Von Ryan’s Express (Von Ryan #1) (1964)

 by David Westheimer

This is a very good adventure novel, but there is more going on beneath the surface. 

During World War II, a strict American officer takes command of Allied prisoners in an Italian prison camp, and his insistence on discipline makes him deeply unpopular with the men, but they gradually come to respect him as he leads their escape.

 

The qualities that initially make Ryan hated—his stubbornness, attention to detail, and insistence on discipline—are largely the same qualities that make the escape possible. 

Author David Westheimer also makes an interesting case that self-discipline and even basic self-care help create the frame of mind in which people can accomplish things that otherwise seem impossible. 

David Westheimer

Once the escape gets underway, roughly a thousand prisoners seize the train that is transporting them, converting an instrument of their captivity into the means of their liberation. 

Westheimer then piles one practical problem upon another as they must maintain military organization, disguise themselves, operate the train, deceive enemy personnel, negotiate checkpoints, and keep moving toward safety.

 This keeps the story moving, although the obstacles sometimes feel more like temporary interruptions than genuinely escalating disasters: a problem appears, Ryan improvises a solution, and the train continues. 

Ryan and the other prisoners are memorable and well-drawn within the requirements of an adventure novel, although significant things sometimes happen to Ryan without Westheimer showing clearly enough how they transform him internally. 

The book also benefits from Westheimer’s own experience as a B-24 navigator who was shot down over Italy in 1942 and became a POW, eventually spending time at Stalag Luft III, later famous for “The Great Escape.” 

His experience gives the setting a lived-in quality that distinguishes the book from a generic wartime adventure.

"Von Ryan's Express" (Italian)

"Von Ryan's Express" (Spanish)