Piece of Cake is a truly outstanding account of the life and day to day routine of a World War POW in Stalag 4B. Geoff Taylor’s eye for detail, powers of description and wry sense humour make this both an immensely readable and a massively insightful book. First published in 1955, the British paperback edition illustrated above came out in 1957. The book has been reprinted since and should be fairly easy to obtain. See the search link at right for available secondhand copies
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RAAF Flt Sgt Geoff Taylor was a pilot in a 207 Squadron RAF Lancaster which was shot down on 18/10/43 on a mission to Hanover. All seven crew survived their crash landing and became POWs. Taylor ended up at Stalag 4B with the POW number 259915. According to W R Chorley’s book Royal Air Force Bomber Command Losses of the Second World War 1943, the other members of his crew and their POW numbers were:
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Sgt D J Duff 263669
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Sgt A G McLeod (POW number not listed)
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Sgt C R Smith RCAF 261188
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Sgt A R Burton 261241
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Sgt W Worthington 259927
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F/Sgt W J McCarthy 259887
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Looking at the numbers it’s obvious that Taylor, McCarthy and Worthington were still together at the time their Stalag 4B numbers were assigned.
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