MAJOR PAT REID AND MAURICE MICHAEL - Prisoner of War. The Inside Story of the POW From the Ancient World to Colditz and After

London England, Hamlyn, 1984. First Edition, Binding: Cloth, Fine/Very Good. 8vo - over 7¾" - 9¾" Tall Octavo 0600347060 Harcover Hardback. First Edition. Prisoners of War. Very slight shelf wear to edges of D/J. and corners. When Richard Coeur de Lion captured 15 enemy knights in 1198, he blinded all but one. The latter was spared an eye in order to lead his companions back to the French army, which was considered an act of clemancy at the time. By 1758 under the Elightemnet, the French thinker Vattel declared that once a man surrendered, his life was sacrosantct, and the treatment of prisoners at the hands of the French and English armies at this time was examplary. But in the 1940s the terrible stories filtering out of the German and Japanese camps suggested that the wheel had come full circle. Every age and every culture has had its prisoners of war and its own code of conduct toward them, and this fact makes this book a study of unique interest. Recounting the personal histories of POW from many times and cultures, it is provocative, anecdotal and often disquieting. The book is the fruit of much patient research and its fresh approach sheds new light on a shadowy area of military history. Illustrated. 192 pp.