War behind the wire: Australian prisoners of war. Michael Caulfield. 2008.

More than 34,000 Australians have been taken prisoner of war - and one to three Australians who died in World War II was a POW. But we know more about Australia’s battles  than we do of the stories of our men - and women and children - that were held prisoner.

In War Behind the Wire many of these stories are finally told - the men rescued from HMAS Perth as it sank, only to enter the hell of the Thai-Burma Railway: the flyers shot down over Europe who took part in the Great Escapenfrom Stalag Luft III; the women and children imprisoned for years by the Japanese whirlwind; and the men caught and tortured by the Chinese in Korea.

Prisoners lost years of their lives, wasting away behind the wire, often enduring unimaginable cruelty. Precious years, ruthlessly taken from a youth they could never regain. They lived through a world where only the fundamentals mattered - food, discipline, some small skerrick of hope…….and precious, fragile survival.

These are the stories of mateship and how the magnificent work of inspirational doctors and officers kept so many alive. And then there are the stories of betrayal - not by the enemy, but by their own……