Colonel Doyle R. Yardley was the commanding officer of the 509th Parachute Infantry Battalion, who was captured and later escaped from a German Prisoner of War

Prisoner of war

A prisoner of war or enemy prisoner of war is a person, whether civilian or combatant, who is held in custody by an enemy power during or immediately after an armed conflict...

 camp.

Career

During the invasion of Italy, the 509th was dropped behind enemy lines near Avellino

Avellino

Avellino is a town and comune, capital of the province of Avellino in the Campania region of southern Italy. It is situated in a plain surrounded by mountains 42 km north-east of Naples and is an important hub on the road from Salerno to Benevento.-History:Before the Roman conquest, the...

. Col. Yardley was captured and spent 16 months as a prisoner of war in Oflag 64 in Szubin, Poland

Poland

Poland , officially the Republic of Poland , is a country in Central Europe bordered by Germany to the west; the Czech Republic and Slovakia to the south; Ukraine, Belarus and Lithuania to the east; and the Baltic Sea and Kaliningrad Oblast, a Russian exclave, to the north...

.

Diary

He kept a diary of his war experiences which he left behind when he escaped from the camp. It was returned to him after the war and languished in an old military footlocker in Texas until found by his nephew, who published it under the title Home Was Never Like This.