Why did I love this book?
Saturday was the codename given to Airey Neave when he worked for MI9, the branch of military intelligence for escape and evasion in World War Two. Neave has achieved legendary status as the first British man to successfully escape from Colditz Castle, Leipzig in Germany in 1942, and make it back to England.
This fortress – nicknamed ‘the camp for naughty boys’ by British officer POWs – was believed by the Germans to be impenetrable and from which no prisoner could ever escape. Neave’s success vastly raised the morale of airmen and soldiers going into action because they knew it was possible to escape from such camps.
Neave was perfectly placed to write this first history of MI9, placing on record the establishment and running of the major escape lines as well the bravery of thousands of women and men of Nazi-occupied countries who aided MI9 and saved over 35,000 Allied personnel.
Their legacy went beyond this to smuggle intelligence out for the Allies. This personal favourite of mine is a timeless narrative that remains one of the foremost classics on MI9, its intelligence operations, agents, and wartime espionage.
This is one of those books that made a pivotal turning point in my career and inspired me to write my book on 'MI9: Escape & Evasion'.
