On the night of August 30, 1942, these officers staged the boldest and riskiest mass escape during the war by crossing the huge perimeter fences of the Oflag VI-B camp in Warburg using wooden scaling contraptions instead of tunnelling.
"Zero Night: The Untold Story of the Second World War's Most Daring Great Escape" by historian Mark Felton is billed as the first book published on the most dangerous mass escape of World War II.
Months of meticulous planning and secret training hung in the balance during three minutes of mayhem as the prisoners charged the camp's double perimeter fences.
Published by Icon Books, the rip-roaring "Zero Night is distributed by in India by Penguin Books.
Telling this remarkable story in full for the first time, historian Felton evokes the suspense of the escape itself and the adventures of those who eluded the Germans, as well as the courage of the civilians who risked their lives to help them in enemy territory.