TEN MINUTES TO BUFFALO: THE STORY OF GERMANY'S GREAT ESCAPER. by Steinhilper, Ulrich and Osborne, Peter - 1991

Bromley: Independent, 1991. 432 pp, large 8vo (9 7/16" H). B&w maps, plans, photographs, reproductions. "Having fought throughout the Battle of Britain, Ulrich Steinhilper was shot down as he flew his Messerschmitt Bf 109-E on bomber escort duty. As the wing turned over London it was attacked by 74 Squadron, 'The Tigers', and Sergeant Bill Skinner in a Spitfire was to claim the 'kill'. So it was that in late October 1940 Ulrich was to begin a phase of his life which would stretch him, at times, to the limit of physical endurance and at another to the edge of insanity. He was to become a prisoner of war, but he was not a man to embrace something as alien as imprisonment lightly and so he was to dedicate himself to the idea of escape. This is the remarkable story of the man who was to become one of the select few, popularly known as 'Die Ausbrecherkonige von Kanada' (the breakout kings from Canada). It is a singularly remarkable history of innovation, courage and, at times sheer audacity. The detailed record of the life of one very unusual German prisoner of war. It is entirely written from documents which were laboriously hand-written in 1943 and which, through a remarkable series of events, were returned to Ulrich Steinhilper in 1953. It is not, therefore, the reminiscences of events which occurred fifty years ago, coloured and tainted by the passage of time, but the accurate and historically correct diary of an exceptional young man." Creasing and repair to top corner of rear paste-down, small piece torn from top corner of free rear endpaper, wrinkling at top/bottom of spine. Dust jacket has heavy wrinkling at top of spine, light wrinkling at top/bottom of rear flap-fold and top edge of front panel, light rubbing on rear panel with a few very light indentation lines.. First Edition. Hard Cover. Very Good/Very Good.