Description

pp. [7] 400. “Torture, survival and escape. These three elements encompass We Flew, We Fell, We Lived, which recounts the experiences of Royal Canadian Air Force ex-prisoners of war and evaders from the Second World War. Forty Canadian officers and men from Bomber Command offer their personal accounts of the German treatment of allied air force personnel and the organization of PoW camps. The first of four sections has each PoW’s story arranged by the camp in which he was held. The notorious Great Escape is covered in detail, based on the testimony of several of the Canadians involved. The evader section includes Canadians shot down behind enemy lines who escaped through Sweden, the Comet Line to Spain, and through Italy. One man gives a riveting description of his torture in the infamous Fresnes prison in Paris and his survival of the Buchenwald concentration camp. The last section covers the forced marches of air force PoWs in the last months of the war. Together, all the stories create a complex expose of PoW culture illustrated by two hundred photographs, maps, and artwork from various Stalag lufts (many previously unpublished). Never have there been so many comprehensive personal accounts of PoWs in one book.”