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!

Don't be put off by the recent "out of print" status, this book is a great true story of a prison breakout in WW2. You can also easily pick it up through Amazons second hand bookstores for a relatively cheap price.

Written by the escapee himself, it retains all its charm and spirit since it first received rave reviews in the late 1940s to early 1950s.

The breakout came from a novel, yet brilliant idea inspired by the Legend of the Trojan Horse- ie to use a gym vaulting horse as cover to hide an inmate who dug a tunnel to the nearest concentration camp fence. It succeeded, but I won't ruin the story with all the details, you will have to read it yourself! Rest assured the book is well written, and as it is told by one of the escapees himself it has a certain charm, readability and authenticity about it.

Getting out was just the first part, the escapees still had to travel across most of Germany to reach home, right amidst the heartlessness and desparation of WW2. I found the description of the lives of everyday German people within a major war as soulful, revealing and harrowing as the concentration camp itself.

A remarkable story, a great and uplifting novel, sure to inspire for many years to come. No mundane "political correctness" here, truthfully told and recorded with all the desperation, fear, and courageous spirit of many involved in the war-on both sides.

There was a film also made in the 1960s I think, which was almost as good as the book, but not quite. Of similar genre to The Wooden Horse is "the Great Escape", also made into a film, but the Wooden Horse is more realisitic and better done overall in my opinion.

Uplifts the spirit.

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!