‘The Ones Who Got Away’: Soldiers’ Bravery Amid World War II

‘The Ones Who Got Away’: Soldiers’ Bravery Amid World War II
A B-17 plane partway through restoration at the Mighty Eighth Air Force Museum, located in Pooler, Georgia. B-17s were flown by airmen in the Eighth Air Force. Public Domain
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During World War II, one of the most dangerous military jobs was being a member of the Eighth Air Force aircrew, who flew missions over occupied Europe and Germany. Of its 210,000 aircrew, 50,000—nearly one in four—were shot down. About 26,000 died and 21,000 became prisoners of war. Another 3,000 survived bail-out, evaded capture, and returned to Allied lines safely.

“The Ones Who Got Away: Mighty Eighth Airmen on the Run in Occupied Europe,” by Bill Yenne, tells those men’s stories. Fewer than one in eight who landed safely succeeded in escaping. It required determination, skill, and a large dose of luck.

The Path to Freedom

Yenne shows that the biggest piece of luck a crewman required after initially evading capture was finding a local to provide shelter. That was virtually impossible in Germany. There, you had to be close enough to the border to cross unassisted. Even in France, the Netherlands, and Belgium some willingly cooperated with the Nazis.

Next, they had to contact the resistance. Several routes to freedom were run by anti-Nazi underground groups. Most evaders traveled from where they had been shot down overland to Spain, across a rugged but relatively lightly patrolled Spanish-French frontier. A few were able to take boats across the English Channel. A handful flew out of occupied France in aircraft flying supplies and saboteurs into France. Yenne relates examples of all of these.

The tale is told from the perspective of individual escapees. Their stories vary widely, and a complex collection of experiences are related. Some men followed set escape lines, their adventures limited to crossing the Pyrenees in winter. One ended up undergoing an appendectomy when an attempt to smuggle him out through a hospital went awry. Others ended up participating in partisan activities. A few unfortunates were enticed into an “escape” line run by the Nazis and ended up as guests of the Gestapo. Yenne relates all of this.

Real Stories From Real Soldiers

Yenne relies heavily on first-person accounts. Evaders, upon reaching England, wrote Escape and Evasion reports, which are now collected in the National Archives. Yenne mined these previously unpublished sources for the evaders’ perspective. He also used multiple post-war memoirs of the resistance participants and those involved in Allied escape assistance units. The result is a well-researched account.

“The Ones Who Got Away” is not a dry, dull recounting. Yenne provides readers with a lively, entertaining tale. He follows up the escape accounts by relating the post-war careers of participants. It is a book worth reading.

"The Ones Who Got Away: Mighty Eighth Airmen on the Run in Occupied Europe" by Bill Yenne.
"The Ones Who Got Away: Mighty Eighth Airmen on the Run in Occupied Europe" by Bill Yenne.
‘The Ones Who Got Away: Mighty Eighth Airmen on the Run in Occupied Europe’ By Bill Yenne Osprey Publishing, Jan. 2, 2024 Hardcover: 320 pages
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Mark Lardas
Mark Lardas
Author
Mark Lardas, an engineer, freelance writer, historian, and model-maker, lives in League City, Texas. His website is MarkLardas.com
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