Operation Swallow: American Soldiers' Remarkable Escape from Berga Concentration Camp
By: Mark Felton / Narrated By: Fred Sanders
Length: 8 hrs and 34 mins
Pretty good, but Curses! to the Ever-Misleading Publisher’s Summary!!!
I mean, right? Ya know?
You are SUPPOSED to read the Publisher’s Summary of a work, find it intriguing, purchase the book, and then, gosh-willing, find it absolutely impossible to put down. The PS is s’POSed to tell you what you’re in for. Yeh yeh yeh, maybe a weee bit o’ fudging in order for you to be compelled to get on with it, but… in the main… on target, right?
WHY do I still read them?
Operation Swallow is ostensibly about a daring escape from Berga concentration camp (Based on Secondary Title!), and it’s a marvelous and spirited feat accomplished by American servicemen, led by a single heroic guy (Based on P. Summary). This led me to believe our hero Hans Kasten led a veritable gaggle o’ men out to FREEDOM.
Uhm, I’m gonna kinda throw a monkey wrench in it all here, cuz really: If the P. Summary hadn’t distressed me with its flawed, oh so flawed, promises, maybe I’d be kind and would leave you to it. But I’m crotchety from disappointment, and I don’t care who I take down with me: It was Hans… and TWO other POWs. That’s it, that’s the camp escape.
And it doesn’t happen until the verrrrry end, like, with only an hour to go. As a matter of fact? The group of prisoners don’t hit Berga until waaaay near the end.
What the blazes IS Operation Swallow then? Why, it starts with the history of war in the Ardennes, how unprepared the Americans were for any sort of offensive measures taken by the Reich. And then it’s a litany of Kasten’s experiences, how he was caught TWICE and escaped TWICE before being caught a third and final time.
It’s about Kasten and his history, and yessss! he sounds like he was AWEsome, a pragmatic man, a charismatic man, a born leader of men esPECially during fraught and uncertain times, one who could inspire during desperately deplorable circumstances. There’s a bit of history thrown in here and there, willy nilly, of the other men and of the POW Camp’s personnel. But it’s not until we get to the transfer to Berga concentration camp that the story really becomes compelling, exciting, inspiring.
Fred Sanders? I’ve reviewed him twice as of this review, and in each prior instance I’ve prefaced my comments of him with: Not My Favorite Narrator, and here is yet another example of competent yet exceedingly underwhelming narration. The first part, with its extreme action of Do Or Die Pitched Fighting is so excessively boring: His voice, while smooth and nice, does NOT lend itself well to firefights and hand-to-hand combat. The second part, of the new indignities the POWs experienced is likewise underwhelming, and it is indeed even monotonous. The guards could be cruel, life was harsh and justice unforgiving, and through it all Sanders is Ho-Hum. It’s not until Kasten and the POWs who were selected on suspicion of being Jewish are sent to Berga that things get really good, and FINALLY Sanders steps up to the occasion. Nothing can be taken for granted, all is Iffy, the Camp Commandant is sadistic and HATES Kasten with a violence that borders on crazed. And the Camp Breakout and when the trio of runaways are desperate to get away? Yessss, I was on the edge of my seat and sooo grateful that the professionalism of Sanders handled it all with a certain verve and much-needed swagger that covered for deep fear and insecurity. So PHEW! All good at the end.
It’s a good thing when I pause my listening and hit Google or Wikipedia for more facts because I quite simply canNOT get enough from the text at the moment (Inability to Delay Gratification? Nay, dear friend, An INSATIABLE Desire For Having It ALL And ALL NOW). But it’s NOT a good thing when I doze off a few times during the first two-thirds of an audiobook. And it’s CERtainly not a good thing when I finish something and can remember nothing but the final third.
All in all: I settled for hitting Amazon’s About The Author section. Apparently Mark Felton is An Historian of Note, and dude! the reviewers were, like: LOVE His YouTube channel. Dunno about you, but I prefer my history to be compelling and written by individuals who are avid researchers and who can take Large OR Small and make it drop dead compelling/gut-wrenching.
This, alas: Tho’ it was m’ first Listen of the week cuz I’d been looking forward to the story for quite some time? Nope, not really.
Last third was to die for. First two-thirds just made me wanna die…
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