Twenty Days in the Reich

In this thrilling WWII memoir, a Royal Air Force navigator recounts his time as a POW in Germany just as Allied forces marched toward victory.

On March 15th, 1945, three crew members of a Bomber Command Lancaster baled from their crippled aircraft over Germany’s Rhur Valley. All three were soon captured and handed over to German guards who escorted them over 120 miles to a POW camp. In Twenty Days in the Reich, RAF navigator Squire “Tim” Scott recounts his experience behind enemy lines.

With Allied forces quickly advancing, the transportation system was in chaos. The small party traveled by one of the few remaining trains and sometimes resorted to hitchhiking. Though the nights were bitterly cold, the two guards were surprisingly sympathetic. Scott was amazed by the civility of the local people, a stark contrast to the horrific tales of how Allied POWs were treated. Before they were rescued by Allied forces, twenty-twp days after baling out, the three had only spent fifteen days as prisoners and only thirty-six hours behind barbed wire.