Escape artist : the incredible Second World War of Johnny Peck / Peter Monteath. Incredible second world war of Johnny Peck

Collection type Library
Author Monteath, Peter, author.;
Call Number 940.547245 M772e
Document type Monograph
Year 2017. 2017. 017
Pagination xiii, 288 pages, 24 unnumbered pages of plates : illustrations, map, portraits, plates ; 24 cm.
Publisher NewSouth Publishing, NewSouth Publishing,
Note Includes bibliographical references (pages 248-279) and index. In August 1941, an eighteen-year-old Australian soldier made his first prison break - an audacious night-time escape from a German prisoner-of-war camp in Crete. Astoundingly, this was only the first of many escapes. An infantryman in the 2/7 Battalion, Johnny Peck was first thrown into battle against Italian forces in the Western Desert. Campaigns against Hitler's Wehrmacht and Luftwaffe in Greece and Crete followed. When Crete fell to the Germans at the end of May 1941, Peck was trapped on the island wi th hundreds of other men. On the run, they depended on their wits, the kindness of strangers, and sheer good luck. When Peck's luck ran out, he was taken captive by the Germans, then the Italians. Later, after his release from a Piedmontese jail following the Italian Armistice of 1943, and at immense risk to his own life, Peck devoted himself to helping POWs cross the Alps to safety. Captured once more, Peck was sentenced to death and detained in Milan's notorious, Gestapo-run San Vittore prison - until e scaping again, this time into Switzerland. Historian Peter Monteath reveals the action-packed tale of one young Australian soldier and his remarkable war.
Place made Sydney, NSW : Sydney NSW

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