Book report

1902 Words4 Pages
bulb-icon

Recommended: Invasion of stalingrad

Mike Meserole, author of The Great Escape: The Longest Tunnel dedicates his book “To the Fifty,” a fitting introduction to commemorate the men who were murdered while escaping for their freedom. Rarely do men such as these come along who are committed to persevering, even in the face of peril, adversity and hardship.
When and from whom did this adversity come from? To begin, the context of this story comes in two different frameworks. In the broad sense, Germany had taken on England in an air war. Between 1941 and 1943, many Allied planes were shot down and therefore, numerous Allied airmen found themselves in prisoner of war camps (POWs). Then in early 1943, the RAF welcomed the addition of "U.S. Army Air Force." This meant an increase in the number of American POWs as well. In a more specific context, Stalag Luft III was the third POW camp for Allied airmen. With the grand opening in April of 1943, Stalag Luft III was to hold "2500 Allied airmen." In relation to the end of the war, the breakout occurred on March 24, 1944, about one year and one month from Allied liberation of these men.
The Great Escape: The Longest Tunnel is a book about an audacious and bold escape. Led by Roger Bushell, an already accomplished escape artist, the men of Stalag Luft III organized, prepared and staged one of the largest POW camp breakouts of World War II. With a goal of breaking out 200 men in a single night and thereby hampering and placing a strain on the German war effort, Bushell and his men put together a plan that seemed improbable, if not impossible. By digging three tunnels, nicknamed Tom, Dick and Harry, the odds of breaking out dramatically increased, since the probability of their German captors finding all three was highly unli...

... middle of paper ...

...to the time of its closing, Meserole delivers a complete and thorough selection.
Meserole gives a very clear and direct theme throughout The Great Escape: The Longest Tunnel. He also provides us with great insight into the lives and plans of men within Allied POW camps. Obviously, why not every POW camp operated on the same basis, The Great Escape: The Longest Tunnel offers a deeper understanding of the mentality, outlook and mindset of the prisoners who often displayed a high level of courage and bravery while continuing to defend and fight for the freedom of their nations. As a historical source, Meserole's The Great Escape: The Longest Tunnel is an invaluable one to historians, but more importantly to today and tomorrow's young generation who need to be taught and instructed about the men who fought for their own freedom so that today's youth could have theirs.

Show More
Related

  • The Forgotten 500 Chapter Summary

    615 Words  | 2 Pages

    The Forgotten 500 told the miraculous story of the rescue of 500 almost all American airmen in Yugoslavia during World War II. These men bailed out of airplanes and landed behind enemy lines and defied all expectations by staying alive. To do this they had to hide from enemies for weeks or even months. That is what made this book very interesting because the Germans were always close by and if found, the men would all be killed. What kept these men safely in hiding was Yugoslavian Serb General Draza Mihailovic and his followers.

    Read More

  • Keeping Memory Alive Elie Wiesel

    622 Words  | 2 Pages

    Imagine living in such a time period, where thousands of children are confused and families are scared. That is what life was like during World War II. In the story, “Keeping Memory Alive”, the author, Elie Wiesel, discussed why remembering the concentration camps is important. “The Uprooting of a Japanese-American Family” by Yoshiko Uchida describes daily life in the internment camps. Both stories are connected by sharing their feelings about the unfair treatment received during World War II in the 1940s.

    Read More

  • This Way For The Gas Ladies And Gentlement Analysis

    444 Words  | 1 Pages

    There are unexpected aspects of life in the camp depicted in “This Way for the Gas, Ladies and Gentlement” by Tadeusz Borowski. The prisoners were able to make very obvious improvements to their lived in the camp, without reaction by the SS officers; the market was even made with the support of the camp. The prisoners actually hoped for a transport of prisoners, so as to gain some supplies. The true nature of the camp is never forgotten, even in better moments at the camp.

    Read More

  • Book report

    1152 Words  | 3 Pages

    In 1776, David McCullough gives a vivid portrayal of the Continental Army from October 1775 through January 1777, with sharp focus on the leadership of America’s greatest hero, George Washington. McCullough’s thesis is that had not the right man (George Washington) been leading the Continental Army in 1776, the American Revolution would have resulted in a vastly different outcome. He supports his argument with a critical analysis of Washington’s leadership during the period from the Siege of Boston, through the disastrous defense of New York City, the desperate yet, well ordered retreat through New Jersey against overwhelming odds, and concludes with the inspiring victories of Trenton and Princeton. By keeping his army intact and persevering through 1776, Washington demonstrated to the British Army that the Continental Army was not simply a gang of rabble, but a viable fighting force. Additionally, Mr. McCullough supports his premise that the key to the survival of the American Revolution was not in the defense of Boston, New York City, or any other vital terrain, but rather the survival of the Continental Army itself. A masterful piece of history, 1776 is not a dry retelling of the Revolutionary War, but a compelling character study of George Washington, as well as his key lieutenants, and his British adversaries, the most powerful Army in the 18th Century world. When I read this book, I went from a casual understanding of the hero George Washington to a more specific understanding of why Washington was quite literally the exact right man at the exact right place and time to enable the birth of the United States.

    Read More

  • Night by Elie Wiesel and The Hiding Place by Corrie ten Boom

    1726 Words  | 4 Pages

    Between Night and The Hiding Place, comradeship, faith, strength, and people of visions are clearly proved to be essential in order to survive in these death camps. Corrie, Elie, and other victims of these harsh brutalities who did survive had a rare quality that six million others unfortunately did not.

    Read More

  • Ivan Denisovich Corruption

    592 Words  | 2 Pages

    This demonstrates that the prisoners are part of a system where the needs of the collective are far more important than the needs of the individual (in both communism and in the prison.) It also reveals the corruption of the Soviet Union because it while it claims that everyone should be equal, the life of the prisoners in the camp are not valued at all. This could be due to the fact that prisoners in the camps aren’t viewed as people, but rather as animals that are being worked to their death.

    Read More

  • The Dieppe Raid

    2274 Words  | 5 Pages

    At dawn of 19th August 1942, six thousand and one hundred Allied soldiers, of whom roughly

    Read More

  • Totalitarian Government: Hitler and Stalin

    1102 Words  | 3 Pages

    Following the beginning of the Second World War, Adolf Hitler’s Nazi Germany and Joseph Stalin’s Soviet Union would start what would become two of the worst genocides in world history. These totalitarian governments would “welcome” people all across Europe into a new domain. A domain in which they would learn, in the utmost tragic manner, the astonishing capabilities that mankind possesses. Nazis and Soviets gradually acquired the ability to wipe millions of people from the face of the Earth. Throughout the war they would continue to kill millions of people, from both their home country and Europe. This was an effort to rid the Earth of people seen as unfit to live in their ideal society. These atrocities often went unacknowledged and forgotten by the rest of the world, leaving little hope for those who suffered. Yet optimism was not completely dead in the hearts of the few and the strong. Reading Man is Wolf to Man: Surviving the Gulag by Janusz Bardach and Survival in Auschwitz by Primo Levi help one capture this vivid sense of resistance toward the brutality of the German concentration and Soviet work camps. Both Bardach and Levi provide a commendable account of their long nightmarish experience including the impact it had on their lives and the lives of others. The willingness to survive was what drove these two men to achieve their goals and prevent their oppressors from achieving theirs. Even after surviving the camps, their mission continued on in hopes of spreading their story and preventing any future occurrence of such tragic events. “To have endurance to survive what left millions dead and millions more shattered in spirit is heroic enough. To gather the strength from that experience for a life devoted to caring for oth...

    Read More

  • The New York Times Coverage of the Holocaust

    1203 Words  | 3 Pages

    Even when US troops liberated the Buchenwald and Dachau concentration camps, the stories still never made it to the front page of the paper and people still did not believe in the reliability of the stories (Leff 52). In 1943, a survey w...

    Read More

  • Auschwitz: Should It Have Been Bombed?

    1589 Words  | 4 Pages

    Bombing Auschwitz: US 15Th Air Force And The Military Aspects Of A Possible Attack." War In History 6.2 (1999): 205. Academic Search Premier. Web. 27 Jan. 2014.

    Read More

  • The People’s War: Were They Really All in it Together?

    1216 Words  | 3 Pages

    “WW2 People’s War: An Archive of World War Two memories- written by the public, gathered by the BBC.” BBC. February 2012. http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/ww2peopleswar

    Read More

  • John Toland: The Battle Of The Bulge

    871 Words  | 2 Pages

    To write this book the author, John Toland, had to devote 15 years researching different stories from all sides of the war. He studied war memoirs, interviewed war veterans, and read military documents. While doing this he focused on both the allied and axis forces to truly understand both sides of the story and be able to write such a descriptive and accurate piece of work. This research was used in the book to describe the unlikely victory of the Americans over the Germans during the “Battle of the Bulge”.

    Read More

  • Conspiracy: The United States is Making Concentration Camps

    751 Words  | 2 Pages

    Vardon, Ken. "Read the Chilling Proposition from Teper Et." AMERICAN CONCENTRATION CAMPS. APFN, 5 Feb. 2014. Web. 24 May 2014.

    Read More

  • Unveiling the Pink Triangles: LGBT Holocaust Victims

    1933 Words  | 4 Pages

    A man’s back breaks with a sickening crunch, and hundreds of others scream in pain, their shouts echoing off the quarry walls, until they dwindle off into death. Around the broken bodied prisoners, there is a line of SS, each with blood red Nazi armbands, and cruel, young faces. The men here know that

    Read More

  • Great Britain During World War II

    1434 Words  | 3 Pages

    It’s 4:30am on September 1st, 1939 and the German battleship Schleswig-Holstein awaits the order to open fire on the Polish garrison of the Westerplatte Fort, Danzig in what was to become the first military engagement of World War II. Meanwhile, sixty two German divisions supported by 1,300 fighter planes prepared for the invasion of Poland. Fifteen minutes later, the invasion would take place and spark the beginning of World War II. Two days later at 9am Great Britain would send an ultimatum to Germany, demanding that they pull from Poland or go to war with Great Britain. Four hours later the Ultimatum would expire and Great Britain would officially be at war with Germany on September 3rd, 1939.

    Read More

More about Book report

Open Document