What would it be like to be trapped deep underground for six long years with no hope of rescue or escape? Inspired by a true story and actual events, Entombed is one of the most astonishing untold stories to emerge from the era of the Second World War.
Six German soldiers led by Captain Hans von Roth are accidentally buried alive in a vast subterranean stores bunker at the port of Gdynia, Poland, in 1945. At first they believe they will soon be rescued, but as the weeks drag into years it becomes appallingly clear that the men will almost certainly face a terrifying death in the grim darkness that surrounds them. Meanwhile, in Berlin, Hans von RothEsquo;s wife, Erika, is desperately attempting to survive the fall of the city and the Russian hordes destined shortly to occupy it. Facing starvation, massive aerial bombing, Soviet shelling and a host of other dangers, she is also attempting to discover what has become of her lost husband.
In Entombed, the author has woven a tale of great love and a desperate struggle for survival like no other. The story literally pushes all the frontiers of human frailty and courage to their very edges.
Astonishing and True
What is astonishing about ‘Entombed’ by Tony Matthews is that this absolute page turner is based on a true story.
How could six German soldiers be buried alive underground for six years? Impossible right? Wrong. Impeccably researched with a great attention to detail ‘Entombed’ flows and evolves along its historically accurate linear timeline in a way that just when you think ‘this has to be the end’, it just keeps giving.
The plight of Captain Hans Roth and his men, their ingenuity, their spirit, their will to survive, their despair and desperation is told in parallel to that of Hans’ wife Erika, herself desperately trying to survive in the bombed out ruins of Berlin during the last years of the war, but never giving up hope that one day she will find Hans or learn of his fate.
Not all German soldiers and civilians were Nazi’s and idolised Hitler, and I loved how this theme is also explored through the characters and their situations. As to are the themes of enduring love and having hope when all hope appears lost.
The story and characters really resonate from the page and you ride the whole emotional and physical rollercoaster with them. Though set in wartime, this is not a war book as such. It is a story of the indomitable human spirit that is told in such a vividly engaging and engrossing way, that it lives with you afterwards.
Warren, 21/12/2021
