Air Forces Escape and Evasion Society , livre ebook

Turner Publishing Company

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188 pages

English

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A gripping history of the brave men and women who aided downed Americans to safety. A valued source of information on the European underground resistance groups of WWII. Rare photographs, maps, and war documents complete this legacy.

Sujets

Histoire

POW

Military

Prisoner of war

History

Prisonnier de guerre

Aviation

Informations

Publié par	Turner Publishing Company
Date de parution	15 juin 1992
Nombre de lectures	0
EAN13	9781618587558
Langue	English
Poids de l'ouvrage	4 Mo

Informations légales : prix de location à la page 0,0600€. Cette information est donnée uniquement à titre indicatif conformément à la législation en vigueur.

Extrait

AIR FORCES
Escape Evasion Society

TURNER PUBLISHING COMPANY
May 8, 1945. Lt. Murray is set to leave his Dutch friends in Muiden, The Netherlands, after liberation from the Nazis. The original caption for this picture was printed in Dutch- Met N Bootje Genomen En Met N Motor Gegaan -translated, it means, He came in a little boat and left on a motor. (Courtesy of Claude C. Murray)

T URNER P UBLISHING C OMPANY The Front Line of Military History Books P.O. Box 3101 Paducah, Kentucky 42002-3101 (502)443-0121
Copyright 1992. Turner Publishing Company. All rights reserved.
This book or any part thereof may not be reproduced without the written consent of the Publisher.
Air Forces Escape and Evasion was compiled using available information. The Publisher is not responsible for errors or ommissions.
Air Forces Escape and Evasion Staff: Ralph K. Patton Lt. Col. Clayton C. David (Ret.)
Turner Publishing Company s Staff: Editor: Kelly O Hara Designer: Trevor W. Grantham
Library of Congress Catalog Card Number: 91-075228 ISBN: 1-56311-034-2 ISBN: 1-68162-189-4
Limited Edition. Additional books may be purchased from Turner Publishing Company.
Air Forces Escape and Evasion
Chairman s Message
Dedication
History of the Winged Boot
Publisher s Message
P ERSONAL E XPERIENCE S TORIES
Attacked by Bandits!
Night Intruder Bomber Crew
Evading Capture!
Behind Enemy Lines: World War Two s Largest Rescue of MIAs
Tail End Charlie Bailout!
Escape and Evasion!
With the Polish Underground Army
Jan Smit- Doofstom
The Shelburne Network ... plus many, many more!
Air Forces Escape and Evasion History
AFEES Veterans
AFEES Roster
AFEES Index

Editorial note: The material for this book was typeset as submitted, with a minimum of editing. As such, the Publisher is not responsible for historical or geographical inaccuracies.
Message From The Chairman

No publication can do justice to the stories of the Evaders and the Helpers represented in this book, but the publication you have in your hands is a small sample of frightening adventures now told in a calm, mature manner by a unique group of men and women bound together by an indefinable bond forged almost 50 years ago.
America s airmen were under orders to evade capture, if possible, should they be shot down; most tried; some did not. Allied nationals were under no such orders, their actions were voluntary, some spontaneously came to the aid of fallen airmen, some turned them in to the Gestapo. A number of America s airmen lost their lives in trying to evade capture, or escape from capture. Thousands of the nationals of occupied lands ended up in concentration camps or were executed for their activities on behalf of the men represented in this book.
The following incredible stories are true and the names and places are real. We the survivors are trying to say We will never forget those who didn t make it, as well as those who helped us to make it. AFEES is dedicated to this task, this is the raison d etre of AFEES.
Ralph K. Patton Chairman of the Board
Dedication

This book is dedicated to our Helpers , the thousands of foreign nationals, who risked their lives to come to the aid of the Allied fliers shot down over enemy occupied countries, most of us during World War II. It is dedicated to the hundreds of brave men and women of the Resistance who were tortured and executed by their occupiers, because they were Helpers. It is also dedicated to those of our Helpers who survived long periods of detention and torture in Nazi prisons and concentration camps.
The penalty for aiding Allied airmen was well known, but this did not deter our Helpers from taking the risks. We, the survivors salute those who paid the ultimate price. We vow to make known to future generations that these brave men and women made the supreme sacrifice to insure our freedom, as we fought together for the freedom of all.
Clayton C. David, President Air Forces Escape and Evasion Society
History of the Winged Boot

Some call it the Flying Foot or the Winged Foot , but the Royal Air Force who issued this badge in the Western Desert, June 1941, named it the Winged Boot. The following is an extract from the book, Customs and Traditions of the Royal Air Force, by Squadron Leader P.G. Hering, published in 1961 by Gale Polden, LTD, Aldersot, Rants, England:
The exploits of aircrew who walked back to their bases after bailing out of their aircraft, beingshot down or having force-landed whilst operating over enemy-held territory during the Desert campaigns in the Middle East, were responsible for the initiation of another highly respected war-time badge. Because their return to their squadrons was of necessity much later than that of their more fortunate comrades, they were heralded as a new corps d elite and became known as later arrivals . As their numbers increased their experiences became legend and eventually a mythical Late Arrivals Club came into being, and with it a badge.
A winged boot was designed by Wing Commander (later Group Captain) George W. Houghton, who was at the time the Senior R.A.F. Public Relations Officer in the Middle East. He obtained the permission of Lord Tedder (then Air Officer Commanding-in-Chief, Middle East) to issue each late arrival with the badge to wear on his flying suit or uniform. The innovation captured theimagination of the war correspondents, whoenthu siastically reported the origin of the badge and the experiences of its wearers. In addition to his badge,each late arrival was given a club membership certificate on which was recorded the circumstances making him eligible for membership, and the words: It is never too late to come back.
According to the Royal Air Forces Escaping Society Press Officer, Bryan Morgan: The membership of this Society was exclusive to the Middle East, it was never available in this country (England) and it doesn t exist any more.
In 1943 when American airmen of the U.S. 8th Air Force started to return to England after having been shot down over enemy occupied territory, some un known American evader started to use the Royal Air Force Winged Boot as a symbol of his having evaded capture and having walked home. This symbol of evasion was never authorized to be worn on U.S. uniforms in the ETO therefore evaders wore it under the left hand lapel on their tunic or battle jacket. One of the first stops an evader made after being released by Air Force Intelligence in London was usually a visit to Hobson and Sons in London to have them make a wire badge Winged Boot .
When the Air Forces Escape and Evasion Society was formed in June 1964, it was decided to use the Winged Boot as the center piece of the AFEES logo. As an extension of this, we approached Hobson and Sons in London to make several items with the original Winged Boot in metallic thread from the original dies.
There is no official Winged Boot organization or club therefore eligibility for wearing it is ill defined. AFEES is the only known organization that uses the Winged Boot as a logo or symbol. Editorial note: Originaly entitled The True Story of the Winged Boot . By Claude C. Murray and Ralph K. Patton.
Air Forces Escape and Evasion Personal Experience Stories

E SCAPE F ROM F RANCE ! T HE S TORY OF J AMES E. A RMSTRONG
James E. Armstrong was a pilot stationed in England before the invasion of Europe by Allied troops in World War II. It was September 6, 1943. He was returning from a mission to Stuttgart, Germany when his plane was shot down in occupied France. He parachuted safely, but one crew member was killed.
Armstrong suffered a sprained ankle in the jump but was not seriously injured. After getting water from a ditch, he spotted a Frenchman and showed him the phrase sheet from his escape kit. The man told the 21 year-old pilot to get in the woods. He hid in the woods for 10 days and the Frenchman brought him food twice a day.
Using a compass shaped like a pocket watch and a silk map, the young first lieutenant started walking towards Paris. Two days after he left Normandy, he came to a village near Paris called Trielsur-Seine where he was sheltered in a home. A doctor treated him for burns on his hand and face and then took him by train to his Paris apartment. Members of the French Resistance picked him up and took him to the suburb of Drancy.
In Drancy he and two Americans and an Englishman who had been shot down stayed in a home and were provided with false French identity cards. Armstrong was given the name of Jean Riber, occupation, butcher. By the end of October, the first of several attempts to escape to England was made.
The escape plan called for a PT boat off the coast of Quimper to take about a dozen Allies to England. It failed, as did several other attempts. Each plan was ingenious but failed for various reasons. Each time a plan failed, the airmen were taken back to Paris by train. Once they were supposed to meet a guide in Carcassonne who was to take them out across the Pyrenees Mountains. When they got to Carcassonne the guide was not there.
There were many close calls on the train rides back to Paris. The guide would keep the men moving from one car to another to evade the Germans.
On another escape attempt, the plan was to make a break Christmas night, 1943 by boat. Armstrong waded out to the boat but the mission was called off. He got another boat on January 21. The tides were quite high and the plan called for the men to wait for it and to rise and fall, then drift out under a bridge. As they drifted under the bridge they were told to halt , but continued on past a German fortress. They drifted out into the bay and crossed the English Channel.
There were 31 in a less than 30 foot fishing boat with sails and a motor. Everyone was seasick. It carried a crew of two sailors, 12 Allied airmen and 19 Frenchmen who were going to join the Free French in England. There was a storm and the Channel was rough. Even the Brit

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