Great Escaper: The True Story of John 'Willy' Williams

by Louise Williams

John 'Willy' Williams was a medical student and passionate surfer turned Squadron Leader and Second World War ace. In the Australian tradition, he insisted on fighting his war in non-regulation attire and led his squadron into air combat over Libya and Egypt dressed in sandals and shorts. Shot down in the Western Desert in 1942, he ended up a POW in Stalag Luft III near the German-Polish border.

Willy was among the seventy-six POWs who tunneled their way out of the supposedly escape-proof camp under the Germans' noses in what later became famous as the Great Escape. Willy and former schoolmate Reg 'Rusty' Keirath, together with two other POWs, made it to Czechoslovakia and were captured by the Gestapo. Hitler was so enraged by the Great Escape that he personally ordered the secret execution of fifty of the seventy-three captured men, in flagrant violation of the Geneva Convention. Willy, Rusty and their two friends were driven by the Gestapo deep into the forest near the town of Most and shot; Willy was just twenty-four years old. Despite the later war crimes investigation into the Great Escape murders, no one was ever brought to justice for the murders of the Most Four.

256 pages, Hardcover

Published January 31, 2016

Reviews

[Stuart Dunlop · Rating 1 out of 5]

I rarely give up on a book, but I'm afraid I stopped reading this one just over three quarters of the way through.

It has a number of annoying features: the first and most obvious being the perpetual jumping backwards and forwards in time and location. One minute we're in Rhodesia during training and the next we're back in Australia examining his background and upbringing in repetitive detail (we end up knowing much more about John's mother than we know about John). Secondly, we are informed about absolutely irrelevant matters such as the dining habits of a deceased Zulu chief, but we have no information (or none when I gave up reading) about John's capture.

There is very little detail about his actual time on ops (maybe because it was short, but we can only deduce that, since much of his time was spent as a trainer), but we have information about Rhodesian politics and the different attitudes to class distinctions between Britain and Australia.

I was expecting some detail about his time as a pow, but 75% through a book is too far to wait.

Summary: very heavy on background, very little detail of the actual events of flying, capture, detention and escape, subsequent recapture and execution.

[James Tidd · Rating 4 out of 5]

Shot down in the western desert in 1942, John 'Willy' Williams ended up a POW in Stalag Luft III near the German-Polish border. He ended up being, along with Reg 'Rusty' Keirath, one of the seventy six who tunnelled their way out of one of Goring's supposedly escape proof camps, in what would later be known as the Great Escape. This mass escape enraged Hitler that he personally ordered 50 of them to be shot, which was a flagrant violation of the Geneva Convention. John, Rusty and two others were driven deep into the forest by the Gestapo near Most and shot. No one was ever brought to justice for the murders of the four.

John's niece Louise Williams has pieced together his life, from his upbringing in the Depression to his exploits in the air and the missing details of the tragic escape.

Most of this book is superbly written. It is a fascinating story about one of the Great Escapers. My only problem is that many times, Williams goes back and forth three or four times in the early part of the book. When one chapter is concentrating on his early life in Australia, then the next chapter is dealing with his arrest near the Czech border. This doesn't seem to make the book run smoothly. Had it started with his early life and the latter part dealt with the aftermath of the escape, then it would have been a lot smoother and easier to follow. Otherwise a great book.