POWs Escape Across Europe
'Four Packs to Freedom' is the story of Basil Brudenell-Woods, a private in the Australian Infantry Forces who was taken captive after just a few days action in North Africa. He endured over three years as a prisoner of war in Italy and Germany before he volunteered for duty at a labour camp with the sole intention of making a break for freedom.
On the night of June 28, 1944 Basil and the three others squeezed through a hole they had dug in the camp wall and began their eighty-days on the run across Czechoslovakia.
Basil and his mates had many close shaves including numerous encounters with German soldiers and Gestapo agents and being shot at while escaping across a gorge in a flying fox. Their final escape to Italy in the midst of one of the most important uprisings of World War Two can only be described as miraculous. Aside from good luck and cunning, Basil and his comrades owed their success above all to the Czech and Slovak resistance fighters who sheltered and assisted them at every stage.
The book is based on a diary, and what shines through most is Bas himself: his straightforward nature, his courage and gentle soul.
