The Real Great Escape: The Story of the First World War's Most Daring Mass Breakout

Description

Bigger than The Great Escape. The story of the first successful mass tunnel escape from a POW camp in First World War Germany. Situated in Lower Saxony, Germany, Holzminden swung open its barbed wire gates to welcome its first guests in September 1917. It was here that the transient population of officers and orderlies from Great Britain, Australia, New Zealand, Canada, South Africa, India and Argentina found themselves at the mercy of the despotic Kommandant, Karl Niemeyer, who prided himself on his unblemished breakout record. Serial escapees who had attempted multiple escapes from other camps were sent here for containment. A group of intrepid officers hatched a daring breakout plan that was to become the blueprint for escape attempts in subsequent wars. Under the feet of their German captors, the officers dug a 55m long tunnel through concrete foundations, rock and packed earth with little more than ingenuity and kitchen cutlery. Nine months later, twenty-nine officers emerged from the exit hole in a nearby rye field and melted into the darkness of the German countryside. Running the gamut of a furious kommandant, search parties and townspeople eager to

Jacqueline Cook is a screenwriter with several films in development, including a supernatural thriller, a WWI drama and a UK drama which tells the story of the little-known friendship and rivalry between the world's most beloved fantasy writers, JRR Tolkien and CS Lewis. Based in Brisbane, Jacqueline's alarming addiction to screenwriting kicked in many years ago. She has heeded the siren's call ever since, battling a condition called cacoethes scribendi, which, roughly translated from Latin, means an insatiable urge to write.