Shot Down and on the Run: True Stories of RAF and Commonwealth Aircrews of WWII
These extraordinary true stories retell the experiences of British, Canadian, Australian and other Commonwealth airmen who survived behind enemy lines. Based on first-hand accounts and the little known official debriefs, they evoke both the heroic characters and the hostile terrain they endured including:
· The Halifax pilot shot down in northern Germany who walked and cycled over 1000 miles to safety in Barcelona
· The Wellington crew who were rescued after a 400-mile, 28-day trek through an African desert
· The pilot officer who fell in love with a Dutch resistance fighter; she was betrayed and sent to Ravensbruck, yet both lived to get married after the war
Illustrated with rare photographs of evaders and their rescuers, the book also explores the organization and evasion by the shadowy Military Intelligence body MI9.