Ticket to Hell Via Dieppe

London: Webb and Bower Ltd,. Very Good/Very Good. 1982. First Edition. Hard Cover. 8vp 0906671620 Dust jacket complete. Black cloth with bright gilt titling on spine. Name on half title. Numerous photographs in colour & b/w/ 192 pages clean and tight. This fascinating memoir of three years spent in Stalag IXC deep within the Third Reich recreates in rich detail what life was like behind barbed wire. Prouse was one of almost 2,000 men captured after the slaughter on the beaches of Dieppe on August 19, 1942. He had been anxious to taste battle and jumped at the chance to be part of the `reconnaissance-inforce' that proved to be one of the most disastrous and tragic actions of the war. He recounts how he was pinned down on the stony beach between the incoming tide and the withering German fire, how he was wounded and captured and cared for before being shipped to his new home in the heart of Europe. From then until the camp's liberation in April, 1945, Prouse and his fellow POWs struggled to survive and escape - to escape the sense of hopelessness that drove some to wander dazed toward certain death, to escape the longing that drove others into `married quarters'. Prouse has drawn on the rich resources of his wartime log, secreted all those years beneath the barracks floor, to portray those struggles as well as the thrill of short-lived freedom, the humour of plays and dances, the terror of air raids, and the hope for liberation. The stories are told with warmth and humour and are illustrated with photographs rifled from camp files, mementoes looted after liberation, camp posters, cartoons, maps, newspapers and poetic doggerel that captures the spirit of the time. .