The Long Way Home: The Other Great Escape

by John McCallum, Trevor Royle (Introduction), George Robertson (Foreword by)

Overview

At the age of nineteen, Glasgow-born John McCallum signed up as a Supplementary Reservist in the Signal Corps. A little over a year later, he was in France, working frantically to set up communication lines as Europe once more hurtled towards war. Wounded and captured at Boulogne, he was sent to the notorious Stalag VIIIB prison camp, together with his brother, Jimmy, and friend Joe Harkin. Ingenious and resourceful, the three men set about planning their escape. With the help of Traudl, a local girl, they put their plan into action. In an astonishing coincidence, they passed through the town of Sagan, around which the seventy-six airmen of the Great Escape were being pursued and caught.

However, unlike most of these other escapees, John, Jimmy and Joe eventually made it to freedom. Now, due to the declassification of documents under the Official Secrets Act, John McCallum is finally able to tell the thrilling story of his adventure, in which he recaptures all the danger, audacity and romance of one of the most daring escapes of the Second World War.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780857902344
Publisher:	Birlinn, Limited
Publication date:	03/23/2021
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	160
File size:	689 KB

About the Author

John McCallum was born in Glasgow in 1917, and was brought up there and in Oban. He left school aged 14 to work as a Boy Messenger in the Post Office. Aged 18, he transferred to its Engineering Department as a trainee and spent two years on external telephone work, later being transferred to indoor work on switchboards. He joined the Supplementary Reserves in the Royal Signal Corps in 1935, where his step-brother Jimmy O'Neill was already enlisted.

Trevor Royle is a broadcaster and author specialising in the history of war and empire. He is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh and is also a member of the Scottish Government's Advisory Panel for Commemorating the First World War.

John McCallum was born in Glasgow in 1917, and was brought up there and in Oban. He left school aged 14 to work as a Boy Messenger in the Post Office. Aged 18, he transferred to its Engineering Department as a trainee and spent two years on external telephone work, later being transferred to indoor work on switchboards. He joined the Supplementary Reserves in the Royal Signal Corps in 1935, where his step-brother Jimmy O'Neill was already enlisted.
Trevor Royle is a broadcaster and author specialising in the history of war and empire. He is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh and is also a member of the Scottish Government’s Advisory Panel for Commemorating the First World War.