If you are a newcomer to the subject of escape and evasion during World War II, here are some citations to consider:
1. John Nichol and Tony Renell, in their book Home Run, Escape from Nazi Europe (2008), p. xvii, say:
In the Second World War a quarter of a million Allied soldiers and airmen — British, American, Australian, Canadian, and others — were stranded behind enemy lines and became prisoners of war, filling scores of camps in eastern Germany and Poland, as far from their home as the Germans could put them. Just a few thousand — somewhere between 3,000 and 5,000 — evaded capture, stayed free and made that home run back to Britain.
2. Herman Bodson, in his Downed Allied Airmen and Evasion of Capture (2005), provides these figures:
Total lost airmen in World War II, European Theater:
- RAF & associates 55,573
- USAAF 3,687
Allied airmen made POW in the Netherlands — 9,748.
Planes crashed in the Netherlands
- UK 2,500
- US 1,750
Airmen killed over the Netherlands:
- UK 9,000-10,000
- US 6,000
3. Oliver Clutton-Brock in his new book, RAF Evaders (2009), calculated that there were 2,198 RAF evaders. His breakdown by year was:
- 1940 91
- 1941 78
- 1942 157
- 1943 398
- 1944 1342
- 1945 132
Sorted by country of origin, the RAF evaders were from:
- United Kingdom 1251
- Canada 544
- Australia 177
- Poland 72
- New Zealand 58
- France 23
- USA 14
- Belgium 12
- Norway 12
- Holland 9
- South Africa 7
- Czechoslovakia 6
- Eire 5
- Balance (Bermuda, Rhodesia, Russia, Seychelles) 7
4. According to Ralph K. Patton of the U.S. Air Forces Escape and Evasion Society, the 8th Air Force in WWII experienced the following:
- Airmen shot down over western Europe 60,000
- Killed in action 26,000
- Taken prisoner 30,000
- Evaded capture 4,000
5. Bob de Graaff in his Stepping Stones to Freedom (2003), described what was occurring over The Netherlands in the summer of 1943:
Tens of planes belonging to both the Allied and the Luftwaffe were shot down daily, many above The Netherlands. For example, during the night of 13 May 1943, twenty Allied bombers crashed in the north of the country. Ten days later, during a nocturnal bombing raid on Münster, twenty-eight planes crashed within Dutch territory. A record loss was set on the night of 21 June when no fewer than forty-four RAF planes were shot down above The Netherlands. In the annals of military aviation history, 28 July marked the beginning of the period better known as the ‘bloody summer of 1943.’
WWII Netherlands Escape Lines 
I have a picture of an American airman shot down somewhere near Tongeren, Belgium in the fall of 1943. He had parachuted from his plane before it crashed and was seriously wounded so was taken to St. John’s Hospital in Tongeren by the Germans. The resistance had snuck the airman out the window of his hospital room and returned him to the Allies. A 14 year old Belgian girl snapped his picture with her box camera she had hidden under her clothes. She, along with another Belgian girl, took clean sheets and blankets to any soldiers in the hospital. Is there a possibility anyone would recognize “Charlie from Chicago”? That might not be his real name or his real home town.