The Wooden Horse: The Classic World War II Story of Escape

by Eric Williams

Book Overview

An epic adventure--the most brilliant escape and evasion from the Nazis ever written.

Eric Williams, a Royal Air Force bomber captain, was shot down over Germany in 1942 and imprisoned in Stalag Luft III, the infamous German POW camp. Digging an underground tunnel hidden beneath a wooden vaulting horse, he managed to escape after ten months and, accompanied by a fellow officer, made his way back to England. In this thinly fictionalized retelling, Williams relates his story in three distinct phases: the construction of a tunnel (its entrance camouflaged by the wooden vaulting horse in the exercise yard) and hiding the large quantities of sand he dug; the escape; and the journey on foot and by train to the port of Stettin, where Williams and his fellow escapee stowed away aboard a Danish ship, the Norensen.

From painstakingly digging the tunnel to secretly depositing the dirt and gravel around the camp to dodging searchlights and search dogs and climbing barbed wire fences, this is an escape story hard to beat. For sheer heroism, courage, and perseverance, this classic is arguably the most ingenious POW escape of WWII. The Wooden Horse became a legend among servicemen long before its publication in 1949 and has remained one ever since.

Skyhorse Publishing, as well as our Arcade, Yucca, and Good Books imprints, are proud to publish a broad range of books for readers interested in fiction--novels, novellas, political and medical thrillers, comedy, satire, historical fiction, romance, erotic and love stories, mystery, classic literature, folklore and mythology, literary classics including Shakespeare, Dumas, Wilde, Cather, and much more. While not every title we publish becomes a New York Times bestseller or a national bestseller, we are committed to books on subjects that are sometimes overlooked and to authors whose work might not otherwise find a home.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1628736690
• ISBN13: 9781628736694
• Release Date: July 2014
• Publisher: Skyhorse Publishing
• Length: 272 Pages
• Weight: 0.85 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.8" x 5.8" x 8.3"

Customer Reviews

A Real-Life Trojan Horse that Fooled the German Captors

This amazing escape episode involved three men, and was not part of the much-publicized Great Escape, but took place from the same camp (Stalag Luft III). This review is an expansion of an earlier one that I had written. The original Trojan Horse contained soldiers in the process of sneaking into a city. This real-life WWII thriller describes a Trojan Horse used by Allied POWs to tunnel their way out of a German POW camp. While the horse was ostensibly being used for vaulting exercise, a small group of men hidden within the horse dug a tunnel underneath. Eventually it led them to freedom. Years later, "Eric Williams" was surprised that a mere plywood box could have fooled the Germans for so long. Indeed, the Germans apparently never became suspicious of the fact that the horse was always placed at the identical location, and not far from the wire. The idea was conceived out of the frustration of digging tunnels long distances from the huts to past the camp wire, and the Germans expecting the traps to originate from the huts and finding them. What if there was some way to get much closer to the wire, to dig a tunnel from there, and to conceal the trap from that unexpected location? The Trojan Horse episode came to mind. It would be a long and laborious tunneling process, as only a few tunnelers and relatively small amounts of sand could be concealed within the horse per exercise session. Otherwise, the horse would be too heavy to be carried. The vaulting horse was at first used without any tunnelers concealed in it. In fact, the vaulters purposely knocked it over a number of times so that the Germans would see nothing on the inside of it. The Germans were told that the vaulting stemmed from the English craze for exercise. After innumerable episodes of vaulting and tunneling, the tunnel was past the wire. Three escapees went from inside the horse down the tunnel, and, after many hours, dug there way to freedom. All three made it safely to the Allied lines.

A Gripping True WWII POW Escape Story!!

A Gripping True WWII POW Escape Story!!This book took me over until the very last page.I usually don't care for reading as a past time and especially novels that take too long to get through.I read this book over 20 years ago (and only did so by chance after finding it in the school library), because I had to submit a book report during my junior high school years. I enjoyed the book so much I eagery and ultimately compiled a great book report and was awarded 9/10 as a grade.Funny enough, I did so well with it that I took the liberty to re-submitted the same book report the following year and again was awarded another high mark (of course it was a different teacher and I had to re-write and date it).In fact here I am over 20 years later I plan to get my very own copy. That's how much I enjoyed it!"The Wooden Horse" by Eric Williams is a fabulous book and would make a perfect gift to that person who you think should read more...but doesn't. They'll thank you for it!

Almost as good as THE GREAT ESCAPE...

If you read "The Great Escape" by Paul Brickhill, you are bound to enjoy this book. It is also set in a POW Camp, and Eric Williams and Michael(I can't remember the surname) devise a scheme to trick the Germans.This book was both touching, brilliant, fun, exciting and absorbent. It really taught me a lot about what life was like during WWII. This book is among the Top War books, for Sure!

A Real-Life Trojan Horse Which Fooled the German Captors

The original Trojan Horse contained soldiers in the process of sneaking into a city. This real-life WWII thriller describes a Trojan Horse used by Allied POWs to tunnel their way out of a German POW camp. While the horse was ostensibly being used for vaulting exercise, a small group of men dug a tunnel underneath. Eventually it led them to freedom. The Germans were completely fooled.

A must read if you like adventure stories

I first read this book when I was in 6th grade 30 years ago and have read it again many times since. It's probably my all time favorite book. In my opinion, the first 1/2 of the book, which outlines the actual escape from the POW camp, is a little better then the 2nd half where they are trying to get out of Germany. The story is truly amazing