RAF/USAAF Evaders

[kb]

Can anyone recommend any good books about evaders during WWII? Reading unit histories; some of these stories are well nigh incredible.

Did anyone successfully evade from within Germany?

[Boris Ciglic]

quite an old but nice book:
Free to fight again
Alan W. Cooper
ISBN 0-7183-0678-3

[Bertrand H]

"Aviateurs piètons vers la Suisse", 1940-1945 by Roger Anthoine, Editions SECAVIA,Genéve, 1997 ISBN 2-8826-007-4

Very recommended, very accurate.


The author writes in the 80's the very detailed book : "Forteresses sur l'Europe", (17 august 1943)

TIA,

Bertrand H

[Peter Kassak]

Also book of Erik Dyreborg "The Young Ones", published in August 2003 has some nice stories of evasion...

[kb]

Thanks all!

[Kutscha]

Three made it back to the UK from their escape from Stalag Luft III located near the Polish town of Sagan. This was is called the 'Great Escape'.

[kb]

Originally Posted by Kutscha

Three made it back to the UK from their escape from Stalag Luft III located near the Polish town of Sagan. This was is called the 'Great Escape'.

I should have rephrased the question: were there any RAF/USAAF aircrew that landed on German territory but were able to avoid capture and successfully evade?

[Sabredog]

Chuck Yeager

[kb]

Yeager was downed in southwestern France. Anyone downed inside Germany proper who avoided capture and evaded...

[Horst Weber]

Hi KB !

There were only a rare number of RAF/USAAF crew members, which successfully evaded a capture after downing on German soil and made it to the own lines. The first (USAAF) event of this nature happpened in 1943, when on August 17th the 3rd Bomb Division launched a raid to the Messerschmitt-works at Regensburg, Germany. On the way to the target, the B-17 were attacked by German fighters with a mass of losses.

One B-17 of 381st BG (s/n 42-30140) was hit and the entire crew made it to bail out. The aircraft came down near Bad Münstereifel, Germany, which is located about 40 km Soutwest of Cologne, Germany. After evaluating the situation, thinking that their landing area was located between Mannnheim, Germany and Swizerland, two crew-members, Co-pilot Lt. Robert E. Nelson and gunner Sgt. Raymond A. Genz made the decision to evade.

They were 14 days on their way through the very low populated Eifel-area southwest bound. They worked the way with the classic individual equipppment like compass and sik-map.

On the 12th day, they met Luxembourg soil and from this day, their evading was much easier to undertake. They only found people, willing to suppport their task to return. After contacting some Luxembourg/French underground cells, they were forwarded via Longvy (LUX) to Paris and then transferred via Clermont-Toulouse-Lourdes to Barcelon, Spain. After that, they were transferred via Madrid to Gibraltar and the flown to Great Britain, where they arrived in November 1943.

As it was the first successful evadee from Germany, the two aviators were ordered to Washington, to talk about their experiences in order to give other crews aids in similar situations and to be decorated with the "Silver Star" for their outstanding mission.

You may gain more information about this case in those records/publications:

-E&E reports # 170 and 171
by National Archives

-Bombenangriffe auf Luxemburg in zwei Weltkriegen
by E. T. Melchers, St. Paulus Druckerei A.G. Luxemburg, 1984

-Zielpunkt Südeifel - Band 1, S. 114 - 116
by Horst Weber, Geschichtlicher Arbeitskreis Bitburger Land, 2001

Generally, an allied aviator had in 1943 - July 1944 a good chance to escape from German soil if he landed west of the Rhine river and made it to Belgium, France or Luxembourg.

All the best,

H. Weber