My Escape from Donington Hall

My Escape from Donington Hall PDF Author: Gunther Pluschow
Publisher: Pen and Sword
ISBN: 1473827051
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 162

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Book Description
It was an escape from a PoW camp as daring and fraught with danger as any immortalised by Hollywood. Yet the story is less familiar than most – as it concerns the only German prisoner of war to escape from captivity in mainland Britain and make it home during either World War.??After being caught in Gibraltar during an earlier attempt to return to his homeland, Pluschow and other captured Germans were shipped to Plymouth and then on to the PoW camp at Donington Hall, where he arrived in May 1915.?On July 4 he and fellow prisoner Oskar Trefftz broke out by climbing over two 9ft barbed wire fences, before changing clothes and walking 15 miles to Derby where they caught a train to London.??By the next morning the men's escape was featured in the Daily Sketch newspaper with both names and descriptions of the pair. They went their separate ways but Trefftz was recaptured at Millwall Docks. Realising he had to alter his appearance, Pluschow removed his smart tie and handed his coat in at the cloakroom at Blackfriars station. The German then used scraped-up coal dust, boot polish and Vaseline to change his fair hair to greasy black and covered himself in soot to make him appear as a dock worker. Pluschow then stowed away on a Dutch steamer ship at Tilbury docks, talked his way past a policeman in Holland before travelling to Germany by train. Upon his return home he received a hero's welcome and was presented with the Iron Cross First Class.??This extraordinary story is told in Gunther's own words for the first time in English.

My Escape from Donington Hall

My Escape from Donington Hall PDF Author: Gunther Pluschow
Publisher: Pen and Sword
ISBN: 1473827051
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 162

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Book Description
It was an escape from a PoW camp as daring and fraught with danger as any immortalised by Hollywood. Yet the story is less familiar than most – as it concerns the only German prisoner of war to escape from captivity in mainland Britain and make it home during either World War.??After being caught in Gibraltar during an earlier attempt to return to his homeland, Pluschow and other captured Germans were shipped to Plymouth and then on to the PoW camp at Donington Hall, where he arrived in May 1915.?On July 4 he and fellow prisoner Oskar Trefftz broke out by climbing over two 9ft barbed wire fences, before changing clothes and walking 15 miles to Derby where they caught a train to London.??By the next morning the men's escape was featured in the Daily Sketch newspaper with both names and descriptions of the pair. They went their separate ways but Trefftz was recaptured at Millwall Docks. Realising he had to alter his appearance, Pluschow removed his smart tie and handed his coat in at the cloakroom at Blackfriars station. The German then used scraped-up coal dust, boot polish and Vaseline to change his fair hair to greasy black and covered himself in soot to make him appear as a dock worker. Pluschow then stowed away on a Dutch steamer ship at Tilbury docks, talked his way past a policeman in Holland before travelling to Germany by train. Upon his return home he received a hero's welcome and was presented with the Iron Cross First Class.??This extraordinary story is told in Gunther's own words for the first time in English.

My Escape from Donington Hall, Preceded by an Account of the Siege of Kiao-Chow in 1915

My Escape from Donington Hall, Preceded by an Account of the Siege of Kiao-Chow in 1915 PDF Author: Gunther Plüschow
Publisher: Good Press
ISBN:
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 189

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Book Description
"My Escape from Donington Hall, Preceded by an Account of the Siege of Kiao-Chow in 1915" by Gunther Plüschow Pluschow was an Imperial German naval aviator who flew the only German airplane during the siege and bombardment by the Japanese and a token British force. Flying reconnaissance missions and dropping homemade bombs, Pluschow was the only German aviator to claim a kill of a Japanese airplane. In this tale, he describes his wartime exploits.

Tunnelling to Freedom and Other Escape Narratives from World War I

Tunnelling to Freedom and Other Escape Narratives from World War I PDF Author: Hugh Durnford
Publisher: Courier Corporation
ISBN: 0486122174
Category : Travel
Languages : en
Pages : 322

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Book Description
These 17 remarkable real-life stories are recounted by prisoners of war who used their wits to win their freedom. Their tales of remarkable resourcefulness and ingenuity combine the gritty realities of fact.

Escaping Soldiers and Airmen of World War I

Escaping Soldiers and Airmen of World War I PDF Author: Martin W. Bowman
Publisher: Casemate Publishers
ISBN: 1473863244
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 508

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Book Description
This thrilling new volume from Martin Bowman focusses on British, Canadian, Australian and German soldiers and airmen who were captured during the First World War. Determined that they wouldnt spend the rest of the conflict incarcerated uselessly behind bars, they endeavored to escape. These are their stories.All aspects of prison life are covered here, and the author examines the various escape tactics that were employed by British soldiers and airmen held in PoW camps all over Germany and Turkey. In order to provide a balanced account, the author has also uncovered stories of German navy and army escapees who attempted to flee from England.Each chapter is preceded by an account which explains the types of camps used in Britain and Germany, the numbers involved, the food, the camp money system for worker prisoners and a general appreciation of the conditions and chronology. Firsthand accounts from the prisoners themselves are then woven into the picture, creating an authentic sense of the PoW experience.The emphasis of this unique book is placed on the human story of the main characters, the unparalleled action on the Western Front and the interaction and camaraderie experienced between soldiers and airmen held in prison camps in England, Germany and Turkey during the Second World War.

Useful Captives

Useful Captives PDF Author: Daniel Krebs
Publisher: University Press of Kansas
ISBN: 0700630511
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 342

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Book Description
Useful Captives: The Role of POWs in American Military Conflicts is a wide-ranging investigation of the integral role prisoners of war (POWs) have played in the economic, cultural, political, and military aspects of American warfare. In Useful Captives volume editors Daniel Krebs and Lorien Foote and their contributors explore the wide range of roles that captives play in times of conflict: hostages used to negotiate vital points of contention between combatants, consumers, laborers, propaganda tools, objects of indoctrination, proof of military success, symbols, political instruments, exemplars of manhood ideals, loyal and disloyal soldiers, and agents of change in society. The book’s eleven chapters cover conflicts involving Americans, ranging from colonial warfare on the Creek-Georgia border in the late eighteenth century, the American Revolution, the Civil War, the Great War, World War II, to twenty-first century U.S. drone warfare. This long historical horizon enables the reader to go beyond the prison camp experience of POWs to better understand the many ways they influence the nature and course of military conflict. Useful Captives shows the vital role that prisoners of war play in American warfare and reveals the cultural contexts of warfare, the shaping and altering of military policies, the process of state-building, the impacts upon the economy and environment of the conflict zone, their special place in propaganda and political symbolism, and the importance of public history in shaping national memory.

Prisoners of Britain

Prisoners of Britain PDF Author: Panikos Panayi
Publisher: Manchester University Press
ISBN: 1526130556
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 361

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Book Description
During the First World War hundreds of thousands of Germans faced incarceration in hundreds of camps on the British mainland. This is the first book on these German prisoners, almost a century after the conflict. The book covers the three different types of internees in Britain in the form of: civilians already present in the country in August 1914; civilians brought to Britain from all over the world; and combatants. Using a vast range of contemporary British and German sources the volume traces life experiences through initial arrest and capture to life behind barbed wire to return to Germany or to the remnants of the ethnically cleansed German community in Britain. The book will prove essential reading for anyone interested in the history of prisoners of war or the First World War and will also appeal to scholars and students of twentieth-century Europe and the human consequences of war.

True Stories of Escape: Usborne True Stories

True Stories of Escape: Usborne True Stories PDF Author: Paul Dowswell
Publisher: Usborne Publishing Ltd
ISBN: 1409555232
Category : Juvenile Nonfiction
Languages : en
Pages : 101

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Book Description
Eight thrilling true stories of daring escapes. Contains tales of breakouts from infamous institutions such as Alcatraz and Devil's Island, and the risks the prisoners faced afterwards, including savage dogs, armed guards and shark-infested waters. Gripping and engaging for readers who prefer real life to fiction.

The English Catalogue of Books [annual]

The English Catalogue of Books [annual] PDF Author: Sampson Low
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : English literature
Languages : en
Pages : 348

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Book Description
Vols. for 1898-1968 include a directory of publishers.

The Stigma of Surrender

The Stigma of Surrender PDF Author: Brian K. Feltman
Publisher: UNC Press Books
ISBN: 1469619946
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 281

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Book Description
Approximately 9 million soldiers fell into enemy hands from 1914 to 1918, but historians have only recently begun to recognize the prisoner of war's significance to the history of the Great War. Examining the experiences of the approximately 130,000 German prisoners held in the United Kingdom during World War I, historian Brian K. Feltman brings wartime captivity back into focus. Many German men of the Great War defined themselves and their manhood through their defense of the homeland. They often looked down on captured soldiers as potential deserters or cowards--and when they themselves fell into enemy hands, they were forced to cope with the stigma of surrender. This book examines the legacies of surrender and shows that the desire to repair their image as honorable men led many former prisoners toward an alliance with Hitler and Nazism after 1933. By drawing attention to the shame of captivity, this book does more than merely deepen our understanding of German soldiers' time in British hands. It illustrates the ways that popular notions of manhood affected soldiers' experience of captivity, and it sheds new light on perceptions of what it means to be a man at war.

Enemies in the Empire

Enemies in the Empire PDF Author: Stefan Manz
Publisher:
ISBN: 0198850158
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 381

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Book Description
Enemies in the Empire demonstrates how Britain developed a global system of mass deportation and internment during the Great War. Using case studies in Britain, South Africa, and India, the authors place these internees into the broader history of internment, the history of the First World War, and the history of the British Empire.