Pat Reid - Publications

Publications

• The Colditz Story (Hodder & Stoughton, 1952) was Reid's memoir of his time in Colditz, which later became the basis for the 1955 film The Colditz Story, directed by Guy Hamilton, with John Mills playing Reid. Although focusing mainly upon life inside Colditz and the development of an 'escape academy', the final chapters of the book are devoted to Reid's own escape. The book chronicles everyday prison life, in which characters such as Douglas Bader and Airey Neave appear with no special mention, reporting events in an anecdotal and almost comical style. On 14 October 1942 Reid, along three other British officers, escaped and made their way to neutral Switzerland. What Reid does not mention in his book is that he escaped using Hans Larive's Singen route. Larive, a Dutch naval lieutenant, attempted his first escape from Oflag VI-A in Soest in 1940, but was caught at the Swiss border. The interrogating Gestapo officer was so confident the war would soon be won by Germany that he told Larive the safe way across the border. Larive memorized the information, and many prisoners later escaped using this route.
• The Latter Days (Hodder & Stoughton, 1953), republished as Latter Days at Colditz : Whilst his first book ended with Reid and Wardle shaking hands under the first Swiss lamp post, the sequel follows the trials and tribulations of the escape committee until the eventual liberation of the castle by U.S. troops on 15 April 1945. It gives even more anecdotal insight into the events following his escape, including the French Tunnel and the Colditz Glider, or the occasion when the entire Dutch contingent unhooked their P.O.W. railway carriage from the rest of the train unbeknownst to the German guards. This last part of the Dutch prisoners cannot be confirmed by any Dutch reference about POWs. Reid probably refers to the mass escape of Dutch officers from train transports towards the end of the war when they were transported from Stanislau to Neubrandenburg.
• Colditz (Hodder & Stoughton, 1962) : This was an omnibus edition of the previous two books, and served as the basis for the BBC Television series Colditz, which ran from October 1972 until April 1974. Reid served as technical advisor to both the TV series and the 1955 film.
• From Nile to Indus : Economics and Security in the Middle East, with Sir Olaf Caroe and Sir Thomas Rapp (Conservative Political Centre, 1960)
• Winged Diplomat : the life story of Air Commodore Freddie West, VC, CBE, MC (Chatto & Windus, 1962)
• My Favourite Escape Stories (Lutterworth Press, 1975)
• Prisoner of War : The Inside Story of the POW from the Ancient World to Colditz and After, with Maurice Michael (1983)
• Colditz: The Full Story (1984) : While the first two books can be read as adventure narratives, and have a distinctly ‘Battler Briton’ ethos of ‘sticking one up to the goons’ this book takes a more analytic approach, and covers a number of previously suppressed details. For example Reid describes some of the ways prisoners obtained contraband material, and how British prisoners communicated clandestinely with the authorities in London. He also gives a full account of how prisoners discovered the 'Singen Escape Route'. He also deals with some of the tensions and tragedies of wartime Europe, for example the tensions in the French contingents between Gaullists and supporters of Pétain. The tensions in the Polish contingent are still skated over however. The book was written while Poland was still a Communist state (indeed while the 1981 state of emergency was still operating). Having been schooled at Clongowes, Reid’s comments on individuals seem to show sympathy for the ‘Conservative Catholic Patriot’ officers at Colditz, without giving enough background to allow readers to assess whether there were any continuing controversies around some of these positions.