CAMERA IN COLDITZ. by Baybutt, Ron - 1982

London: Hodder and Stoughton, 1982. 128 pp, large 8vo (9 7/8" H). Profusely illustrated with b&w photographs. "Colditz Castle is the Eiger North Wall of World War Two POW camps. It was the ultimate fortress for the bravest and the best, for the most ingenious, most determined and daredevil spirits who had already effected an exit from lesser establishments of the Third Reich. From Colditz, it was boasted, there could be no escape. The stories of those Allied officers who took up the challenge are now well known. But here for the first time a book gathers together a collection of the authentic official German photographs, actually taken on the spot within hours of various foiled escape attempts being discovered. Sometimes they are pictures of the stable door after the horse has fled successfully over the distant border. They were taken between the years 1941 and 1944 by Johannes Lange, a local Colditz town photographer of weddings and christenings, deputed by the Third Reich to record what the war's most persistent escapologists were up to. Lange's camera also recorded escape equipment ingeniously devised by the backroom boys, from a compass in a walnut shell to a glider which was mercifully saved from the ultimate test of the launch pad by the end of the war. The stories are desperate and amazing, funny and tragic by turns, but always exciting. (This) is also a tribute to the ingenuity and invincibility of the human spirit." Soft crease at top corner of first three leaves, small area of discoloration at top edge of title page and the preceding page, minor wrinkling at top/bottom of spine. Dust jacket is price clipped, very light wrinkling at top of spine and flap-folds, very light rubbing.. First Edition. Hard Cover. Very Good/Very Good.