During the final days of the Second World War, for 900 Allied officers held by the Germans, freedom was still a world away. Marched east by their captors, away from the liberating American forces, March and April 1945 was a time of great trials, at the mercy of vengeful Nazis and Allied air raids. Amongst their number were men whose names would become famous post-war, such as actor Desmond Llewellyn, cabinet minister Frederick Corfield and Major Bruce Shand, father of the Duchess of Cornwall.

The March East 1945 draws on official and eyewitness accounts, as well as over 30 diaries and memoirs. With more than 120 photographs and exceptional illustrations taken and drawn by PoWs as well as the German instructions for camp evacuation, it reveals the human story that unfolded in Hesse, Thuringia and Saxony, and explains how the prisoners survived until their final liberation.

PETER GREEN’s father, Alan Green 1 Border, was imprisoned in Oflag IX A/Z at Rotenburg an der Fulda, after being captured at the end of Operation Market Garden. Cuttings from Illustrated magazine of May 1945 describing the camp’s evacuation featured in the family album kept by his mother. They always fascinated Peter as a child. After the death of his father he discovered his father’s POW diary and an album of photographs of the march, and he decided to try and learn more about his life at Rotenburg and the camp’s walk eastwards away from the Americans. Like his father, Peter was born in Leicestershire, although the family’s roots go back to Nidderdale, in Yorkshire. Following a career in government science and technical public relations, he created and now leads an Internet–based research news service for the world’s media. Peter is married and lives in Swindon, England.