This story of life in a German prisoner of war camp is different from the normal British POW story, as the author was a Gunner in the Royal Artillery - not an officer - who was accepted by the German Authorities as a Medical Orderly and, therefore, Protected Personnel. As such, he gives a unique portrait of being a prisoner of the Germans. He gives graphic descriptions of the day to day life in POW camps and his tasks and experiences as a medical orderly over the five year period. He also gives a vivid account of what turned out to be a forced three month, one thousand mile march, from Poland into Germany in the height of winter towards the end of the war and his experiences as a medical orderly. Out of the three thousand who started the march, he writes, only seven hundred survived.