War Behind the Wire
John Lewis-Stempel
Reading Time
at 250 WPM5h 42m
The average reader, reading at a speed of 250 WPM, would take 5h 42m to read War Behind the Wire.
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12
days at 30 min/day
342
total minutes
War Behind the Wire
Published
2014
Publisher
Weidenfeld & Nicolson
Pages
342
ISBN-13
9780297608080
Description
On capture, British officers and men were routinely told by the Germans 'For you the war is over'. Nothing could be further from the truth. British Prisoners of War merely exchanged one barbed-wire battleground for another. In the camps the war was eternal. There was the war against the German military, fought with everything from taunting humour to outright sabotage, with a literal spanner put in the works of the factories and salt mines prisoners were forced to slave in. British PoWs also fought a valiant war against the conditions in which they were mired. They battled starvation, disease, Prussian cruelties, boredom, and their own inner demons. And, of course, they escaped. Then escaped again. No less than 29 officers at Holzminden camp in 1918 burrowed their way out via a tunnel (dug with a chisel and trowel) in the Great Escape of the Great War. It was war with heart-breaking consequences; more than 12,000 PoWs died, many of them murdered, to buried in shallow unmarked graves. Using contemporary records - from prisoners' diaries to letters home to poetry - John Lewis-Stempel reveals the death, life and, above all, the glory of Britain's warriors behind the wire. For it was in the PoW camps, far from the blasted trenches, that the true spirit of the Tommy was exemplified.
Subjects
A foreign field
The escaping club
To Ruhleben--and back
Catalogue of airdropped facsimile postal stationery World War 1 1916-1918
Sixteen Months in Four German Prisons
The escape artists
Frequently Asked Questions
How many pages are in War Behind the Wire?
This edition of War Behind the Wire has approximately 342 pages. Please note, this is an estimate and the exact page count can vary between hardcover, paperback, and e-book versions.
How long does it take to read War Behind the Wire?
For most readers, War Behind the Wire typically takes between 7h 8m and 4h 45m to complete. This is based on the book's length of approximately 85,500 words and common reading speeds.
Here's a detailed breakdown: • Continuous reading at 250 WPM: approximately 5h 42m of focused reading • Casual reading (30 minutes/day): you could finish in roughly 12 days • Estimated word count: 85,500 words
Your individual reading time will vary based on your personal reading pace, the amount of daily reading time, and your familiarity with the subject matter.
What is the word count of War Behind the Wire?
The estimated word count for War Behind the Wire is approximately 85,500 words. This figure is calculated using industry-standard methods that consider genre-specific word density patterns, typical formatting and layout characteristics, and standard words-per-page ratios for published books.
This is an approximation — actual word count may vary based on font size, formatting, edition, and the presence of illustrations or charts.
Who is the author of War Behind the Wire?
War Behind the Wire was written by John Lewis-Stempel .
When was War Behind the Wire published?
The publication date for this specific edition is 2014. The original work may have been published on a different date.