My favourite types of book to read are the true escape stories during various conflicts, but in particular the Second World War. With the advancing age of the people involved these tales are nearly becoming extinct, especially when told from a firsthand perspective. However this book was originally published in 1954 so I am unsure how I missed coming across it before.

Charles McCormack was captured in the Japanese invasion of Singapore the author becomes imprisoned in one if the infamous POW camps. Knowing that to stay will only result in barbaric treatment accompanied with malnourishment and eventually death, a plot is hatched for a number of the prisoners to escape. In total seventeen manage to make it out, but things are not as simple as they would have hoped. Out of the original seventeen only two would reach safety alive, bullets & disease would claim the rest. The distances traversed are nothing short of amazing, the whole journey covered over 2,000 miles with help only being received through wary villagers who they could never really knew could be trusted or not.

If you are a fan of this type of book then you can’t really go far wrong and it adds an extra perspective on the war in the Pacific. At times elating, at others extremely sad, you really begin to understand the difficulties faced and just how superhuman these people were. In these modern times of counselling for just about everything from a broken fingernail to failing an exam, a lot can be learnt from the past. ( )

Weakened by hunger, thirst and ill-treatment, Charles McCormac, a World War Two prisoner-of-war in Japanese-occupied Singapore, knew that if he did not escape he'd die. With sixteen others he broke out of Pasir Panjang camp and began the two-thousand-mile escape from Singapore via Java and Sumatra to Australia.

True story of Charles McCormac's escape from Japanese prison camp in Singapore during WW I I and along with an Australian, their 5 month jungle trek back to freedom. Their journey harrowing, their resilience amazing. ( )

You'll Die in Singapore - Charles McCormack ****

My favourite types of book to read are the true escape stories during various conflicts, but in particular the Second World War. With the advancing age of the people involved these tales are nearly becoming extinct, especially when told from a firsthand perspective. However this book was originally published in 1954 so I am unsure how I missed coming across it before.

Charles McCormack was captured in the Japanese invasion of Singapore the author becomes imprisoned in one if the infamous POW camps. Knowing that to stay will only result in barbaric treatment accompanied with malnourishment and eventually death, a plot is hatched for a number of the prisoners to escape. In total seventeen manage to make it out, but things are not as simple as they would have hoped. Out of the original seventeen only two would reach safety alive, bullets & disease would claim the rest. The distances traversed are nothing short of amazing, the whole journey covered over 2,000 miles with help only being received through wary villagers who they could never really knew could be trusted or not.

If you are a fan of this type of book then you can’t really go far wrong and it adds an extra perspective on the war in the Pacific. At times elating, at others extremely sad, you really begin to understand the difficulties faced and just how superhuman these people were. In these modern times of counselling for just about everything from a broken fingernail to failing an exam, a lot can be learnt from the past. ( )