Escaped Allied airmen and their former Group

[Larry]

Dear Philippe,

The order to prevent aircrew who had escaped with the help of the Resistance was put in place by the RAF quite early in the war once various escape routes were established, such as those through France to Spain and Gibraltar. As you will appreciate the reason was to prevent the route becoming known to the enemy if an airman was unfortunate to be shot down twice in the same theatre of operations.

However in June & July 1944 there were several pilots who bailed out over France who returned to their unit to fly with them - either because they evaded back to the Allied Front Line without help from the Resistance or because the area in which they escaped was now in Allied hands and so the people who helped them were no longer in danger.