How many airman escaped the continent?

Hi,

Thanks for all your replies. In fact I was interested to know how many escaped from the continent before the invasion at the 6th of June 1944. I assume that after the invasion it became relatively easy to reach the allied forces. Many civilians in occupied Europe risked there lives by helping these downed airman, I’ve read that is was for the crews always a relieve when the left German airspace, in case they crashed or bailed out in the occupied countries there was at least a change to get help from the resitance.

Regards,

Mathieu.

Are we talking about evaders who were never captured or escapee’s from POW camps as well ?

I stayed in a Gite in Normandy a few years back where a Scottish Pilot had been hidden having been shot down . He & the brave people who his him had an interesting time up to the time that American Forces liberated the area. To hear the story from the grand daughter of the folks who helped him was a fascinating experience. I understand that he continued to visit up untill his death which i think was sometime in the early 1990’s.

Obviously there are a fair few POW books out there but one with a bit of a difference is ” Not all Glory ” by Victor Gammon.

I don’t know how many the total was, but I understand that 616 Squadron had the record as an indivdual unit, 7 in total including the only RAF Bof B pilot shot down over enemy territory to make it back.

Hi all,

I read about a Free French Bomb aimer who when their Halifax was in a particualrly nasty spot of Flak decided to jump rather than wait for the plane to be hit.

Wouldn’t that be classed as desertion?

Hi Mathieu

Even though I have lost my copy of the MI9 book I have found the following details which I had used in a presentation at one stage. This covers all 3 services, an escaper is someone who has been captured and then escaped whereas an evader is someone who has never been captured hence the higher number of officer evaders as they were mainly aircrew.

Cheers Paul

WW2 – 15 million prisoners worldwide
Commonwealth and US escapers, approx 23,000 or 0.15%
Escapers, Offr 1,536, OR’s 21,869
Evaders, Offr 3,698, OR’s 6,655
Most in the European and Mediteranean theatre of operations, SE Asia very low
Sombre thought, 6.25 million Russians captured by Germany, 5 million died i captivity

Three Spit XII drivers made the walk back that I can think of of the top of my head. Stan May & Tom Slack of 41 Squadron, and Red Blumer of 91 Squadron. They all went down over France in 1943 and came out through Spain.

Tom Slack went down again in a Spit XII in August 44 and finished up in a POW camp.

Oberleutnant Franz Von Werra was shot down on 5 September 1940. His first escape attempt was in early October. The famed Hucknall attempt was in December 1940 and the Canadian escape attempt was in January 1941.

The Hucknall escape attempt has been reconstructed for NAM’s soon to be released education DVD about Airfields in Nottinghamshire.

As for evading there are some good European websites that detail specific escape routes / organisations.

In many respects a lot depended on date, location and luck. I have involvement with one 619 Squadron crew that were shot down in late June 1944. One person landed on one side of a canal in Belgium / the Netherlands, he evaded and made it back to the UK via Antwerp in just over 8 weeks. Three crew members landed on the other side of the canal, they were captured and were eventually part of the ‘forced marches’ out of Sagan in 1945.

Though he eventually escaped in Canada, wouldnt Franz Von Werra be a candidate?

There is a book called “MI-9 Escape and Evasion in WW2” that has a comprehensive list of evaders by theatre of operations in the back. Sadly I can’t find my copy, must have lent it to someone.

Paul

I don’t have a copy to hand but aren’t there lists of ‘evaders’ in the back of the ‘Bomber Command Losses’ books?

Hi,

I have read several articles about shotdown airman that managed to get back to England after long and dangerous journeys. But is there any information about how many managed to escape the continent? I read about an airgunner who was back in England after only 8 days, must be a record!

Best regards,

Mathieu.

Hi all,

I read about a Free French Bomb aimer who when their Halifax was in a particualrly nasty spot of Flak decided to jump rather than wait for the plane to be hit.

Being French and landing in France he blended in and was bundled back across the lines and was back at Elvington before the rest of the crew.

They had landed at Woodbridge with engine trouble.

Paul.

THE WOODEN HORSE !

Well add two more RAF flyers in the classic tale of escape….. “The Wooden Horse” !…Good question for sure! I bet one of our fine forum members know !

BlueNoser352