Greece Crete Stalag Dachau - A New Zealand Soldier's Encounters With Hitler's Army

(Paperback)

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In 1940, 28-year-old Jack Elworthy left to fight in Europe. He would return seven years later, changed forever. Like many soldiers, Jack had experienced the best and worst of human nature - from kindness and bravery of Crete civilians to the unimaginable horrors of Dachau. He escaped from Greece as the Nazis rolled in, fought and was captured in Crete, and endured four years in Germany's notorious POW camp Stalag VIIIB. Freed by American forces in 1945, he talked his way into the US Army's Thunderbird Division, which then made its way to Munich, and ultimately the liberation of Dachau. After seeing the concentration camp, he wrote of his 'disbelief that there existed a kind of people who could gas rooms full of naked people and shoot rows of kneeling men, women and children, day after day'. Jack's war was not over. Back in Britain awaiting repatriation, he devised a plan to return to devastated Europe - and succeeded, to the disbelief of MI5, who would later strong-arm him into revealing how he'd done it.

Reviews

This gripping account of wartime adventures brings an unfamiliar world vividly to lifeand left me wanting more. Leon Davidson, author, Zero Hour: The ANZACS on the Western Front

A reminder of the profound physical and psychological upheavals suffered by soldiers in wartime, and the brutal reality for those taken prisoner. David Filer, author, Crete: Death from the Skies

"Its absolutely superb. Its personal, its got lots of black and white photographs and maps and things in it. You know, I read it in two or three long sittings and I just was intrigued by it." Graham Beattie, RadioLive

"Unobtrusive shaping has produced a taut account, with every incident building texture, and the straightforward chronological narrative building tension. Even though I knew Elworthy was captured, I found myself holding my breath, hoping hed get away." Nicholas Butler, New Zealand Books

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