P.O.W.

by Douglas Collins

True story of British Army Sergeant Douglass Collins ten escapes from Nazi prison camps during WWII.

Genres: World War II

292 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1968

Reviews

[David · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book starts a little slow but that is partially because the 'path' of this true story is not what I expected.
The man has a great story to tell. He tells it in a very fact based way. We learn all the facts but he does not say much about himself. Something drove him to escape again and again when so many would have given up.

He was serving in one of the units that acted as a rear guard for the men that got away at Dunkirk. He traveled over at least 7 different countries. His first prison camp was run by Germany in Poland.

Sometimes his escaped failed due to bad luck. They had to go earlier than planed because someone was going to be transferred the next day. Or bad boots and bad weather made it impossible to walk any further.

What makes his story is that his escapes kept failing but he was getting closer and closer to freedom. He got out of German to Hungary. While they were German Allies they kept the prisoners rather than send them back to Germany. Then he escaped and got to Romania. Same story.

Eventually he got out the day after he was almost shot when Romania switched sides from Germany to Russia. Then too he was lucky. The US Air Corp picked up him and all the Polesti Oil Field Raid POWs. This way he never had to fall into Russian hands.

[David · Rating 4 out of 5]

Amazing story of the life of P.O.W.'s in German and Axis camps during the second world war. Involving capture , escape and capture again including assistance stories about local underground units.

[Angela Mcentee · Rating 5 out of 5]

Another excellent true story about prisoners of war this time . Another book I read multiple times. Collins was an escape artist... Impressive determination, courage and wits...

[Ronald]

read during fall 1969

[Sebastian Best · Rating 4 out of 5]

P.O.W. is the story based on Douglas Collins's personal experience with his escapes from ten Nazi prison camps. Throughout the novel Collins connects his past experiences to write a the great story of P.O.W.. Throughout the story Collins show his ability to put the reader in the caricatures shoes. Collins show his ability every time that his group is transported in or out of the camps. Collins describes every last detail from the rust on the boxcars to the flowers in the graveyard of the mines. Collins does an excellent job with the story and developing the caricatures. He really shows the connection that he had with these men during the struggle to escapes. P.O.W. is unlike any other novel that I have ever read. Collins goes out of his way to show the struggle and the pain that the prisoners went through during the struggle of captivity. The story is hard to get into at the beginning of the novel however once the story starts to develop it is better and starts to get interesting. I think that everybody should read this novel and others like it because of what they show. World War Two is know as man's biggest struggle and any story form somebody who saw that first hand changes perspective on the entire issue. This story especially shows that because Collins shows first hand the struggles of escaping these terrible places and the struggle for those who can't escape. I think that anyone who has an interest in world war two should read this novel.

[Matt Dubois · Rating 2 out of 5]

Used to be good and still is a good history, but the writing has too many trivial details that detract from the story. It is similar to many WWII genre war stories, and while the style is dated, the content, bravery, determination, and persistence to fight on is outstanding.

[Sandi · Rating 4 out of 5]

I read this book immediately after reading The Survivor. It was striking the difference in how POWs were treated compared to how the prisoners in Auschwitz and Russian prison camps were treated.