THE ESCAPE ARTISTS

The spellbinding story of the downed Allied airmen who masterminded the remarkably courageous - and ingenious - breakout from Germany's most devilish POW camp.

In the winter trenches and flak-filled skies of World War I, soldiers and pilots alike might avoid death, only to find themselves imprisoned in Germany's archipelago of POW camps, often in abominable conditions. The most infamous was Holzminden, the prison for the most troublesome, escape-prone prisoners under a boorish, hate-filled tyrant's thumb. Desperate to escape and rejoin the fight, a group of Allied prisoners led by ace pilot (and former Army sapper) David Gray hatches an elaborate escape plan. Their plot demands a risky feat of engineering as well as a bevy of disguises, forged documents, fake walls, steely resolveand then a heroic 150 mile dash through enemy-occupied territory towards free Holland.

Drawing on never-before-seen memoirs and letters, Neal Bascomb brings this narrative to cinematic life, amid the twilight of the British Empire and the darkest, most savage hours of the fight against Germany. At turns tragic, funny, inspirational, and nail-biting suspenseful, this is the little-known story of the biggest POW breakout of the Great War.

Neal Bascomb is the New York Times best-selling and award-winning author of The Winter Fortress, Hunting Eichmann, The Perfect Mile, and Higher, among others. A former international journalist, he is a widely recognized speaker on the subject of World War II. He lives in Seattle, Washington.