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My Remembrance Day Reads

Thursday, November 11th, 2010

‘Are we downhearted?’ crackles one of the most familiar sound-bites of the Second World War, and a hearty ‘No!’ is generously returned to this rhetorical tease. Presumably ‘well, perhaps a bit’ (however jokingly intonated) was sternly deemed unsuitable for broadcast. Well, good on them who, as the song encourages, kept smiling through; and this Remembrance Day I would like to dedicate my remembrance and respect not only to those who have and are suffering and paying the ultimate sacrifice for – well for heaven knows what, but that’s a tirade for a different blog – but also to those (same people) who in times of war embodied that optimistic and resilient ‘no’.

In the furtherance of which resolution, my two recommended Remembrance Day reads this year are wartime favourites of mine which highlight the tenacious pluck of small people in a big world gone mad (Humphrey Bogart could probably state that more eloquently), and which serve as reminders that even the most extremely awful and evil of times can bring out the extremes of goodness and positive human ability in people.

Those reads being, The Colditz Story by Major Pat Reid and The Great Escape by Paul Brickhill. They were made famous by the films they inspired, but the truth of life and escape in the two most famous prison camps of the war are even more remarkable. Both authors were prisoners (in Colditz castle and Stalag Luft III respectively) and participated in the escape attempts they (quite humbly and vividly) wrote about. Having read them both in quick succession in my late teens, I must admit that much of the detail of the POW’s highly organised planning, hilariously cheeky ‘goon-baiting’, and death-defying break-out attempts now eludes my porous brain. But the impression I gained from reading their accounts remains – awe, admiration, and sympathy for the ambition, resourcefulness, and great intelligence of these men who, under constant watch and with a bare minimum of tools and supplies, fashioned everything from fake uniforms and passports to working compasses, and ventilation and electrical systems for the escape tunnels they unremittingly scraped away at for months on end. Many escape attempts were, often after months of hard work, heartbreakingly foiled by the vigilance of the guards; and those men who did escape faced a gruelling journey (incidentally without a motorbike) over hundreds of miles through enemy territory to the safety of a neutral state. Most didn’t make it, as most imprisoned in the camps were well aware they wouldn’t; and many, tragically and barbarically, were killed for their efforts. In spite of which, as these books testify, most refused to give up hope of the great ‘home-run’.

Whether you label them indomitable or foolhardy, reading these first-hand accounts, you cannot help but admire them; and I therefore recommend that this year, instead of sitting down to The Great Escape movie at Christmas for the tenth year in a row, you pick up the book instead. And in the meantime, this November, as well as mourning the sorrow and pity of war, I also wear my poppy to remember the irrepressible ingenuity and positive wit and imagination of man, even in the bleakest of circumstances.

Georgina Phipps, Editorial Administrator

Ron Tedwater Says:


Really nice post,thank you

Posted on November 13th, 2010 at 10:07 am

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