Thanks to the folk over at Pen & Sword Books for providing this book for review.
Captured at Arnhem is a bizarre book. Its not a book you could just sit down and read as its more of a resource material. But what do I mean by resource material… well….
The book itself is 576 pages long and in those pages we do not actually have the story of the men who were captured at Arnhem. What we do have is a very detailed look at questionnaires that men who were captured at Arnhem were requested to fill in upon their return to the UK after the war.
Despite their best efforts to make everyone fill these in only about a third were completed which comes to nearly 2’500 individuals.
The questions cover things such as identification… they filled in their name, rank, number and unit. They were asked if they were interrogated, what life was like in the camp and what if anything they did to sabotage the enemies day to day procedures.
It is an interesting book but as a casual reader it is not one you would sit down with a cup of tea and start reading from cover to cover.
It is aimed at researchers who are perhaps interested themselves in what these forms contained or perhaps family members of servicemen who were actually captured at Arnhem. This would give them a look through the keyhole of what they experienced… but just a glimpse as the answers as you can imagine were quite brief from men returning to Blighty and wanting to get back to their friends, loved ones and family.
The book is a resource so bear that in mind when thinking of purchasing it. If resource is your angle it is priceless… and speaking of price… if you want to purchase this book you can find it by following this link.
