The Flame Keepers

In the Spring of 1944, Ned Handy’s B-24 bomber was shot down on a mission into Germany. Handy and his fellow survivors were sent to Stalag 17, a crowded, disease-ridden POW camp that held thousands of Allied soldiers and operated by its own cruel rules.

From the beginning, Handy set out to escape, relentlessly digging a tunnel underneath a barracks. As he dug, Handy forged friendships and uneasy alliances, survived Gestapo searches and a vicious beating, helped save the lives of wanted men and befriended a German guard. When the moment came for Handy to escape, fate would intervene as he and his fellow prisoners began a brutal march West—towards freedom or death....

This is a powerful, moving memoir of an ordeal that brought out the best and the worst in men. A must-read for World II buffs and anyone interested in the true nature of war, The Flame Keepers is a story of suffering, camaraderie, horror and survival—and one young man’s awakening to the power of humanity itself.