33 Months as a POW in Stalag Luft III: A World War II Airman Tells His Story

Air Power History, Fall, 2006 by Braxton Eisel

33 Months as a POW in Stalag Luft III: A World War II Airman Tells His Story. By Albert P. Clark. Boulder, Colo.: Fulcrum Publishing, 2004. Photographs. Maps. Bibliography. Index. Pp. xvi, 207. $17.95 Paperback ISBN 1-55591-536-1

This conversational-style book is an interesting view of one man's experiences as a German prisoner of war (POW) during World War II. Then-Lt. Col. Clark (he retired years later as a lieutenant general) was the second U.S. airman and, for many months, the highest ranking U.S. officer shot down and captured by the Luftwaffe. Though the book is less detail-oriented than the classics on the subject, Clark relates his thoughts and emotions in a no-nonsense way. He doesn't gloss over his feelings about certain other prisoners and/or some of the treatment he endured, but he also doesn't sling mud. He simply makes statements such as, "I could find no warm feelings for him when he showed up at our reunions."

Clark describes, briefly, his being a member of the first U.S. fighter group to arrive in England in 1942, his introduction to combat, and the circumstances that resulted in his shootdown and capture. Most of the book is his description of settling into life within a POW camp and his role as the senior American officer in the camp.

Stalag Luft III was the Luftwaffe-run Allied airman POW camp immortalized by the "The Great Escape" book and movie. Following a mass breakout of 76 airmen, the Nazis recaptured all but three and executed 50 of them. Clark played a leading role in the organization and operations of the POW escape machinery. Moved just prior to the escape, he missed his chance to be one of the ones who made it "out of the wire."

Clark moves back and forth in time while narrating his story. He will tell of an incident involving a German guard and then mention seeing the same man at reunions and sharing camaraderie with him years later.

The photographs are the best feature of the book. These clandestine pictures, taken at great risk by the POWs from a home-made camera, depict the bleak, monotonous existence that was POW life. Clark kept and presented a great store of POW-related material to the USAF Academy--including these photographs.

For a "big-picture" view of issues surrounding World War II European POW issues, this is not the book to read. For a touching, human voice to what it was like inside these camps, Clark did an excellent job relating his memories of his time as a "guest" of the Luftwaffe.

Lt. Col. Braxton Eisel, USAF, Washington, D.C.