Horned Pigeon

This astonishing autobiography is one of the best books I've read, and judging from the fact that I am its first reviewer, it may be on of the best books that you've never read. This is the tale of a British officer captured early during the North African operations, and who is then imprisoned in Italy by the buffoonish and soon-to-be-without-ally Italian army, and who is then transferred to chilling wartime Germany, where he ultimately escapes. The detail is shockingly deep, and Millar must have kept a journal during his adventures or his recollection must have been sharp (or this is heavily embellished). I was interested in the picture of wartime Europe, particularly France, where the lines between friend and enemy were not always clear, and the German conquerors lived among a seemingly cooperative workaday population that was in fact always ready willing and able to subvert the Nazis in any way possible, even if that meant risking their own lives to gain the freedom of an escaped British officer. I was interested to note that Millar owed much to the bravery and sacrifice of women who worked in the underground Resistance movement; I later read elsewhere that Millar was a particular handsome man. Hmmm - wonder if there was a connection. Millar's mental resourcefulness, besides being properly British, is a joy to read about. [...] Anyway, this is a great story and well told, and Millar deserves much more fame and attention than he has - as is the case for so many extraordinary players in WWII history.

George Millar wrote a number of interesting books, starting with his rather extraordinary experiences as a prisoner of war. Captured during the desert campaign, he was taken into Italian hands (from which he almost escaped), before being moved to Germany and a much more serious sort of imprisonment at the hands of the Nazis. Yet he managed to escape, jumping from a train on the final leg of a transfer and then making his way from the heart of Germany into France. There he undergoes still further adventures with all sorts of folk that he hopes are in the Resistance, but is never quite sure. It's a mad tale, that only a war could provide, and it is well told by this future writer who went on, in the latter stages of the war, to act as an agent for the Maquis, the much-feared French underground movement based in the south of France. He has written a number of novels recounting his wartime experiences and several of them, notably this one and "Road to Resistance," tend to repeat the same story overmuch. Nevertheless, the experience is authentic, the writing extremely competent and the action informative and entertaining at the same time.