The Ones Who Got Away

Presentation and Book Signing

During World War II, the intrepid airmen of the Mighty Eighth Air Force of the USAAF took the war into the heart of Hitler’s Third Reich. In those terrible battles in the skies over occupied Europe, 50,000 of these airmen were shot down. More than half died and nearly half were captured. BUT, about 3,000 escaped death and evaded capture. These are the stories of the ones who got away!

There are stories of harrowing escapes from the Gestapo, and of men betrayed by their helpers, and of men nearly freezing to death on mountain trails. One man, picked up by pro-Nazi French police faked an appendicitis because it was easier to escape from a hospital than a jail. His plan went sideways, and he woke up without an appendix—and convalescing in a German military hospital. But he got away!

 One American was on the verge of being arrested by the Spanish police as a smuggler on a snow swept mountain trail because he had no ID to prove he was an American. Luckily, he thought to show them his pocket comb with “US Army” stamped on it. This worked, and he was allowed to face a horrible blizzard alone— but without fear of prison. Some downed airmen wound up fighting the Germans with the underground. One volunteered to take over operating a clandestine radio for the Belgian underground. Another man found himself as the getaway driver for a band of Resistance bank robbers.

But they all got way!