View Full Version : The Long Walk
Warrior-Mentor
11-28-2005, 13:05
Ordinarily a book review would go under that forum, but because this one has such a direct application for candidates training for the SF Pipeline, it fit better here...
THE LONG WALK: The True Story of a Trek to Freedom by Slavomir Rawicz is the story of a Polish Cavalry Lieutenant who escaped from a Soviet Prison Camp in April 1941. He and 6 other prisoners then walked 4,000 miles through Siberia in winter, through Mongolia and the Gobi Desert in Summer; through Tibet and the Himalayan Mountains and finally to India.
The only tools they had was an axe and a knife. They left the prison camp with a week's supply of food. It took them almost 12 months to accomplish the long walk.
I'd place this third on a list of must read's before SFAS, right behind GET SELECTED and MAN'S SEARCH FOR MEANING by Viktor Frankl.
Cast or Tab,
JM
The Reaper
11-28-2005, 16:07
Got it. Great read, some discussion over whether the story is true or not.
Humping out of Siberia through the Gobi Desert and over the Himalayas to India is bizarre route selection, but it certainly avoided the likely spots.
TR
..... is bizarre route selection, but it certainly avoided the likely spots.
TR
One nice thing about being in team rooms at lunch time in the 70s was talking with the older SF guys, the DPs from Europe at the end of WW II.
Right after I got in group I was tasked to give part of a winter warfare training program to a battalion of the 82nd. One of the older MSGs, Zabados (sp?) heard and just started chatting with me about winter warfare. His knowledge smoked all the books I had. I picked his brain for the rest of the day and part of the next.
He spoke English as a second language and had be around the Check area in WW II fighting the Germans. He walked out to the American side and joined the US Army. Was in SF by the 50s. His story came out in bits and pieces over that day and a half and it was all mater of fact and off hand. We would be talking of anchoring mines in the snow and he would relate how his method worked against German tanks.
By the early 80s most of those guys were gone.
Oh, well, just a thought on a rainy evening.
Warrior-Mentor
11-28-2005, 19:30
Got it. Great read, some discussion over whether the story is true or not.
Humping out of Siberia through the Gobi Desert and over the Himalayas to India is bizarre route selection, but it certainly avoided the likely spots.
TR
I'm sure that not having a map or compass had a big part to do with it. Their choices were limited by knowledge of the globe and using the sun for navigation. East was the shortest route, but they felt it had a high risk of compromise (most likely for the Russians to look during a search). North (to the Arctic) and West (through Russia) were out, which left South....
Makes my ODA E&E plans that were anywhere from 40-200 miles look like a walk in the park....
Excellent book to read. If everything is true, the man went through some of the toughest obstacles I have heard of. They talked about this book a lot at USAF SERE school. Another good book to read, and yes there was a movie about it with Steve McQueen is "Papillion". Good book on how this frenchy convict and his buddies survived in South America.
One more thing, anyone seen the new show on the Discovery channel called "I shouldn't be alive" Pretty good show.
Ok back to lurking.
Cheers
ObliqueApproach
12-01-2005, 10:45
Neo, good reference with Papillion. Great read! I think there is a movie as well.
FS, if you haven't read WM's book, maybe this will help. You can have a "cast" without a "tab", you can have a "tab" without a "cast", you can also have a "tab" with a "cast", but it requires "True Grit" and 100mph tape to make the walk back to Bragg.
Believe it or not, the 28 guys in my SFAS class with "True Grit" had pink ones!
Hope this helps!
First post in a long time. Hope y'all are doing well.
A classmate of mine who was NOLS grad was a part of a team who used The Long Walk as a cultural guide and retraced the route. Apparently they went the distance, though I'd imagine with REI and no one chasing them it went substantially easier for them then our Polish officer. They have a report of it on the NOLS website. Cheers, Books
cback0220
12-09-2005, 22:54
I just read the book, good read, but some things just do not make sense. While in Tibet they were told by the locals to get in a caravan to go through the mountains. Why would they not do this? They had nothing to fear in Tibet. Then they came across a river that would flow to the ocean, and instead of following it( which to me makes more sense) they walked over the rugged mountains. I just did not understand alot of it. Still liked the book though.
Warrior-Mentor
12-10-2005, 22:19
I'm sure they had no formal training in E&E.
Besides, by that point in their trek they probably weren't thinking very clearly...
The Reaper
12-10-2005, 22:42
Then they came across a river that would flow to the ocean, and instead of following it( which to me makes more sense) they walked over the rugged mountains.
This is not necessarily so.
There are several inland seas, some in the Soviet Union.
TR
This is not necessarily so.
There are several inland seas, some in the Soviet Union.
TR
In that part of the world a river edge can make for some hard walking. Also the rivers do not travel in a straight line, they twist and turn. A local knows the fastest/shortest way to get from point A to point B.
The weather in the mountain passes and high areas can also be unpredictable and harsh for outsiders. Best to travel with people from the area.
Pete
Read it in three evenings, outstanding book.
The last sentence really sums up how they managed to survive.
frostfire
12-18-2005, 01:35
Read it in three evenings, outstanding book.
The last sentence really sums up how they managed to survive.
Mrs. W,
assuming the last sentence won't spoil the whole book, would you mind writing them here. I'v e been collecting wise and powerful sayings that I occasionallly pulled into good use whenever the body wants to quit. Thanks in advance.
Mrs. W,
assuming the last sentence won't spoil the whole book, would you mind writing them here. I've been collecting wise and powerful sayings that I occasionallly pulled into good use whenever the body wants to quit.
I don't know if this falls into that category, but I still think it explains the strongest factor in how he made it. After he watches the last of his companions go on his seperate way, he ends the story with,
I felt suddenly bereft of friends, bereft of everything, as desolate and lonely as a man could be.
I ran across The Long Walk in high school. it was an incredible story.
happy to see WM recommends it-- lets me know there's some common ground between me and the people who already made the long walk to the tab.
Louis L'amour wrote a similar piece of fiction called Last of the Breed - about a Native American USAF officer raised in the ways of his ancestors by his grandfather who is captured during the Cold War and interred in a Gulag, escapes and heads East through the Tioga following the route of his ancestors to North America. The Soviets look for him heading West to Europe but a Yakut tracker for the Soviet security forces understands what's happening and goes after him against their orders. A good read of a struggle between man, society, and nature.
Richard's $.02 :munchin
As hard as it is for me to get my father to talk about his history, my father had told me several times about the stories of hardship of his father and grandfather. His grandfather had been captured by the Russians and sent to a Siberian Gulag, which he later escaped and took him two years to walk back on foot to Poland. Then his father was also captured by the Russians after fighting the Germans in the Warsaw Uprising, while the Russians were sitting on the other side of the river letting the resistance weaken. Then as he was taken to a barn to be executed for participating in the uprising, he broke free and killed his captors. I'd like to one day have everything documented and written down, and maybe perhaps published so this history does not get lost or become forgotten.
In regard to The Long Walk, I remember a Captain was reading it during SERE school and highly recommended it to me. I have still yet to read it, but is on my list to read in the future after I am done with my schooling.