Doc McLeod - Sicily to France

[Ianfst]

Hello all,
First of all please let me know if I should have posted this elsewhere on the forum.
I've been researching the story of Murdo 'Doc' McLeod, a Kittyhawk pilot with 3 Sqdn RAAF. He disappeared on 3/8/43 while strafing roads in Sicily and reappeared on the 17th at Istres airbase in southern France, where he was mortally wounded by the U.S. air raid that took place on that day.

I know quite a lot about Doc's rather tragic story but the key to the mystery of how he got from the Mount Etna area to Marseilles still eludes me. Presumably he was shot down by flak, taken prisoner, and for some reason probably flown to Istres where both German and Italian airforces had a presence.

Any help, suggestions or information on this story or other instances of prisoners being transported by axis air forces would be a great help and much appreciated.

Ian Stevenson