The Art of Escape

THE COLDITZ STORY (288 pp.) --P R. Reid--Lippincott ($3.95).

Two British officers, talking things over one day in June 1940, agreed that what they had chiefly in common was an intense desire to be somewhere else. One had a Christmas date in England that he wanted to keep. The other said that if he did not get away, his wife would accuse him of "not caring for her any more." Said Captain Reid to Captain Barry: "Good, let's start." The only catch was that they were then in a German prisoner-of-war camp near Salzburg, Austria.

In The Colditz Story, Author Patrick Reid tells how he and some of his fellow captives raised the risky business of escape to something close to an art. As a narrator, Reid achieves a blend of humor and clean storytelling that makes this just about the best of the many escape books of World War II.

The Majestic Castle. Reid and Barry, along with a friend, got out of Oflag VII C all right, completely outsmarting their German keepers by using the classic tunnel scheme. Theirs was one of the first World War II escapes on record, and almost everything about it worked fine. They had got halfway to Yugoslavia when they were surrounded by a patrol. The next day they were back in Oflag VII C again.

The Germans had a place for prisoners who wouldn't stay put, and there they sent Reid. The castle at Colditz, in Saxony, was considered escape-proof, and it certainly looked it. "Almost upon leaving the station, we saw looming above us our future prison: beautiful, serene, majestic, and yet forbidding enough to make our hearts sink into our boots." Although most of Germany was blacked out against Allied air attacks, powerful searchlights shone on every inch of Colditz all night.

Over the Wall. Studying Colditz, Reid saw little prospect of a successful getaway. Yet get away he did, and so did a nervy sprinkling of others. For a while, Reid himself was "morally" committed to stay, for his special talents were soon recognized by his fellow officers, and he was made "Escape Officer" in charge of planning breaks for the whole British contingent. Much of The Colditz Story relates the attempts, both successful and tragically unsuccessful, of other escapers.

A French officer named Lebrun pulled the most audacious stunt of all, one that depended on pure nerve and agility. A fine athlete, he was exercising in the courtyard. Suddenly, using a confederate's hands as a stirrup, he was sent flying and catapulted over the wall. Under fire, he reached the outside wire wall, cleared that and got clean away. A British officer later tried the same method and was shot dead.

Reid's own getaway was a masterpiece of timing, meticulous preparation and sheer nerve. In & out of windows, over roofs, dashing for cover when sentries made their turns, and so out through a flue, Reid and three companions reached the outer wall and let themselves down on a rope of sheets. Using forged identity cards made by prisoner experts, and equipped with civilian clothes, a memorized map and German learned at Colditz, Reid and one of his pals made good progress through Germany.

In the Munich railway station, he almost gave the show away when he called out in English, "All right, Hank, I've got the tickets," but he drew only glares from the crowd. A short distance from the Swiss frontier, they were challenged by a German sentry, but posed as Flemish workingmen and convinced him. That night, less than four days after leaving Colditz, Reid and his friend stopped under a lamppost in a Swiss village and shook hands. Even the British government thought it was a pretty good getaway. Reid's reward: the Military Cross.

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