“No Picnic on Mount Kenya: A Daring Escape, a Perilous Climb”

by Felice Benuzzi

version in my library:

Gibbs-Smith Publisher
ISBN 0-87905-341-0
c) 1953, 1981

a latter edition:

The Lyons Press.
ISBN 978-1592287246
c) 2005

This is a wonderful adventure book. No
combat is in its pages. It is about some
Italian POWs in Kenya who plot an escape.
Not your typical escape however – they
figure its impossible to get to Axis controlled
territory or the closest neutral territory.

(It was much easier to get out of POW camps
in Africa than Europe, but once out a group
of Whites wandering around instantly aroused
suspicion)

So they plan the next best thing – a mountain
climbing holiday up Mt. Kenya! Mt. Kenya is
5,199 m, and quite a challenge, even for well
equipped climbers. So you can imagine how
hard it would be to gather the gear needed in
a POW camp.

For instance, their “map” was a picture taken
from a can of Mt. Kenya brand meat. Benuzzi
has a great sense of humor (one chapter is
titled “How we moved from mountaineering
to other sports such as girdle-tightening &
meal jumping).

I recommend this book highly!

It is worth getting the earlier version if
you can. I thought the introduction was
better.