Crossing the Wire

Australian prisoner-of-war, Corporal Lancelot Davies, taken prisoner at the first battle of Bullecourt, on 11 April 1917 – along with another 1,200 Australians captured there – he described the future as ‘blank’ and unpredictable. The experiences of Australian prisoners of war (POWs) or Kriegsgefangeners held captive in Germany has been largely forgotten or ignored – overshadowed by the horrid stories of Australians imprisoned by the Japanese during World War II. Yet, as David Coombes makes known, the stories are interesting and significant – not only providing an account of what those young Australian soldiers experienced, and the spirit they showed in responding to captivity – but also for the insight it provides into Germany in the last eighteen months of the war.