Bascomb recounts the dramatic escape of British POWs from a German prison camp during World War I. The Holzminden POW camp was established to manage escape-prone prisoners, but escapees tunneled their way out of the compound before a harrowing journey to safety. Most of them were pilots, and Bascomb attributes their daring exploits to the daredevil nature of the airmen. He eschews a linear narrative to tell how the men ended up in Holzminden, sometimes...

"Imprisoned in a remote Turkish prison camp during World War I, having survived a two-month forced march and a terrifying shootout in the desert, two British officers, Harry Jones and Cedric Hill, join forces to bamboozle their iron-fisted captors. To stave off despair and boredom, Jones takes a handmade Ouija board and fakes elaborate séances for his fellow prisoners. Word gets around camp, and one day, a Turkish officer approaches Jones with a...