Remarkable story of the ingenious escapes and privations of a Scottish RAF bomber navigator shot down after bombing Berlin. Pape was confined to Nazi prison camps for years and tells his story without apology. For me the highpoint of my 21st century edition is the inclusion of a breezy letter written to another RAF survivor decades after the War. ( )

This a cracking good story and the author claims it is true. You can search the internet for detractors and you will find one or two who are critical of Pape and say the he is a good writer of tall tales. Pape's Stirling bomber was shot down in 1941 near the German/Dutch border. He evaded for a time but was eventually captured and spent the the next few years planning escapes from POW camps. He actually achieved it twice. In his first camp, he spent time working on escape tunnel with Douglas Bader, another POW who was big pain in the German's side. He wrote a sequel entitled Sequel to Boldness which is also a very good read. ( )