This excellent book presents a fascinating and beautifully written account of the many escapes of service personnel, mostly RAF, from countries occupied by Nazi Germany during WW2. It covers the extraordinary stories of extreme hardship and dogged determination of the evaders and highlights the great danger experienced by the courageous Dutch, Belgian and French people who willingly hid them in their own homes knowing that they risked being shot or sent to one of the notorious concentration camps if they were denounced, as they all too often were. The book reveals two extremes of the human character from the brave and saintly Dooij family in Holland to the unbelievable depths of cruelty and depravity of the Gestapo.

In the 1950s and 60s when the 'war book' genre first became popular, books such as 'The Wooden Horse', 'The Colditz Story','Boldness be my friend','The Great Escape', were essential reading.

They all dealt with escape from POW camps.

This book deals with evasion; an entirely different story; and one that has never before been so comprehensively covered.

By it's very nature evasion involved placing trust in, and relying on the protection of others. The big question was, just who could be trusted?

The vast majority of evaders found themselves in occupied territory, rather than in the Axis homelands. They were therefore surrounded, not only by the enemy, but by people whose hatred of the enemy was even greater than theirs.

To their great credit, thousands of French, Dutch, Belgians and others were prepared to assist allied troops and airmen, even at the cost of their own lives.

The penalties imposed, not only on individuals, but frequently on whole communities, when one of theirs was found to be assisting allied evaders were severe in the extreme. But assist they did!

This book tells the story of the extraordinary heroism of thousands of the ordinary people of the occupied countries; who, with little formal Allied assistance; took matters into their own hands to protect, hide, and assist Allied troops and airmen to escape ,via circuitous routes back to Britain.

It also tells of the terrrible penalty paid by those who were caught assisting allied troops.

Evasion was by definition a tense and dangerous occupation; for all concerned.

One aspect touched on by the book is that of the traitors who sold the lives of their own countrymen and women; often by infiltrating the escape organisations, and then revealing what they had learned to the enemy. These parts of the book make grim reading.

But even worse, is the suggestion; not for the first time, of the malign part played by MI6 and specifically it's Deputy Head, Sir Claude Dansey, in the protection of known and proven traitors revealed to be operating within the escape and evasion organisations.

We are referring to more than finger pointing. Comments by Airey Neave the Head of MI9, which dealt with Escape and Evasion, reveal that amongst those who were forced to deal with him there was little trust in Dansey. Just why he behaved as he did is a matter for conjecture.

For further reading on this subject see my reviews of 'Dericourt, the Chequered Spy', and, 'All the King's Men'; both of which deal with S.O.E. and make similar allegations of treachery within MI6; resulting from the protection of known collaborators, which ultimately cost the lives of hundreds of S.O.E. agents and patriots.

Surely; now that most of those concerned are dead, the time has come for these most serious of allegations; of treachery within the heart of MI6, to be given the thorough investigation that they truly deserve, and that the truth, however hurtful it may turn out to be; be aired.

Home Run is a well written book which deals comprehensively with it's subject; and ultimately gives much pause for thought.

Once I started reading this book I just couldn't put it down. The writers have to be complimented on their research and their writing. So much information, yet no chance for boredom. An excellent read and highly recommended.

Reading this over a period of time as there are so many stories of heroism contained herein. A great read for when you have those few moments to sit down with a good book.

It was an unfortunate fact of war that Allied airmen would have a roughly equal chance of being shot down on a sortie as they had of returning home completely unscathed and without damage to their aircraft. Of those shot down, less than half survived to be interred as a POW. Once in a POW camp, it was the intention of most to secure an escape and to return to Britain and active service. Although a small percentage did contrive an escape, very few achieved the ultimate aim, a 'Home Run'.

Some of those who were shot down were lucky and avoided internment, and either encountered a Resistance worker or someone who knew someone who had helped others to escape and to return home. These and those who had wormed their way out of a camp were collectively the Evaders.

This group was not exclusively airmen but included soldiers captures in North Africa or on a 'Raid', of which there were several from fairly soon after the outbreak of War, and some Naval personnel who may have been taken in some engagement and the sinking of their vessel. Although there were specific aircrew camps, Stalug Luft xx, there were not the naval or soldier equivalents. As evaders, a number from different services and possibly different countries of origin may come together and experience the same situations.

This book is their collective stories.

The author co-author, John Nichol, is their modern-day equivalent. As a navigator on board a bomber he and his pilot were shot down during the first Iraqi war and interred for several months.

Made up of 13 chapters.

Average chapter 30-40 pages on Average a hour a chapter and roughly main 13 hours of reading (just under)

Hard to put down, made me emotional at o e pint d certain story and I read 180 pages non stop I just dug not wanna put the book down.

Having read many special force book which include, escape evade survival elements etc, first book on workf two i read reflecting this topic

Next up I reading:

John Nichols: the last escape

& Damien Lewis: SAS X2 Books called escape stories of WW2

Home Run gives an excellent insight into a little researched area of WW2, namely the airman turned evaders and their helpers in Europe.

It really makes you appreciate the risks that everyday French, Belgian and Dutch people took for the war effort. It is at times, a harrowing read, particularly reading the horrors that the Gestapo inflicted on helpers of the evaders.

Home Run explains that the Germans didn't just save their barbarity to the Jewish population but many revelled in pain and torture as an everyday part of life.

Having collected WWII escape books/stories for a number of years, and after reading so many positive reviews, I decided to add this to my collection. The style of narration coupled with real-life recollections didn't really work for me, and overall I found it a bit of a muddle. There were also elements that were repeated. To hear of men pinned to the floor of a burning spinning aircraft created tension, empathy and excitement, but after each vignette I was also left feeling like I wanted to know more. That's where the disappointment comes in, it's relatively shallow in style and a little bit too "matter of fact".

Sehr gute Qualität

Liefrung wahr Schnell und zuverlassig genau so muss sein

würde weiter geben an bekannten die hier in Deutschland wohnen

es ist schoin dass diese möglichkeit gibt buche aus Deutschland in English direkt zubestellen

hi, we got the book Monday Sept 15 noon.. thank you so much