How the young Winston Churchill escaped from a prisoner-of-war camp

The future prime minister sat at the bottom of a coalmine, clutching a bottle of whisky. He had fled from a prisoner-of-war camp, stowed aboard a train and jumped off in the middle of nowhere. The enemy were hunting for him. If caught, he would be locked up again; those who had helped him would be shot.

Escape would be tricky. He was absurdly conspicuous: a red-headed Englishman in Africa, who knew none of the local languages. “Wanted” posters mocked his “stooping gait” and “almost invisible moustache”.