In 1944, 76 Allied POW airmen escaped their prison camp through a secret tunnel. Although 50 of these men were later executed by the Nazis, their heroic efforts to disrupt German forces became legendary, entering fully into popular history through the Hollywood movie The Great Escape. Canadian Wally Floody was one of the 600 men who worked for years to make the prison break possible, but he didn’t get to escape; just weeks ahead of the planned date, he was transferred to another camp, where he remained until the end of the war.

In The Tunnel King, popular writer Barbara Hehner (The Spirit of Canada) has drawn on Floody’s wartime journals as well as newspaper accounts and family stories to paint a compelling portrait of this generous, gifted, and humble Canadian hero. She describes in engrossing detail the resourcefulness and inventiveness of the POWs (called “kriegies”) in devising and building three escape tunnels. As a former miner, Floody was a key figure in engineering and executing these projects, and several times was almost buried in falls of sand. After the war, he worked tirelessly on behalf of the RCAF ex-POW association and the Red Cross, whose wartime support he never forgot.

Hehner crafts a sophisticated biography that deftly interprets complex vocabulary and military history for a young audience. Her parenthetical explanations are supported by a map, glossary, and historical note about the more than 10,000 Canadians who became POWs in the Second World War. The book does a valuable service in bringing to light a Canadian legend and experience that have been overshadowed for too long by the American film version (for which Floody was a technical adviser). An exciting and often very moving tale, The Tunnel King will keep readers glued to the page.