Book Reviews
Reading recommendations from Young ELMS participants and ELMS members, featuring escape line histories, wartime stories, and memoirs.
Book Reviews
The Young ELMS programme and ELMS members maintain a collection of book reviews featuring escape line histories, wartime stories, memoirs, and research resources. These reviews help readers find engaging and historically valuable reading about WW2 escape and evasion.
The Man Who Was Saturday: The Extraordinary Life of Airey Neave
Monopoli Blues
Commando Country
Captive Memories: Starvation – Disease – Survival
No Surrender at Arnhem
Malayan Spymaster
Beneath a Scarlet Sky
One Woman's War
Flee the Captor: The Story of the Dutch-Paris Underground and John Henry Weidner
Escaping With His Life
Les Parisiennes
From One Hell to Another
So Close to Freedom
The Brave Japanese
Secret War
Zero Night
Game of Spies
Escape from the Third Reich
Never Surrender: Lost Voices of a Generation at War
Escape From the Japanese
Lost Warriors
Gentleman Jim
Escaping the Ordinary
Escaping Soldiers and Airmen of World War 1
Shot Down and on the Run
Bletchley Park and the Pigeon Spies
The Escape Line
Secret Pigeon Service
Trusty to the End: The History of 148 (Special Duties) Squadron RAF 1918-1945
The Dutch Resistance Revealed: The Inside Story of Courage and Betrayal
With SOE in Greece
The Lost Airman: A True Story of Escape from Nazi-Occupied France
The Barefoot Soldier
The Hidden Army: MI9’s Secret Force and the Untold Story of D-Day
The Great Escapes: The Story of MI9’s WW2 Escape & Evasion Maps
Escape to Pagan
Standing Tall
Italy's Outstanding Courage: The Story of a Secret War
Operation Sealion
ETA – A Bomber Command Navigator Shot Down and On The Run
SAS Rogue Heroes
Gardens of Stone
One Day in France
The Twisted Florin
The Nazi Hunters
The Camera Became My Passport Home
Where The Hell Have You Been?
Reviewed by Chris Colussi
The French Resistance
Retreat and Rearguard – Dunkirk 1940
D-Day Through German Eyes – Books 1 & 2
Reviewed by Chris Colussi
Holocaust Heroes – Resistance to Hitler's Final Solution
Gurkha
Reviewed by Chris Colussi
The Bletchley Park Girls
Reviewed by Chris Colussi
The SAS and LRDG Roll of Honour 1941 – 1947
St Valery and Its Aftermath
Gone To Ground
Home By Christmas
Escaping Hitler
Sisters in Spitfires
Reviewed by Helen Duffee
The Long Range Desert Group
The Ministry of Ungentlemanly Warfare
The French Resistance
A Hundred Miles As The Crow Flies
Rifleman
When the Moon Rises
Lindell's List
Dutch Courage
Swift to Attack – No 1 Group Bomber Command
Within Four Walls
The SAS and LRDG Roll of Honour 1941 – 1947
Shadow Warriors – Daring Missions of WW2 by Women of the OSS and SOE
If This is A Woman - Inside Ravensbruck: Hitler's Concentration Camp for Women
The British Army in France After Dunkirk
No Surrender in Burma
Mosquito Down
Target Italy
Operation Exodus
Shadows in The Fog
Reviewed by Michael Tillotson, The Times
Facing Fearful Odds
KL
Solvitur Ambulando
The Cover Up at Omaha Beach
Reviewed by Chris Colussi
Fighters in The Shadows
Reviewed by Roger Stanton
Great Escaper
Campo 78 – The Aussie Camp
How to Contribute
Members and students are encouraged to submit book reviews. Reviews should focus on:
- Escape line histories and personal accounts
- WW2 resistance and evasion stories
- Biographies of helpers, evaders, and resistance members
- Research resources and archival materials
Please contact the education team to submit a review.
Explore More
A Hundred Miles As The Crow Flies
The story of the largest mass escape of the Second World War, led by Australian Ralph Churches from Stalag XVIIID at Maribor.
Read moreBeneath a Scarlet Sky
Mark Sullivan novelises the true exploits of teenager Pino Lella, Alpine guide, Resistance courier, and spy.
Read moreCampo 78 – The Aussie Camp
Gabriella Di MattiaPG 78, a POW camp for Allied POWs in Italy is located on the northern outskirts of the town of Sulmona, at Fonte d’Amore. During WW2 it was ‘home’ to many Allied POWs, the bulk of w…
Read moreBletchley Park and the Pigeon Spies
Bernard O’Connor reveals how thousands of carrier pigeons fed intelligence to Bletchley Park and covert units.
Read moreCaptive Memories: Starvation – Disease – Survival
Meg Parkes and Geoff Gill record FEPOW testimonies, medical struggles, and the families who carried them home.
Read moreD-Day Through German Eyes – Books 1 & 2
Holger Eckhertz publishes his grandfather’s frontline interviews with Atlantic Wall veterans, offering a rare German view of D Day.
Read moreDutch Courage
Special Forces (SF) operations in the Netherlands and covers in general the period from September 1994 until the liberation.September 1944 saw the beginning of Allied operations in the Netherlands, in…
Read moreCommando Country
Stuart Allan documents the Scottish Highlands training grounds that forged Allied special forces and covert units.
Read moreEscape From the Japanese
Lt Cdr Ralf Burton Goodwin recounts his 870 mile solo escape from Hong Kong’s Sham Shui Po camp to Calcutta.
Read moreEscape from the Third Reich
Sune Persson recounts the Swedish Red Cross white buses rescuing thousands from Nazi camps in 1945.
Read moreEscaping Soldiers and Airmen of World War 1
Martin Bowman surveys WW1 prison life, escape methods, and first hand accounts from Allied soldiers and fliers.
Read moreEscaping the Ordinary
Lorna Windmill follows Jim Almonds after WW2 as he chases new frontiers in Ethiopia, Eritrea and the reformed SAS.
Read moreEscape to Pagan
Brian Devereux tells his family’s harrowing wartime ordeal from Hong Kong to Burma and their desperate flight to Pagan.
Read moreFacing Fearful Odds
John JayThis is the story of Rifleman Alec Jay, a Territorial Army infantryman whose unit was thrown into the defence of Calais, and effectively decimated. Against overwhelming odds the Calais garriso…
Read moreETA – A Bomber Command Navigator Shot Down and On The Run
Gordon Mellor’s memoir follows his Bomber Command tour, shoot down over Belgium, and remarkable escape with the Comète Line.
Read moreEscaping With His Life
Sir Nicholas Young retraces his father Leslie’s route from Dunkirk to commando raids, POW camps, and a six month escape through Italy.
Read moreEscaping Hitler
Monty Halls chronicles the Freedom Trails across Europe, from Slovenia’s mass breakout to high level routes in France and Italy.
Read moreFlee the Captor: The Story of the Dutch-Paris Underground and John Henry Weidner
Herbert Ford chronicles Dutch Paris founder John Weidner, whose textile network became Europe’s longest escape line.
Read moreFighters in The Shadows
Robert GideaReviewed by Roger Stanton With access to previously unseen French archive materiel, ‘Fighters in the Shadows’ attempts to expose some of the myths surrounding much of the French Resistance…
Read moreFrom One Hell to Another
Liz Cowley and Donough O’Brien dramatise Resistance warfare in the Pyrenees, blending fact with local history.
Read moreGame of Spies
Paddy Ashdown uncovers a lethal triangle of SOE, Resistance, and Gestapo rivals in wartime Bordeaux.
Read moreGardens of Stone
Stephen Grady’s remarkable wartime memoir traces a teenage gardener’s journey from Ypres to the French Resistance and beyond.
Read moreGentleman Jim
Lorna Windmill charts SAS co founder Jim Almonds’ wartime journey from Kabrit training to escapes, SOE missions and beyond.
Read moreGone To Ground
Marie Jalowicz Simon recounts her wartime survival in Berlin, shedding her yellow star and navigating twenty safe houses.
Read moreShadow Warriors – Daring Missions of WW2 by Women of the OSS and SOE
WW2 was the first conflict in which women were trained on a large scale for combat against the enemy. Taught the skills of silent killing, use of small arms, sabotage and espionage, radio use these wo…
Read moreGreat Escaper
Louise WilliamsJohn Williams as a young man in 1937, received one of the 25 Short Service Commissions awarded each year to members of the Royal Australian Air Force. War clouds were gathering over Eur…
Read moreHolocaust Heroes – Resistance to Hitler's Final Solution
Mark Felton charts the uprisings that challenged Hitler’s Final Solution from the ghettos to Treblinka, Auschwitz and Sobibor.
Read moreGurkha
Colour Sergeant Kailash Limbu offers an insider’s account of life in the Brigade of Gurkhas and a tour in Afghanistan.
Read moreHome By Christmas
Ian English MC recalls the Fontanellato escapers of PG49 and the Italian families who saved them after the 1943 armistice.
Read moreIf This is A Woman - Inside Ravensbruck: Hitler's Concentration Camp for Women
Sara HelmRavensbruck was designed as a women's camp and the site is situated about 50 miles north of Berlin. The guards were mainly women too and quite brutal and in some cases sadistic. The camp open…
Read moreKL
Nikolaus WachsmannKL (from the German for Konzentrationslager) is a tremendous research achievement dealing with every aspect of the Nazi concentration camp system. From the very first camp to open, D…
Read moreItaly's Outstanding Courage: The Story of a Secret War
Dilip Sarkar reveals Italy’s unsung Resistance heroes who saved downed aircrew and fought alongside the Allies.
Read moreLindell's List
List by Peter Hore Mary Lindell ran an escape line in France (Marie Claire Line) for escapers, evaders and other fugitives, two of whom were RM Commando evaders, Hasler and Sparks, survivors of Operat…
Read moreLes Parisiennes
Anne Sebba examines how Parisian women navigated occupation—resisting, collaborating, and surviving.
Read moreLost Warriors
Philip Davies pairs the astonishing wartime stories of guerrilla leader Hugh Seagrim and escaper Roy Pagani in Burma.
Read moreMalayan Spymaster
Boris Hembry recounts clandestine operations in Malaya and Burma, from stay behind parties to SIS missions.
Read moreMonopoli Blues
Tim Clark and Nick Cook tell the intertwined SOE stories of para naval officer Robert Clark and FANY wireless operator Marjorie Lewis.
Read moreMosquito Down
Frank DellThose of you who were part of the RAFES will know Frank Well. Later the RAFES became part of ELMS and Frank became one of our Patrons. His story is of flying a Mosquito of 692 Squadron on an…
Read moreNever Surrender: Lost Voices of a Generation at War
Robert Kershaw stitches veteran interviews into a sweeping oral history of Britain at war.
Read moreNo Surrender at Arnhem
Robert Peatling’s diary captures three months hiding with the Dutch Resistance after Arnhem.
Read moreNo Surrender in Burma
Fred C GoodeFred Goode was a member of a Special Forces Unit, Special Service Detachment II, whose role in 1941 was to support Chiang Kai Shek's Chinese Army fighting the Japanese in China. Their role…
Read moreOne Day in France
Jean Marie Borzeix reconstructs a 1944 German reprisal in Bugeat and uncovers the identity of a long forgotten victim.
Read moreOne Woman's War
Eileen Younghusband recalls WAAF filter rooms, V weapon tracking, and post war service teaching Polish pilots.
Read moreOperation Exodus
Gordon ThomasDuring WW2 over six million Jews died in 32 concentration camps. The death camps of Auschwitz/Birkenau, Belzec, Sobibor, Treblinka, Chelmno and Majdanek were at the heart of the Nazi 'Fin…
Read moreOperation Sealion
Leo McKinstry reveals Britain’s clandestine preparations to repel a German invasion and the reasons Operation Sealion never sailed.
Read moreRetreat and Rearguard – Dunkirk 1940
Jerry Murland charts the desperate rear guard battles that shielded the Dunkirk evacuation, honouring British and French defenders alike.
Read moreRifleman
Londoner who experienced an extraordinary service life between his enlistment in 1938, his wartime service and his subsequent activities during the Cold War.Gregg describes himself as an ordinary sold…
Read moreSAS Rogue Heroes
Ben Macintyre draws on newly opened SAS archives to tell the Regiment’s audacious wartime story from desert raids to disbandment.
Read moreShadows in The Fog
By Michael Tillotson; The Times saturday 28th March 2015 Who or what caused the collapse of the Special Operations Executive's \"prospect" circuit, which extended from Nantes through Paris to the lowe…
Read moreSecret War
Nigel West delivers a provocative reassessment of SOE’s achievements, failures, and sacrifices.
Read moreSecret Pigeon Service
Gordon Corera uncovers Operation Columba, MI14’s covert network of homing pigeons that gathered intelligence across occupied Europe.
Read moreShot Down and on the Run
Graham Pitchfork updates his classic survey of Allied airmen who evaded capture across every WW2 theatre.
Read moreSisters in Spitfires
Alison Hill’s extensive research into the wartime contribution made by the 164 women pilots of the ATA allows us to experience not only the pure poetry of being airborne in a Spitfire, but also to gai…
Read moreSo Close to Freedom
Jean Luc Carton investigates the betrayed April 1944 François Line crossing of the Pyrenees.
Read moreSolvitur Ambulando
Eric MossEric Moss served in the RAF as a Wireless Operator/Gunner. His story recounts his initial training in England, operations in North Africa where he was shot down, his capture and subsequent ex…
Read moreSt Valery and Its Aftermath
Stewart Mitchell honours the Gordon Highlanders of the 51st Division, charting their stand at St Valery and the ordeals that followed.
Read moreStanding Tall
Andy Reid charts his recovery after catastrophic injuries in Helmand and his mission to support fellow veterans.
Read moreSwift to Attack – No 1 Group Bomber Command
This is the story of 1 Group Bomber Command, which was actually established in 1936 and based on airfields in Oxfordshire, Norfolk and equipped with Blenheims or Fairey Battles. Deployed to France in…
Read moreTarget Italy
Roderick BaileyThis is an unusual book which deals with SOE's secret war against Mussolini from 1940 1943. Commissioned by the Cabinet Office, it is the official history of SOE operations in Fascist I…
Read moreThe Bletchley Park Girls
Tessa Dunlop interviews fifteen women who served at Bletchley Park, revealing their secrecy, routine and lasting impact.
Read moreThe British Army in France After Dunkirk
Patrick TakleDuring Operation Dynamo more than 330,000 British and French troops were evacuated via Dunkirk between 26th May 4th June. However, thousands more were left behind, including most of those…
Read moreThe Brave Japanese
Kenneth Harrison reflects on brutal captivity, the Burma Railway, and witnessing Hiroshima’s aftermath.
Read moreThe Camera Became My Passport Home
Ben van Drogenbroek and Steve Martin document Stalag Luft III through Charles Woehrie’s lens in a lavish, limited edition history.
Read moreThe Barefoot Soldier
Johnson Beharry VC shares his journey from Grenada to Iraq, where extraordinary bravery saved his comrades under fire.
Read moreThe Cover Up at Omaha Beach
Gary SterneReview by Chris Colussi Many of us have read about the desperate struggle at Omaha Beach and the Point du Hoc. However, when you read this book you begin to understand that much of what we…
Read moreThe Dutch Resistance Revealed: The Inside Story of Courage and Betrayal
Jos Scharrer examines the Dutch underground, from escape lines to Englandspiel betrayals, highlighting courage amid occupation.
Read moreThe Escape Line
Megan Koreman chronicles the Dutch Paris Line, Europe’s longest escape network, and the ordinary people who sustained it.
Read moreThe French Resistance
(Translated by Jane Marie Todd) This is a well researched book on the French Resistance. The author deals in depth with the social, political and military foundations and reveals the fragmented nature…
Read moreThe Hidden Army: MI9’s Secret Force and the Untold Story of D-Day
Matt Richards and Mark Langthorne reveal MI9’s Operation Sherwood and the helpers who sheltered 152 airmen for D Day.
Read moreThe Lost Airman: A True Story of Escape from Nazi-Occupied France
Seth Meyerowitz follows his grandfather Arthur’s perilous journey through the Comet Line, Morhange group, and the snowbound Pyrenees.
Read moreThe Long Range Desert Group
This is a reprint of a book first published in 1945 by Kennedy Shaw, who had been the Intelligence Officer of the Long Range Desert Group (LRDG). Pre war he had explored the Libyan D and had esert by…
Read moreThe Ministry of Ungentlemanly Warfare
In 1939 Winston Churchill was the driving force behind what he called the ‘Ministry of Ungentlemanly Warfare’, which would eventually employ thousands around the world in a number of special units. It…
Read moreThe Man Who Was Saturday: The Extraordinary Life of Airey Neave
Patrick Bishop charts Airey Neave’s journey from Colditz escaper to MI9 mastermind and influential politician.
Read moreThe Great Escapes: The Story of MI9’s WW2 Escape & Evasion Maps
Barbara Bond charts MI9’s secret map programme—how ingenious silk charts guided escapers across Europe and beyond.
Read moreThe Nazi Hunters
Damien Lewis recounts the SAS mission on Operation Loyton and the post war manhunt for Nazi war criminals led by Colonel Brian Franks.
Read moreThe SAS and LRDG Roll of Honour 1941 – 1947
An 800 page commemorative roll compiled over thirteen years to honour every SAS fatality of the Second World War and their comrades in the LRDG.
Read moreThe Twisted Florin
Stella Clare Marsh tells Sqn Ldr John Mott’s remarkable story of evasion, SOE flying and multiple escapes across Europe.
Read moreTrusty to the End: The History of 148 (Special Duties) Squadron RAF 1918-1945
Oliver Clutton Brock chronicles 148 Squadron’s clandestine missions from Malta to Warsaw, honouring the crews who supplied Europe’s resistance.
Read moreWhen the Moon Rises
Davis was captured while fighting with the Honourable Artillery Company in the hills around Medjez el Bab in Tunisia. Wounded in the head he was treated in a German hospital for eight days before bein…
Read moreWith SOE in Greece
Pat Evans recounts SOE missions in northern Greece, balancing sabotage, resistance politics, and the chaos of civil war.
Read moreWhere The Hell Have You Been?
Tom Carver retraces his father Richard’s wartime capture, Italian escapes and reunion with Field Marshal Montgomery.
Read moreWithin Four Walls
There were many escapes made during WW1 which are little remembered, but the lessons learned have provided excellent references for later would be escapers. Many of those escapes were written up in a…
Read moreZero Night
Mark Felton recounts the ladder escape of forty officers from Oflag VI B in August 1942.
Read more