Kriegie - Prisoner of War #978122

A shattered bomber. Seventeen days of solitary confinement. A winter death march through a collapsing Germany.

In the fall of 1944, First Lieutenant Kenneth W. Simmons is serving as bombardier aboard the B-24 Liberator Betsy II when flak destroys the aircraft above Mainz, Germany. He survives the parachute jump only to face capture, violent hostility, interrogation, hunger, and the terrible uncertainty of what has happened to the other men of his crew.

From the psychological pressure of Dulag Luft to the crowded barracks and secret operations of Stalag Luft III, Simmons records prisoner-of-war life with extraordinary immediacy: hidden news broadcasts, tunnel projects, Red Cross parcels, friendships forged under pressure, and the discipline required simply to endure.

Then, as Soviet forces approach, the prisoners are driven westward through snow and bitter cold in a forced evacuation that becomes a desperate struggle for survival.

Kriegie: Prisoner of War is a powerful firsthand World War II memoir of an American airman behind barbed wire. Reconstructed from memories first preserved in a hidden diary written on rolls of toilet paper, it is an unflinching account of courage, suffering, ingenuity, loyalty, and liberation.

For readers of WWII aviation history, prisoner-of-war memoirs, and true stories of survival in Nazi Germany.