Audiobook10 hours
Escape from Stalag Luft III: The True Story of My Successful Great Escape: The Memoir of Bob Vanderstok
Written by Bram Vanderstok
Narrated by John Lee
Rating: 4.5 out of 5 stars
4.5/5
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About this audiobook
On the night of March 24, 1944, Bram Vanderstok was number eighteen of seventy-six men who crawled beyond the barbed wire fence of Stalag Luft III in Zagan, Poland. The 1963 film The Great Escape, was largely based on this autobiography but-with Vanderstok's agreement-filmmakers chose to turn his story into an Australian character named Sedgwick.
His memoir sets down his wartime adventures before being incarcerated in Stalag Luft III and then in extraordinary detail describes various escape attempts which culminated with the famous March breakout. After escaping, Vanderstok roamed Europe for weeks, passing through Leipzig, Utrecht, Brussels, Paris, Dijon, and Madrid, before making it back to England.
He reported to the Air Ministry and two months after escaping returned to the British No. 91 Squadron. In the following months he flew almost every day to France escorting bombers and knocking down V1 rockets.
In August 1944 he finally returned to his home. He learned that his two brothers had been killed in concentration camps after being arrested for resistance work. His father had been tortured and blinded by the Gestapo during interrogation. He had never betrayed his son.
His memoir sets down his wartime adventures before being incarcerated in Stalag Luft III and then in extraordinary detail describes various escape attempts which culminated with the famous March breakout. After escaping, Vanderstok roamed Europe for weeks, passing through Leipzig, Utrecht, Brussels, Paris, Dijon, and Madrid, before making it back to England.
He reported to the Air Ministry and two months after escaping returned to the British No. 91 Squadron. In the following months he flew almost every day to France escorting bombers and knocking down V1 rockets.
In August 1944 he finally returned to his home. He learned that his two brothers had been killed in concentration camps after being arrested for resistance work. His father had been tortured and blinded by the Gestapo during interrogation. He had never betrayed his son.
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Reviews for Escape from Stalag Luft III
Rating: 4.727272681818182 out of 5 stars
4.5/5
11 ratings2 reviews
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Amazing book! True story about a Dutch pilot who survived the war with stories to tell. Packed full of information about WWII from a Dutch perspective. Well written.
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Escape from Stalag Luft III – The True Story of My Successful Great EscapeBram VANDERSTOCKBarnsley, Frontline Books 2018i – xxii 264 pp ISBN 978-1-78438-434-0 (hbk)The ‘Great Escape’ when a large number of Allied prisoners’-of-war escaped from a German camp called Stalag Luft III has been immortalised in book and film. This is a gripping personal account by one of the three men who managed to complete their escape back to Allied lines.Bram VANDERSTOCK was from the Netherlands and was serving with the Royal Air Force when he was shot down over France. This is where the book begins, after which we are transported back to his early life before the Second World War. As a personal account, it is moving, fascinating and evocative all in one sentence. There are some excellent maps included, and some photographs in the middle of the book.There is not much more to say about the book other than to suggest you read it. Not only does it provide a testimony to the activity at Stalag Luft III, but is also serves as a reminder to readers who are not Dutch about the privations and reality of living under German occupation during the Second World War. Highly recommended.