At the age of nineteen, Glasgow-born John McCallum signed up as a Supplementary Reservist in the Signal Corps. A little over a year later, he was in France, working frantically to set up communication lines as Europe once more hurtled towards war. Wounded and captured at Boulogne, he was sent to the notorious Stalag VIIIB prison camp, together with his brother, Jimmy, and friend Joe Harkin. Ingenious and resourceful, the three men set about planning...

Author's Note and Acknowledgements read by the author. The inspirational true story of an Allied prisoner of war appointed Kapellmeister to the Nazis in Auschwitz. When called up to fight in yet another World War, Drum Major Jackson promises his beloved wife Mabel he will return to serenade her once again. But when he's captured, transported to Poland and imprisoned in Auschwitz IV, his dream is shattered. That's until his Nazi captors appoint him...