The story opens in the stinking latrines of the Schubin camp as an American and a Canadian lead the digging of a tunnel, which enabled a break involving 36 prisoners of war (POWs). The Germans then converted the camp to Oflag 64, to exclusively hold US Army officers, with more than 1500 Americans ultimately housed there. Plucky Americans attempted a variety of escapes until January 1945, only to be thwarted every time.
Then, with the Red Army advancing closer every day, camp commandant Colonel Fritz Schneider received orders from Berlin to march his prisoners west. Game on! Over the next few days, 250 US Army officers would succeed in escaping east to link up with the Russians - although they would prove almost as dangerous as the Nazis, only to be ordered once they arrived back in the United States not to talk about their adventures. Within months, General Patton would launch a bloody bid to rescue the remaining Schubin Americans.
In The Big Break, this previously untold story follows POWs including General Eisenhower's personal aide, General Patton's son-in-law, and Ernest Hemingway's eldest son as they struggled to be free. Military historian and Paul Brickhill biographer Stephen Dando-Collins expertly chronicles this gripping story of Americans determined to be free, brave Poles risking their lives to help them, and dogmatic Nazis determined to stop them.
"A detailed look at the escape attempts by intrepid British and American POWs from Nazi camps near the end of World War II...An exciting account from a passionate author who has done the necessary research."
Kirkus Reviews
"Stephen Dando-Collins brilliantly illuminates the Shubin break of 1945, both the largest breakout by US prisoners-of-war in history and the biggest Allied escape of World War II. He skillfully traces the irrepressible desire for freedom that bound the more than 250 escapees from Oflag 64 as they hit home runs for their liberty, often with the help of the Polish resistance. With a cast of names
Professor Philip Samponaro, Department of History, The University of Texas, Rio Grande Val
"Gripping...unearths the incredible tale of the brave and ingenious 250 American POWs who threw off the clutches of the German army while on the march in 1945."
