We Die Alone : A WWII Epic of Escape and Endurance

Howarth, David

ISBN 10: 1558219730 / ISBN 13: 9781558219731

Published by Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, Incorporated, 1999

About this Item

Former library book; may include library markings. Used book that is in clean, average condition without any missing pages. Seller Inventory # 5810066-6

Bibliographic Details

Title: We Die Alone : A WWII Epic of Escape and ...

Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, Incorporated

Publication Date: 1999

Binding: Soft cover

Condition: Good

Edition: 1st Edition.

About this title

Synopsis:

One of the most exciting escape narratives to emerge from the challenges and miseries of World War II chronicles Jan Baalsrud’s escape from Nazi-occupied arctic Norway.

Review:

If this story of espionage and survival were a novel, readers might dismiss the Shackleton-like exploits of its hero as too fantastic to be taken seriously. But respected historian David Howarth confirmed the details of Jan Baalsrud's riveting tale. It begins in the spring of 1943, with Norway occupied by the Nazis and the Allies desperate to open the northern sea lanes to Russia. Baalsrud and three compatriots plan to smuggle themselves into their homeland by boat, spend the summer recruiting and training resistance fighters, and launch a surprise attack on a German air base. But he's betrayed shortly after landfall, and a quick fight leaves Baalsrud alone and trapped on a freezing island above the Arctic Circle. He's poorly clothed (one foot is entirely bare), has a head start of only a few hundred yards on his Nazi pursuers, and leaves a trail of blood as he crosses the snow. How he avoids capture and ultimately escapes--revealing that much spoils nothing in this white-knuckle narrative--is astonishing stuff. Baalsrud's feats make the travails in Jon Krakauer's Mt. Everest classic Into Thin Air look like child's play. In an introduction, Stephen Ambrose calls We Die Alone a rare reading experience: "a book that I absolutely cannot put down until I've finished it and one that I can never forget." This amazing book will disappoint no one. --John J. Miller