While there have been many books covering escapes from German POW camps, the exploits of those POWs in Japanese captivity have been strangely neglected - until now. Of the tens of thousands of Allied personnel captured by the victorious Japanese during late 1941 and early 1942 only a small number of brave souls attempted to escape to freedom rather than suffer brutality, starvation and very possibly death as POWs. The author draws on escape attempts...

'I am one of those lucky ones who survived the war, and I can remember my emotional experiences, and those of my friends, as if they had happened yesterday. For many of us the horror, the injustice, and the cruelty can never be forgotten or forgiven; but I have tried to write without too much bitterness' - Bob van der Stok. van der Stok's escapes, his operations as a Spitfire pilot, his experiences as a prisoner of war, and his incredible escape crossing...

In 1943, Felice Benuzzi and two Italian compatriots escaped from a British POW camp in equatorial East Africa with only one goal in mind - to climb the dangerous 17,000-foot Mount Kenya. This text tells the story of this most bizarre and thrilling adventure.

Jens Muller was one of only three men who successfully escaped from Stalag Luft III in March 1944 - the break that later became the basis for the famous film the 'Great Escape'. In a vivid, informative memoir he details what life in the camp was like, how the escapes were planned and executed and tells the story of his personal breakout and success reaching RAF Leuchars base in Scotland.

Roger Bushell was 'Big X', mastermind of the mass breakout from Stalag Luft III in March 1944, immortalised in the Hollywood film The Great Escape. Very little was known about Bushell until 2011, when his family donated his private papers - a treasure trove of letters, photographs and diaries - to the Imperial War Museum. Through exclusive access to this material - as well as fascinating new research from other sources - Simon Pearson has now written...

Summer, 1918: 29 officers crawled into a 16 inch high, 55 metre tunnel dug only with spoons. This was the culmination of 9 months gruelling toil in oxygen-starved darkness. Of the 29 escapees, just 10 would make their way back to Britain.

Imprisoned in a remote Turkish POW camp during the First World War, two British officers, Harry Jones and Cedric Hill, cunningly join forces. To stave off boredom, Jones makes a handmade Ouija board and holds fake seances for fellow prisoners. One day, an Ottoman official approaches him with a query: could Jones contact the spirits to find a vast treasure rumoured to be buried nearby? Jones, a lawyer, and Hill, a magician, use the Ouija board - and...

Horace 'Jim' Greasley was 20 years old in the spring of 1939 when Adolf Hitler invaded Czechoslovakia. Horace's war didn't last long. He was taken prisoner on 25th May 1940 and forced to endure a 10-week march across France and Belgium en route to Holland. Horace survived - barely. After a three-day train journey without food and water, Horace found himself incarcerated in a prison camp in Poland. It was there he embarked on an incredible love affair...