View Single Post
  #8  
Old 7th February 2006, 00:37
Laurent Rizzotti Laurent Rizzotti is offline
Alter Hase
 
Join Date: Dec 2004
Location: Paris, France
Posts: 2,917
Laurent Rizzotti is on a distinguished road
Re: French hand over of downed Luftwaffe crews in 1940

Quote:
Originally Posted by Jim P.
The lead sentence at the head of the thread strikes as a somewhat disingenous statement. The German advance was so rapid that many of the POWs were in fact rescued by their own forces. I think the French and British forces may have had some higher priorities, such as keeping their own butts out of German POW camps, than worrying about the transfer of POWs. The same occurred in Holland and Belgium as well.
Just to add a precision: all pilots named in my post were still in French captivity (AFAIK) at the time of the French armistice. I didn't list about 20-30 other pilots that were freed by their own troops before this date or evaded (one ran away from a French ambulance-train under bombing by the Luftwaffe, and then hid with 60 other German ex-POW).

Thanks Tom for the added details
Reply With Quote