Escape and Evasion

The following are escape and evasion websites that I have come across.  I would welcome suggestions for additions to the list.  Also, take a look at the FAQ in this website, “How Do I Learn About an Allied Airman Who Was Shot Down?”, for possible helpful hints.

Aid to Jews

• Database of the Righteous Among the Nations from the Netherlands and Ukraine: http://db.yadvashem.org/righteous/search.html?language=en

Associations of Escapees and Helpers

• Air Forces Escape and Evasion Society [AFEES]– by Don Thorpe: http://www.airforceescape.com/
• Association of Rescuers of Allied Aviators (l’Association des sauveteurs d’Aviateurs Alliés): http://www.picardie-1939-1945.org/phpBB2new/viewtopic.php?f=31&t=1161
• Royal Air Forces Escaping Society 1945-1995:http://www.rafinfo.org.uk/rafescape/
• Royal Air Forces Escaping Society (1994) – by Sarah Long:http://www.christopherlong.co.uk/pub/rafes.html
• WW2 Escape Lines Memorial Society [ELMS] – by Roger Stanton: http://www.ww2escapelines.co.uk

Awards to Helpers

• For the system of Award Grades for helpers of Allied airmen in English: http://www.evasioncomete.org/TxtAwards2.html (in French: http://www.evasioncomete.org/TxtAwards.html)

Chemin de la Liberte

• Chemin de la Liberté — Midi-Pyrénées, France: http://www.everytrail.com/view_trip.php?trip_id=1278468
• BBC News, “Pyrenees hikers remember WWII escapees,” by Edward Stourton, Nov. 12, 2011, at: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-15690262
• La Chemin de la Liberté: WWII escape route to Spain:http://www.ariege.com/histoire/chemin.html

Comet Line

• Association Forced Landing: http://forcedlanding.pagesperso-orange.fr/comete.htm
• Comet: http://www.praats.be/comete.htm (good collection of photos)
• Comete-Bidassoa: http://www.comete-bidassoa.com/uk_mn.htm
• Comete Kinship – Belgium: http://www.cometeline.org/.
• Escape Line Research and Remembrance: http://home.clara.net/clinchy/index.htm.  Click on the Comete Line heading (and other related Comete headings) in the column on the left of the page
• Last Best Hope, A True Story of Escape, Evasion, and Remembrance:http://www.pbs.org/lastbesthope/
• Les Amis de Reseau Comète (Comète au Pays Basque): http://cometepaysbasque.blogspot.fr/.  Multilingual website.  Good interactive maps.
• Le Réseau Comète: http://www.evasioncomete.org/ .  This website is maintained by Philippe Connart, Michel Dricot, Edouard Reniére, and Victor Schutters.  A master list of airmen helped by the Comet Line is at http://www.evasioncomete.org/aListe.html and French-language summaries of each man’s experiences are at: http://www.evasioncomete.org/aFichesChoix.html.  Another useful feature of this website is their chronological list of the airmen’s crossing of the Pyrenees at http://www.evasioncomete.org/aFichesChrono.html.  It can be quite useful to know the names and stories of other airmen who shared experiences with the one you are researching.
• Les Amis de Reseau Comète (Comète au Pays Basque): http://cometepaysbasque.blogspot.fr/.  Multilingual website.  Good interactive maps.
• “Secrets of the Second World War Comet Line Revealed,” Daily Telegraph, Mar. 14, 2013, news story about the Comet Line and republication of Airey Neave’s book, Little Cyclone: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/history/world-war-two/9930526/The-secrets-of-the-Second-World-War-Comet-Line-are-revealed.html.

Commemorative Organizations

• Association Forced Landing: http://forcedlanding.pagesperso-orange.fr/comete.htm

Comprehensive Websites on Escape and Evasion

• Conscript Heroes  – by Keith Janes: http://www.conscript-heroes.com/.
• Escape Line Research and Remembrance: http://home.clara.net/clinchy/index.htm
• Free Belgians: http://www.freebelgians.be/articles/articles-5-55+de-colditz-patriotic-school-london.php
• Last Best Hope, A True Story of Escape, Evasion, and Remembrance:http://www.pbs.org/lastbesthope/.  Be sure to click on the heading, “Belgian Resistance: Historic Overview,” which contains a history of the Resistance, “The Brussels Connection” by Jacques de Vos, reproduced from the book In the Footsteps of a Flying Boot.
• The Escape Line (by Keith Morley): http://www.theescapeline.blogspot.com/
• Prat/Praet/Praetz family website with information on a great many different Belgian Resistance organizations, emphasizing those persons executed for their activities:  http://www.praats.be/verzetoverzicht.htm
• World War II Escape and Evasion Information Exchange – by Keith Janes: http://www.conscript-heroes.com/escapelines/index.htm

Documentaries

• The Last Passage: http://www.offworld.be/node/92#/sites/default/files/THE_LAST_PASSAGE_05.jpg
• “Way to Freedom (Weg naar de Vrijheid – Meer dan 1080)” at: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x96V6SiqMlc.    A 44-minute documentary, it was produced in 1967 by Dick Verkijk, it includes interviews with members of the line.  Although it is in Dutch, there are English subtitles.

Dutch-Paris Line

• How to Flee the Gestapo, Searching for the Dutch-Paris Escape line – by Megan Koreman: http://dutchparisblog.com/.  See also a 44-minute documentary on Dutch-Paris, “Way to Freedom (Weg naar de Vrijheid – Meer dan 1080)” at: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x96V6SiqMlc.    Produced in 1967 by Dick Verkijk, it includes interviews with members of the line.  Although it is in Dutch, there are English subtitles.)
• Weidner Foundation: http://weidnerfoundation.org/en/index.php/archives/

Engelandvaarders

The Engelandvaarders were the Dutch patriots who wanted to get to England to continue the fight against the Nazis.  Many lost their lives in the process.  Here are some links on the subject:

• Engelandvaarder 2011: http://northsea.moonfruit.com/#.  A commemoration of an incredible crossing of the North Sea by kayak.
• Genootschap Engelandvaarders (Engelandvaarders Society): http://www.engelandvaarders1940-1945.nl/cms/welkom/wie-of-wat/
• Long Journey Home: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TyoMa70i7tg.   About Willem Hamminga’s round the world trip to reach England and fly against the Germans.
• RAF Rescue of Engelandvaarders: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zeSOHQLQh-U&feature=related

Escape Aids

• Escape Compasses (Compassipedia, the Online Compass Museum): http://www.compassmuseum.com/esc/esc.htm
• Escape Maps and Escape Aids from World War II: http://www.delicious.com/stacks/view/GZAE1G
• Fort Hunt, MIS-X, care packages for American POWs:http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=93640350
• Hall, Debbie, British Library Map Library, “Wall Tiles and Free Parking: Escape and Evasion Maps of World War II,”: http://www.mapforum.com/04/escape.htm
• Royal Air Force Museum Navigator Online Collection: http://navigator.rafmuseum.org/ (Photos and descriptions of some 48 different RAF WWII escape aids.)

Escape Research Sources

• 100^th Bomb Group (Heavy) – E&E Introduction – by Michael LeBlanc:http://www.100thbg.com/mainmenus/ee/ee_main.htm
• Escape and Evasion Reports Online at National Archives II:http://www.archives.gov/research/arc/
• Belgium World War II Information – Escape Line Research and Remembrance – by John Clinch: http://home.clara.net/clinchy/.  Go to the column on the left of the page and click on the link, “Researching WW2 Escape and Evasion.”
• FindMyAncestors: http://www.findmypast.co.uk/search/military/wwii/wwii-escapers.  This is a commercial genealogical website that offers escape and evasion reports for a fee.
• French National Railways (SNCB) files on contacts with Air Force crews in the area east of Paris: http://www.archives-historiques.sncf.fr/pdf/0414LM0006-002.pdf.  (It is slow to load.)
• Rossiter, Margaret L., “Women in the Resistance” Papers 1974-1998, Special Collections Library, University of Michigan:http://quod.lib.umich.edu/s/sclead/

Escape Stories

• Stalag Luft III, The Great Escape: http://www.b24.net/pow/greatescape.htm
• Baker  Crew, The – by Co de Swart: http://www.gallery.mighty8thaf.preller.us/v/8thAF/3rdAD/13thCBW/95thBG/335thBS/OurBayBee/
• Geyer Crew, The – by Co de Swart:http://www.gallery.mighty8thaf.preller.us/v/8thAF/3rdAD/45thCBW/96thBG/413thBS/deSwart/

Operation Marathon

• Operation Marathon, Sherwood:http://www.rafinfo.org.uk/rafescape/freteval/freteval_fp.htm

Pat O’Leary (PAT) Line

• Long, Christopher – personal website (contains information about the Pat Line) :http://www.christopherlong.co.uk/
• Pat O’Leary Line (part of the Conscript Heroes website): http://www.conscript-heroes.com/Pat%20Line%20page.html

Personal Narratives

• Breitenbach, Tech. Sgt. Louis H., USAAF Memoirs: http://resources21.kb.nl/gvn/EVDO01/pdf/EVDO01_ROE01_133.pdf.  Describes his experiences, including being shot down, helped by Dutch civilians, capture, POW camps.
• He Who Dares Wins, Across the Pyrenees to Freedom, Diary of Chanan (Hans) Flörsheim, 1923-1944.  English translation:http://www.hassia-judaica.de/Lebenswege/English/Floersheim_Hans_Chanan_English/ChananFloersheim_He_Who_Dares_Wins.pdf  German edition: http://www.hassia-judaica.de/Lebenswege/Deutsch/Floersheim_Hans_Chanan/Chanan_Floersheim_ebook.pdf
• The Airman’s Story: Douglas Jennings: http://noviomagus.tripod.com/doug_jennings.htm

Possum Line

• Possum Line: http://webspace.qmul.ac.uk/fsegreyer/
• Possum Line (French language): http://www.crdp-reims.fr/memoire/enseigner/memoire_reseaux/menu_reseaux.htm

Shelburn Line

• Shelburn Line (from Conscript Heroes): http://www.conscript-heroes.com/Art36-ShelburnEvaders.html.  See also http://www.conscript-heroes.com/Art44-Brittany-Shelburne.html.

Slovenia

• Raid at Ozbalt (rescue by Slovenian Partisans): http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Raid_at_St_Lorenzen

Tributes to Helpers of Escapees

•  A Tribute to a Belgian War Heroine, Marthe E. Janssen-Leyder: http://noviomagus.tripod.com/tribute.htm
• Évasions par Mer de Carantec (Escapes by Sea Carantec): http://evasions.par.mer.carantec.filiere.sibiril.over-blog.com/.  See also the website of the Musée Maritime of Carantec, France which focuses on the evasion work of Ernest Sibiril: http://www.ville-carantec.com/carantec/principal/station-touristique/animations-loisirs/loisirs-culturels/musee-maritime.
• Jack Edward Gibbs Memorial Tribute: http://www.teunispats.net/jack-edward-gibbs.htm
• Jean-Marc Tanguy on Georges Morin: http://lemamouth.blogspot.com/2012/02/invalides-2-en-memoire-de-georges-morin.html.  (Georges Morin, while working at the Invalides, a hospital in Paris during WWII, is credited with hiding 130 Allied airmen.)

Miscellaneous

• Evasion Networks During the Second World War – by Noemí Riudor Garcia: http://evasionnetworks.blogspot.com/