The Madness of Courage

Group Captain Gilbert Insall holdsa unique record: he is the only person to have both won a Victoria Cross andescaped successfully from a German prisoner of war camp during the First WorldWar. The Madness of Courage describes how, when forced down by enginedamage after destroying a German fighter, Gilbert ignored intensive shelling inorder to repair his aircraft and return to base. But a few weeks later, he wasshot down and captured. And thus began a distinguished career in prisonbreaking.

He tunnelled out of Heidelbergprison camp and later hid among boxes on a horse-drawn cart to get away fromCrefeld, each time being recaptured. Then, in Stroehen, Gilbert and severalcompanions concealed themselves in a claustrophobically small space they hadexcavated under the floor of the bathhouse. They remained there for seventeenhours, while a fruitless search for them was carried out, and eventuallyemerged and successfully reached Holland.

Meticulously told by Gilbert'sgreat-nephew, the critically acclaimed intelligence historian Tony Insall, TheMadness of Courage is a gripping true story about a remarkable man at atime before the Geneva Convention was signed, when conditions for prisoners ofwar were often appalling and the British War Office did little to helpprisoners escape. Instead, Gilbert's family, assisted by French intelligence,gave him the support he needed to break out of captivity in an extraordinaryfeat of bravery, resilience and ingenuity.