'The never-before-told story of World War II escape artist extraordinaire, Johnny Peck. In August 1941, an eighteen-year-old Australian soldier made his first prison break - an audacious night-time escape from a German prisoner-of-war camp in Crete. Astoundingly, this was only the first of many escapes. An infantryman in the 2/7 Battalion, Johnny Peck was first thrown into battle against Italian forces in the Western Desert. Campaigns against Hitler's Wehrmacht and Luftwaffe in Greece and Crete followed. When Crete fell to the Germans at the end of May 1941, Peck was trapped on the island with hundreds of other men.
'On the run, they depended on their wits, the kindness of strangers, and sheer good luck. When Peck's luck ran out, he was taken captive by the Germans, then the Italians. Later, after his release from a Piedmontese jail following the Italian Armistice of 1943, and at immense risk to his own life, Peck devoted himself to helping POWs cross the Alps to safety. Captured once more, Peck was sentenced to death and detained in Milan's notorious, Gestapo-run San Vittore prison - until escaping again, this time into Switzerland.
'Historian Peter Monteath reveals the action-packed tale of one young Australian soldier and his remarkable war.' (Publication summary)
'John Desmond Peck enlisted in the Australian Imperial Force (AIF) in October 1939. Although he was born on 17 February 1922, he declared he was born on 16 February 1919. Author Peter Monteath suggests that, like others of his generation, the 17-year-old’s motivation for early and under-age enlistment derived from a yearning for new challenges and adventure. As Escape Artist: The Incredible Second World War of Johnny Peckattests, the young serviceman encountered many challenges and much adventure during combat with the 2/7th Battalion AIF against Italian forces at Bardia and Tobruk, and against the Germans in Greece and on Crete, and as an evader and escaper behind the lines on Crete and in Italy. He was 19 when he went into battle for the first time at Bardia; 20 when he was stranded for months on Crete after the Allied evacuation; 21 when he established an evasion network in Italy after the September 1943 Armistice; and 22 when he faced execution by the Gestapo, became an operative for the Special Operations Executive (SOE), fought with Italian partisans, and at one point commanded approximately 450 men and 30 officers. As his biography’s strapline claims, Peck’s war was ‘incredible’.' (Introduction)
'John Desmond Peck enlisted in the Australian Imperial Force (AIF) in October 1939. Although he was born on 17 February 1922, he declared he was born on 16 February 1919. Author Peter Monteath suggests that, like others of his generation, the 17-year-old’s motivation for early and under-age enlistment derived from a yearning for new challenges and adventure. As Escape Artist: The Incredible Second World War of Johnny Peckattests, the young serviceman encountered many challenges and much adventure during combat with the 2/7th Battalion AIF against Italian forces at Bardia and Tobruk, and against the Germans in Greece and on Crete, and as an evader and escaper behind the lines on Crete and in Italy. He was 19 when he went into battle for the first time at Bardia; 20 when he was stranded for months on Crete after the Allied evacuation; 21 when he established an evasion network in Italy after the September 1943 Armistice; and 22 when he faced execution by the Gestapo, became an operative for the Special Operations Executive (SOE), fought with Italian partisans, and at one point commanded approximately 450 men and 30 officers. As his biography’s strapline claims, Peck’s war was ‘incredible’.' (Introduction)
