I’ve often thought something about escape and/or evasion would be well worthwhile, there are numerous surviving recollections of those who’ve been involved to work with.
For example, there was Bertram ‘Jimmy’ James who was shot down in 1940 and ended up in various prison camp escape attempts. He was involved in the Great Escape, was held in Sachsenhausen concentration camp (he escaped from there too only to be re-captured) before finally being marched into the Austrian alps alongside the ‘Prominente’ from Colditz and threatened with execution. He passed away recently, but his book ‘Moonless Night’ gives a good account of his life as a PoW.
On the evasion side of things, you couldn’t get much luckier than Bob Barclay who was shot down in a 3 Sqn Hawker Typhoon near Dunkirk. Climbing toward cloud after attacking a train, the control column was severed by flak and the last thing Barclay remembered was diving vertically toward the ground from only about 300ft. He woke up in the wreckage, and in his dazed state proceeded to have a pistol shoot-out with a Wermacht officer who’d come to capture him. Barcaly escaped into woods after they both ran out of ammo. He was then helped by the Resistance and finally escaped via Spain after several months on the run. Barclay gives a good account in ‘Forgotten Voices of the RAF’, compiled by Max Arthur.
Sorry for rambling on a bit, but these are just a couple of stories that stand out for me…
Edited to add, and don’t know why I didn’t mention sooner: Part of the reason I feel so strongly about escape and evasion stories is that few, if any, successful escapes were made without the assistance of some very ordinary but very brave people in the occupied countries. For example, Barclay wouldn’t have made it to Spain without the priest’s housekeeper who hid him until she could make contact with the resistance, and ofcourse the resistance people themselves deserve recognition.
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