Book release : September 2012 - North to the Apricots

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Sergeant Bruce Crowley was the first New Zealand prisoner of war to make a successful escape from a German stalag back to Britain in World War II. For this he was awarded the Distinguished Conduct Medal by General Sir Bernard Freyberg. Years later, aged 80, Bruce related his remarkable story to well-known writer and historian Julia Millen.

Growing up in poverty in Auckland during the Depression years, Bruce Crowley was eager to join the army, not least because they supplied recruits with new boots. In 1939 he embarked with the 1st Echelon for the Middle East where his unit, 4th Reserve Mechanical Transport was soon in action. Deployed to Greece in 1941, the Allies faced overwhelming enemy power. Bruce was captured at Tolos Beach after the Allied withdrawal in April 1941. En route to Germany he jumped from a train and spent several months in hiding amongst friendly Greek villagers. Recaptured he was later sent to the infamous Lamsdorf prison in German-occupied Poland.

North to the Apricotsrecounts Bruce’s exploits amongst kindly Greek villagers, hardships endured in German captivity and daring escapes. The final – successful – escape to freedom is an epic tale of kiwi ingenuity, comradeship, courage and tenacity.

Book release : September 2012 North to the Apricots The escape stories of Sergeant Bruce Crowley dcm New Zealand prisoner of war in Greece and Germany 1941-1943 as told to Julia Millen
Writes Hill Press for Bocoman Ltd, Wellington, 2012 • ISBN 978-0-473-21416-6

Julia Millen is best known for the biographies of New Zealand novelists Guthrie Wilson and Ronald Hugh Morrieson. Her numerous and diverse works of social history include Salute to Service, the Royal New Zealand Corps of Transport and its predecessors, and histories of legal firm Bell Gully, LIANZA, Kirkcaldie & Stains, IHC New Zealand, the New Zealand National Forest Survey and the Wellington Vintage Car Club. Her most recent book, Fair Weather Trampers: In the New Zealand bush with the Cock & Bull Tramping Club, was published in 2011.

ENDS

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