The Great Escape
By: Paul Brickhill / Narrated By: Robert Whitfield
Length: 7 hrs and 36 mins
You KNOW how it ends, but it’s STILL so gosh darned mesmerizing!!!
As an Australian fighter pilot who was a prisoner of war at Stalag Luft III, Paul Brickhill was not only a “stooge” during the events focusing on “the Great Escape” itself, but he was also a “digger” for the Tom tunnel. That his claustrophobia made it impossible for him to be allowed to be one of the escapees turns out to be fortuitous, esPECially as The Great Escape is the result.
Yup, saw the movie.
Yup, the movie’s never as good as the book… uhm… audiobook...
Focusing mostly on Roger Bushell’s role in the event, The Great Escape is a true testament to grace under pressure and the indomitable spirit of the fighting man during times of imprisonment. The officers held at the Stalag knew it was an imperative to disrupt the Germans by escaping and, posssssibly, getting back to their armed forces. That was a nice goal, to be sure, but the POWs (Of all nations) at the Stalag, had a higher goal: Mess with the Luftwaffe guarding them, use all their ingenuity to tie up forces, do whatever one could to embarrass and shame Nazi Germany.
I knew how this ended, but there are sooo many escapes chronicled here, so many attempts, such creative endeavors, and the guards overseeing them knew: Tunneling was THE escape d’jour. How many tunnels does one have to see to know to drive heavy equipment over ground, exposing compromised areas? How much earth redistributed from a tunnel does one have to see to know to build over yellow sand, making it harder to disguise throughout the camp? How many times does a guard have to bolt into a building and be thwarted by a tipoff coming from SOMEwhere to make officials desperate enough to hire a Dowser using divining rods to SOMEhow divine where a tunnel might be located, cuz ya KNOW they all were up to SOMEthing in there?
And how much frantic swarming by guards and officials is enough for the imprisoned? No such thing as enough as they enjoyed these efforts mightily! There’s a LOT of wry and twisted and verrrry black humor here, and there’s a LOT of deep thinking done by Bushell who treats each twist as an opportunity to learn more about what they need to do. Compromised area? Dig the first leg of the tunnel waaaaay down before even getting to the horizontal part. Yellow sand? Well, this is solved by yet another genius POW who suggests creating gardens, where soil is tilled, mixing in the yellow sand with the camp dirt. And the Dowser? Heck, he just happens to be a chance to have a hearty laugh.
When I wasn’t tickled pink by the ingenuity (Think: Engineers, forgers, prisoners entailed with creating wardrobes for escapees upon striking out into Germany) of these guys, I gotta tell ya, my gut was twisting and turning, my toes curling with adrenaline at the many oh sooo close getaways, the trucks clambered into, the prisoners disguising themselves as camp guards and going out in large groups, right beneath the noses of even the wariest of guards (Courtesy of the wardrobe department, and the props department who fashioned German “rifles” with wood and paper and grease). So much fun!
Robert Whitfield. MagNIFicent performance! He speaks as Brickhill himself, and he captures Brickhill’s cockeyed humor, his terrible frustration, his fear as things (Frequently!) spiral out of the prisoners’ control. And as this is some pretty great writing, with near-perfect pacing, as this is about multiple tunnel attempts, multiple escape attempts, multiple run-ins with officials; as tension is built with layer upon layer of one miscommunication to go with another “Oh crap!” Moment as the story unfolds, Whitfield holds it all together and delivers it all perfectly. Plus, these guys were from multiple nationalities (And oh Huzzah! Whitfield does NOT make the hurly burly, game-for-anything Americans sound like New York mobsters!), and all accents were handled with great aplomb and ease.
Only 7 1/2 hours, this was DEFinitely a: Listen All in One Sitting kinda sorta thing for me. I knew What Happened Next, but I still couldn’t wait for it all to unfold, and when all was said and done, when we came to the tragic finale, I could only listen in awe.
There are greater things than Life, apparently. Things like friendship, devotion to freedom, driving your enemy batty. Though devastated, to them, it was all worth it, causing SUCH embarrassment. Heroes, each and all, whether they were diggers, stooges, escapees, or those holding sacred space back at the camp. Nope, not the movie.
Oh soooo much better!!!
Free listening for Audible Members.
As an Amazon Associate, I earn from qualifying purchases.