Zero Night by Mark Felton

This is the story of an unusual escape attempt from a POW camp in Germany. Most escape attempts were made by tunnelling, as portrayed in the movie The Great Escape. But sometimes a better idea comes along…

It was interesting to learn that every British POW camp had an escape committee, headed by a person identified as “X”. All escape attempts had to be evaluated and approved by the committee and by X. They also had a division, called “Q” for quartermaster, tasked with making the items necessary for a successful escape, including clothes, maps, compasses, etc.

Initially, it was hoped to take 250 men out, but due to material shortages and other considerations, the number was scaled back to 32.

Zero Night follows the story of this daring, non-traditional escape, from the moment the prisoners walked through the gates of Oflag VI-B, through the inspiring idea of building a contraption that would allow the men to go over both fences with lightning speed, to the hurdles of proving to the escape committee that such an attempt had a high probability of success, to the engineering and preparation, to the actual escape, and finally to the escapees' attempts to get out of Germany and return to Britain.

Mark Felton recounts many of the complications of life on the run behind enemy lines. Even children posed a danger, as they could report the presence of escape prisoners. Although most of the escapees were recaptured, some quickly and others after being on the run for a while, a few did manage to escape. Even those who were recaptured were successful in that they tied up German resources in hunting for them.

This is a well-written book about human ingenuity under great pressure. It is an encouragement not to dismiss ideas just because they are unusual or difficult. One thing is for certain: While the Germans often searched for tunnels, they never saw this plan coming!

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