Shot Down and On the Run : The RCAF and Commonwealth Aircrews Who Got Home from Behind Enemy Lines, 1940-1945

Thousands of airmen shot down over enemy soil between 1940 and 1945 miraculously escaped capture. This compelling narrative reveals their stories, based on first-hand interviews, photographs and official documents, featuring heroes from Britain, Canada, Australia and other Commonwealth countries. These men knew extreme adversity: hunger, thirst, injury, isolation and the constant fear of capture. They also knew great kindness from the local people who risked everything to help them. Their journeys to safety often across savage terrain tested human endurance and ingenuity to the very limit.