The march on London : covert operations in the Battle of the Bulge, December 1944

By the autumn of 1944 it was clear to all who wished to see that Germany was facing inevitable defeat.

Many there were, however, who did not wish to see. One of these was Adolf Hitler himself, who decided that the tide of war could be turned by one massive thrust through the Ardennes to retake the channel ports on which the Allied supply line depended.

Others equally blind to reality were to be found in prisoner-of-war camps scattered throughout the British Isles.

These hardcore fanatics, or 'blacks' as they were labelled in the current jargon, dismissed the truth as crude allied propaganda and chose rather to believe Hitler's boast that the Ardennes offensive would indeed drive the allies out of Europe once more.

What could they, pent up as they were, do to help their comrades fighting to the death in the snow-clad forests above Bastogne?

To start with they could stage a mass escape and create thereby a security scare of unprecedented magnitude.

If enough escaped they would then march on London, with who knows what results.

Naturally enough there are few written records of this extraordinary story and Charles Whiting has pieced it together largely through interviews with the few survivors from those dramatic days.

It is indeed a most remarkable tale, but one which, as the author himself admits, leaves quite a number of intriguing questions unanswered.