"Ned Handy describes the start of the night, in the winter of 1944 when he and a fellow American POW would try to break out of Stalag 17, Germany's notorious prison camp. One of them would become the only POW to escape and fight once more against the Nazis." "Handy was one of the 4,300 American fliers shot down over Germany and dumped into Stalag 17. He and his comrades were young men who, every day, had to seek new and ingenious ways to stay alive and outwit their German captors. By turns suspenseful thriller and tender memoir, The Flame Keepers recounts in vivid detail one of the great untold stories of World War II." "Through fellowship, resourcefulness, and sheer grit, these men managed to keep their spirits unbroken and maintain an unwavering devotion to the idea of escape. Handy and the men in his barracks would dig one of the Stalag's most memorable tunnels and find themselves quite unexpectedly at the center of Stalag 17's greatest drama. Sixty years have not dimmed Handy's memory and, with co-author Kemp Battle, he has returned again to those thirteen months in Stalag 17. The Flame Keepers is an inspirational book; it reminds us of the warriors behind the Nazi wire who fought their way to freedom with their greatest weapons: their own hearts and minds."--BOOK JACKET.