Experience the incredible story of the brave men who tunneled to escape a German prisoner-of-war camp. Readers will learn about the planners, task leaders, and key players of the escape from Stalag Luft III.

Experience the incredible story of the brave men who tunneled to escape a German prisoner-of-war camp. Readers will learn about the planners, task leaders, and key players of the escape from Stalag Luft III.

Nearly 100 Allied prisoners of war attempt to break out of a suppsedly "escape-proof" Nazi camp in 1944 by secretly creating a 350-foot tunnel.

John Fancy, who died in September 2008, aged 95, was the most prolific escaper of the Second World War. Nicknamed 'the Mole' he dug eight tunnels at the various camps in which he was held, in East Prussia, Poland and Germany. Some were 40 feet below the surface and only 2 feet square. He escaped three times, only to be recaptured. His escape activities landed him in solitary confinement for a total of 34 weeks - one eighth of his time in detention. Whilst imprisoned at Stalag Luft III in Poland, in 1942, he helped to plot the breakout of 76 men that later became known as the Great Escape, and the inspiration for the Hollywood film. After the war John Fancy wrote a book about his adventures. Tunnelling to Freedom: The Story of the World's Most Persistent Escaper, was published in 1957, by Panther Books, and became an instant bestseller. Aurum Press have acquired the rights to publish this classic work in a new edition, which will reveal John Fancy's amazing exploits to a new generation of readers. His gripping and dryly humorous account reveals the fascinating details of life in the prison camps and the determination, heroism and madness of the escapers. We also see the incredible ingenuity and patience which John brought to bear on his escape attempts, often digging his tunnels with no more than a 10-inch butter knife. In addition to his tunnelling he also recounts his attempts to abscond from outside working parties, cutting through the camp's perimeter wire and jumping from moving trains. With a new Introduction that sets John's activities in a historical context, and Illustrations including photos of John and his fellow prisones in the camps, plus his original plans of tunnels and artefacts including his German butter knife, this is essential reading for the WW2 historian and anyone who enjoys a good adventure story.

He escaped from one of the world’s most brutal regimes.Then, he decided to tunnel back in. In the summer of 1962, a young student named Joachim Rudolph dug a tunnel under the Berlin Wall. Waiting on the other side in East Berlin were dozens of men, women, and children—all willing to risk everything to escape. From the award-winning creator of the acclaimed BBC Radio 4 podcast, Tunnel 29 is the true story of this most remarkable Cold War rescue mission. Drawing on interviews with the survivors and Stasi files, Helena Merriman brilliantly reveals the stranger-than-fiction story of the ingenious group of student-diggers, the glamorous red-haired messenger, the Stasi spy who threatened the whole enterprise, and the love story that became its surprising epilogue. Tunnel 29 was also the first made-for-TV event of its kind; it was funded by NBC, who wanted to film an escape in real time. Their documentary—which was nearly blocked from airing by the Kennedy administration, which wanted to control the media during the Cold War—revolutionized TV journalism. Ultimately, Tunnel 29 is a success story about freedom: the valiant citizens risking everything to win it back, and the larger world rooting for them to triumph.

A thrilling Cold War narrative of superpower showdowns, media suppression, and two escape tunnels beneath the Berlin Wall. In the summer of 1962, the year after the rise of the Berlin Wall, a group of young West Germans risked prison, Stasi torture, and even death to liberate friends, lovers, and strangers in East Berlin by digging tunnels under the Wall. Then two U.S. television networks heard about the secret projects and raced to be first to document them from the inside. NBC and CBS funded two separate tunnels in return for the right to film the escapes, planning spectacular prime-time specials. President John F. Kennedy, however, was wary of anything that might spark a confrontation with the Soviets, having said, “A wall is better than a war,” and even confessing to Secretary of State Dean Rusk, “We don’t care about East Berlin.” JFK approved unprecedented maneuvers to quash both documentaries, testing the limits of a free press in an era of escalating nuclear tensions. As Greg Mitchell’s riveting narrative unfolds, we meet extraordinary characters: the legendary cyclist who became East Germany’s top target for arrest; the Stasi informer who betrays the “CBS tunnel”; the American student who aided the escapes; an engineer who would later help build the tunnel under the English channel; and the young East Berliner who fled with her baby, then married one of the tunnelers. The Tunnels captures the chilling reach of the Stasi secret police as U.S. networks prepared to “pay for play” but were willing to cave to official pressure, the White House was eager to suppress historic coverage, and ordinary people in dire circumstances became subversive. The Tunnels is breaking history, a propulsive read whose themes still reverberate.