekrug on the Baltic coast in what was East Prussia – the scene of one of the most remarkable POW exploits of the war. Warrant Officer George Grimson succeeded in establishing an escape route within Nazi Germany itself. One of the great classic escape books, Sergeant Escapers  tells the story of George Grimson and his fellow NCOs and their attempts, successful and unsuccessful, to outwit their captors, frequently in conditions that made Colditz look like a rest camp. The author, was himself a POW and an eye-witness to the unfolding drama of the Grimson escape saga.                   We do combine postage with other purchases so click here to see other books we are selling

PF van Heerden Went to Egypt with 1st SAP 6th Brigade  POW 20/06/42. Escaped from POW camp on 11/09/43. On the run until 11/06/44 when he reached Allied lines.  

Ryan, an American POW, leads his fellow prisoners on a dangerous escape from the Germans in Italy. Having seemingly made errors of judgement, Ryan has to win the support of the mainly British soldiers he is commanding.

Sunday 15 February 1942 was, according to Sir Winston Churchill, the blackest day in the history of the British Empire. Only ten weeks earlier Japanese assault troops had waded ashore on the North-East coast of Malaya. Now the besieged British, Australian and Asian forces in Britain's so-called "impregnable citadel" were compelled to lay down their arms and some 90,000 allied service-men became prisoners of war. It was a crushing humiliation and defeat that marked the disintegration of the British Empire. Even today the angry question is being asked: why? 1960 hardcover with dust jacket and some blacka and white pictures. Good reading condition only. Lots of browning and foxing. R50 postage in SA.