Authorised Version
THE most astounding fact in this book is one which will appeal only to registered escape-addicts, for whom it is in some sense the first authorised dose. In June, 1943, when the great Stalag Luft III tunnel, which eventually led to the escape of seventy-six officers, was already under construction, and the whole vastly intricate organisation of 600 diggers, engineers, forgers, tailors, watchers and sand-dispersers was under way, boxes of sand from the tunnel were for a time left regularly under the camp beds during German Parades. Only those who have learnt to appreciate the ant-like care and patience with which escaping activity had to be carried out under the permanently applied noses of the German security staff will realise what a fantastic drop in standard this appears to have been. The reason? 'The Escape Intelligence system,' writes Mr. Crawley, 'was so good that the chances of an un- heralded search could be ignored.'
What Mr. Crawley of course doesn't tell us there—we are left to discover it in the preface or, to the accompaniment of an irritating misprint, on the jacket—is that he himself played a leading part in the Escape Intelligence system of Stalag Luft III. In so august an atmosphere of respectful hush one might be Inclined to accede to such reticence from the later Under- Secretary of State for Air (and Independent Television News Editor-in-Chief); but it is perhaps worth mentioning what the head of a prison-camp Escape Intelligence system looks like on the job. This one was known as 'Stafford' Crawley—on capture he had thought the Germans might be too interested in his earlier intelligence work in the Balkans if he gave his real name —but most of the time he wore neither cloak nor dagger but a rather too long pair of khaki shorts with a hole in the seat in Which the present reviewer used to see him, a tall, eager-looking figure, daily making his way barefooted through the sand with a Pile of books under his arm to the office of the camp kitchen. There, with equity and efficiency he distributed the meagre rations provided by the Germans, and, in the not inconsiderable intervals of leisure which this afforded, studied history, politics, languages and literature, and edited rather censoriously a camp magazine called the Spectator. On other occasions he could be seen, immaculate and debonair, tripping his way expertly across the Parole stage in camp revues, delighting every sort of prisoner and
British and Germans alike with his Huibertian-Astairean capers.
It would not be right to see these activities solely as a blind for his excellent organisation of contacts and information about searches, roads, bridges, railways, restaurants and frontier cross- ings. The prisoner's attitude to escape was psychologically a more complex affair than a mere wish to do his duty or enjoy temporary freedom from barbed wire. Escape had to be integrated into his personality in a way which would not dominate it even if it was to be the most important single element in it. It is true, as Mr. Crawley says, that an RAF prison camp was, as a com- munity, geared to escape. It is also true, as he also says, that most of the people in it spent most of their time not contemplating escape. To be a good escaper you had to be a good prisoner. It was just this personal balance and sense of proportion that made Mr. Crawley such a good camp intelligence officer and which has now enabled him to write the nearest thing to a full 'true-in-the-round' account that is ever likely to appear about RAF escaping from Germany.
ROBERT KEE
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