At 19, Ern Brough signed up for the biggest adventure of his life, fighting with the Anzacs at Tobruk and El Alamein. At 22, he was a prisoner of war. But Ern and his mates were determined not to spend the rest of the war behind bars. Their aim: to make a break for Italy to rejoin the army, at any cost…In a nerve-wracking dash for freedom, they travelled by night, swam icy rivers, climbed mountain passes and crossed borders within metres of German guardposts. Exhausted and starving, and with only the infamous Yugoslavian partisans as allies, they would need to escape capture again and again to reach journey’s end. Ern’s incredible courage during the war earned him the Military Medal. But this is also the story of Ern’s life after the War, and the actions at home that have made him a local hero to this day. This edition brings Ern’s amazing story to a new host of readers, many only a few years younger than he was when he made his great escape.