Book info

• Title Zero Night
• Author Mark Felton
• Year 2014
• Genre History

Oflag VI-B, Warburg, Germany: On the night of 30 August 1942 – 'Zero Night' – 40 officers from Britain, Australia, New Zealand and South Africa staged the most audacious mass escape of the Second World War. It was the first 'Great Escape' – but instead of tunnelling, the escapers boldly went over the huge perimeter fences using wooden scaling contraptions. This was the notorious 'Warburg Wire Job', described by fellow prisoner and fighter ace Douglas Bader as 'the most brilliant escape conception of this war'. Months of meticulous planning and secret training hung in the balance during three minutes of mayhem as prisoners charged the camp's double perimeter fences.

Thoughts

This is the tale of a little known escape attempt from a German Prisoner of War camp in the midst of the Second World War. A large scale attempt to get out was attempted after the prisoners realised their tunnelling exploits were not getting them anywhere.

The book has plenty of references and has been taken from conversations with relatives of those involved, but it’s written more as a story, with dialogue and action sequences. There’s the occasional moment where it gets descriptive rather than story-based, but for the most part the balance is good.

The only real downside is that it’s very similar to The Great Escape. I don’t know whether the events really did play out just like they did on film, but even the ball hitting the fence was written just like it was when Steve McQueen did it. I suppose if you’re writing the fictional version, you could make it slightly stand apart. Nevertheless, it’s a great story of incredibly brave men doing just as their duty demands of them.

Rating: 3 / 5