New Escape & Evasion Books


Ankeny, Susan Tate, The Girl and the Bombardier: A True Story of Resistance and Rescue in Nazi-Occupied France, Diversion Books, 2020.  A downed B-17 bombardier’s unfinished World War II memoir and a box of letters from the French girl who saved him sets a veteran’s daughter on a journey, sixty-five years later, to craft their intersecting stories―a true WWII tale of danger, courage, love, and escape.  Susan Tate Ankeny was sorting through the belongings of her late father―a World War II bombardier who had bailed from a burning B-17 over Nazi-occupied France in 1944―when she found two boxes. One contained her dad’s Air Force uniform, and the other an unfinished memoir, stacks of envelopes, black-and-white photographs, mission reports, dog tags, and the fake identity cards he used in his escape. Ankeny spent more than a decade from that moment tracking down letter writers, their loved ones, and anyone who had played a role in her father’s story, culminating in a trip to France where she retraced his path with the same people who had guided him more than sixty years ago.  A remarkable hero emerged―Godelieve Van Laere―just a teenaged girl when she saved the fallen Lieutenant Dean Tate, risking her life and forging a friendship that would last into a new century.  The result is an amazing, multifaceted World War II tale―perhaps one of the last of its kind to be enriched by an author’s interviews with participants. It traces the transformation of a small-town American boy into a bombardier, the thrill and chaos of an air war, and the horror of bailing from a flaming aircraft over enemy territory. It distinguishes the actions of a little-known French resistance network for Allied airmen known as Shelburne. And it shines a light on the courage and cunning of a young woman who put her life on the line to save another’s.  Available from Amazon and Barnes&Noble.

    Ayotte, Code Name Lily front
  • Ayotte, Code Name Lily back cover
Bascomb, The Escape Artists

Carah, John M., Achtung!  Achtung! Die Flugfestungen Kommen! =: Attention!  Attention! the Flying Fortresses Are Coming!: Memoirs of WWII.  WW-II memoirs of 2nd Lt. John M. Carah, a B-17 bomber pilot based in England. The book describes Lt. Carah’s career from enlistment in the Army Air Corps in 1942 to the destruction of his aircraft over France in 1943, to his successful evasion to Spain over the Pyrenees Mountains in early 1944. After being shot down in Normandy, Lt. Carah made his way to Switzerland where he was appointed Military Attache for Air in the Bern Legation. He was responsible for finding lodging for American internees who had landed or parachuted into Switzerland during their bombing missions. He also was one of several coding officers who worked for OSS European Chief Allen Dulles who maintained an office across the street from the Military Attache’s office in Bern. After six months of serving as a military attache, Lt. Carah requested permission to return home. He and seven other American, British and Canadian airmen and seamen then made their way back into occupied France for the trip to Spain and eventually Gibraltar. The trip was dangerous and soon turned into an ordeal as the evaders spent weeks evading German and Vichy agents determined to find them.  Available from Barnes&

Carper, Janet Holmes, The Weidners in Wartime: Letters of Daily Suvival and Heroism Under Nazi Rule, Weidner Collection: 2020.  The Weidners in Wartime is the intimate story, told in their own words, of a family separated by war. Despite the dangers of writing under the inspection of censors, their letters paint a vivid portrait of decent human beings fighting valiantly to maintain their courage, their humor, and their faith during one of history’s darkest hours. It so happens that one member of the family is also a leader of the resistance, whose heroic actions to save fleeing refugees will make him a hunted man and one of the greatest rescuers of World War II.

In 1942, Jean Henri Weidner founded the “Dutch-Paris Line” to guide Jews, downed Allied pilots, and other persecuted people out of Nazi-occupied Europe to freedom in Switzerland and Spain. The Line spanned four countries and hid or escorted to safety an estimated 3,000 people, many faced with certain death. After the war, Jean was awarded the French Legion of Honor and the United States Medal of Freedom. He is honored as one of the Righteous Among the Nations at Israel’s Holocaust Memorial, Yad Vashem. Yet Jean’s actions to save the lives of strangers comes at a terrible cost to those he holds most dear.

Through these never-before-published documents-expertly selected, translated, and introduced by Janet Holmes Carper-readers will encounter the daily lives of an “ordinary” but remarkable family bound together by their deep love for each other and by their prolific correspondence across great distances. The frequently unvarnished words of the Weidners (including Jean; his spirited younger sisters, Gabrielle and Annette; his stalwart parents, “Papa” and “Mama” Weidner; and his fiancé and soon-to-be bride, Elisabeth Cartier) provide a unique window into historical events that continue to resonate in the present. Jean’s secret resistance work is barely alluded to in the family’s letters. What emerges instead are the distinctive personalities, voices, and moral characters of the Weidners as they face the harsh realities of the war with as much bravery and good cheer as they can muster.

The Weidners in Wartime builds to a devastating climax, raising profound questions about humanity and inhumanity, loyalty and betrayal, duty, and sacrifice, that do not admit easy answers and that linger after the book is set down. These letters, written more than 75 years ago, might inspire in new generations a commitment to selfless and courageous action in the spirit of Jean, Gabrielle, Annette, and the other members of the Dutch-Paris escape line.  Available from AmazonBarnes&Noble, and Waterstones.

Cartron, So Close to Freedom

Evans, Bryn, Airmen’s Incredible Escapes: Accounts of Survival in the Second World War, Yorkshire, England and Havertown, PA: Pen and Sword Books, 2020.  “Allied air power made a major, arguably decisive, contribution to victory in The Second World War both in the European and Pacific theaters.  The cost in men and machines was horrific with Bomber Command suffering 50% air crew casualties. While many perished, others shot down over enemy territory or water survived only after overcoming extraordinary danger and hardship. Their experiences often remained untold not just for the duration of the War but for many years.  The author has gathered together a wealth of unpublished stories from airmen of many nationalities, be they British, Commonwealth or American. Some involve avoiding or escaping from capture, others surviving against all the odds, braving extreme elements and defying death from wounds, drowning or starvation.  Importantly the accounts of those who survived the battle in the skies cheating the enemy and the grim reaper give the reader a chilling insight into the fate of the many thousands of brave young men who were not so fortunate.  The result is an inspiring and gripping read which bears testimony to human courage and resilience.”  Available from AmazonBarnes&Noble, Casemate, and Pen&Sword Books.

Failmezger, Victor, Rome, City in Terror: The Nazi Occupation of 1943-1944, Osprey Publishing, 2020.  rom the street fighting that heralded the German occupation to the Gestapo repression that followed, this is the gripping story of the German occupation of Rome from the Italian armistice in September 1943 until the Allied liberation of the city on June 5, 1944.

In September 1943, following wave upon wave of Allied bombing, Italy announced an armistice with the Allies. Shortly afterwards, the German Army disarmed Italian forces and, despite military and partisan resistance, quickly overran Rome. Rome – City in Terror is a comprehensive history of the nine-month-long German occupation of the city that followed.

The Gestapo wasted no time enforcing an iron grip on the city once the occupation was in place. They swiftly eliminated the Carabinieri, the Italian paramilitary force, rounded up thousands of Italians to build extensive defensive lines across Italy, and, at 5am one morning, arrested more than 1,000 Roman Jews and sent them to Auschwitz. Resistance, however, remained strong. To aid the thousands of Allied POWs who escaped after the dissolution of the Italian army, priests, diplomats, and escaped ex-POWs operating out of the Vatican formed a nationwide organization called the “Escape Line.” More than 4,000 Allied POWs scattered all over Italy were sheltered, clothed, and fed by these courageous Italians, whose lives were forfeit if their activities were discovered. Meanwhile, as food became scarce and the Gestapo began to raid on homes and institutions, Italian partisan fighters launched attack after attack on German military units in the city, with the threat of execution never far away.

This is the compelling story of an Eternal City brought low, of the terror and hardship of occupation, and of the disparate army of partisan fighters, displaced aristocrats, Vatican priests, Allied POWs, and ordinary citizens who battled for the liberation of Rome.  Available from AmazonBarnes&Noble, and Bookshop.


Fleming, Brian, Heroes in the Shadows, Humanitarian Action And Courage in the Second World War, Amberley, 2019.  This book focuses on World War II and extraordinary examples of heroism at the risk to one’s own life and family. It specifically considers the actions of individuals in five escape lines set up to help those on the run from the Nazis, French, and Italian Fascists. The author’s research provides a more complete picture than before of how secret escape routes operated. And he shows the qualities of the people involved, whose courage held out in all kinds of adversity. They include diplomats who assisted those “on-the-run,” often in defiance of the authorities at home; a rescue organization in Marseille helping fugitives through Vichy France to the port city and freedom; a group in Belgium transporting downed airmen through occupied France, over the Pyrenees, through Spain and back to Gibraltar; the community in Assisi that housed and hid fleeing Jews; and a Capuchin priest in Marseille and Nice who worked with people from many backgrounds to save Jewish fugitives, then continued his work in Rome. These stories will appeal to anyone who likes to read of heroic acts where good overcomes evil, and will fascinate anyone interested in the Holocaust and World War II generally. This book illustrates the consequences of man-made horrors, but also the best of humanity in dark times.  Available from WaterstonesBarnes&Noble, and Amazon.


Fry, Helen, MI9, A History of the Secret Service for Escape and Evasion in World War Two, Yale University Press, 2020.  A thrilling history of MI9—the WWII organization that engineered the escape of Allied forces from behind enemy lines.  When Allied fighters were trapped behind enemy lines, one branch of military intelligence helped them escape: MI9. The organization set up clandestine routes that zig-zagged across Nazi-occupied Europe, enabling soldiers and airmen to make their way home. Secret agents and resistance fighters risked their lives and those of their families to hide the men.
Drawing on declassified files and eye-witness testimonies from across Europe and the United States, Helen Fry provides a significant reassessment of MI9’s wartime role. Central to its success were figures such as Airey Neave, Jimmy Langley, Sam Derry, and Mary Lindell—one of only a few women parachuted into enemy territory for MI9. This astonishing account combines escape and evasion tales with the previously untold stories behind the establishment of MI9—and reveals how the organization saved thousands of lives.  Helen Fry is a specialist in the history of British Intelligence. She is the author of The Walls Have EarsThe London Cage, and over twenty books focusing on intelligence and POWs in World War II. She lives in London.  Available from Yale University PressAmazon, and Barnes & Noble.

Gallagher, With Recce at Arnhem









Langrehr, Henry and Jim DeFelice, Whatever It Took: An American Paratrooper’s Extraordinary Memoir of Escape, Survival and Heroism in the Last Days of World War II, New York: HarperCollinsPublishers, 2021.  Published to mark the 75th anniversary of VE Day, an unforgettable never-before-told first-person account of World War II: the true story of an American paratrooper who survived D-Day, was captured and imprisoned in a Nazi work camp, and made a daring escape to freedom.   Now at 95, one of the few living members of the Greatest Generation shares his experiences at last in one of the most remarkable World War II stories ever told. As the Allied Invasion of Normandy launched in the pre-dawn hours of June 6, 1944, Henry Langrehr, an American paratrooper with the 82nd Airborne, was among the thousands of Allies who parachuted into occupied France. Surviving heavy anti-aircraft fire, he crashed through the glass roof of a greenhouse in Sainte-Mère-Église. While many of the soldiers in his unit died, Henry and other surviving troops valiantly battled enemy tanks to a standstill. Then, on June 29th, Henry was captured by the Nazis. The next phase of his incredible journey was beginning.  Kept for a week in the outer ring of a death camp, Henry witnessed the Nazis’ unspeakable brutality—the so-called Final Solution, with people marched to their deaths, their bodies discarded like cords of wood. Transported to a work camp, he endured horrors of his own when he was forced to live in unbelievable squalor and labor in a coal mine with other POWs. Knowing they would be worked to death, he and a friend made a desperate escape. When a German soldier cornered them in a barn, the friend was fatally shot; Henry struggled with the soldier, killing him and taking his gun. Perilously traveling westward toward Allied controlled land on foot, Henry faced the great ethical and moral dilemmas of war firsthand, needing to do whatever it took to survive. Finally, after two weeks behind enemy lines, he found an American unit and was rescued.  Awaiting him at home was Arlene, who, like millions of other American women, went to work in factories and offices to build the armaments Henry and the Allies needed for victory. Whatever It Took is her story, too, bringing to life the hopes and fears of those on the homefront awaiting their loved ones to return.  A tale of heroism, hope, and survival featuring 30 photographs, Whatever It Took is a timely reminder of the human cost of freedom and a tribute to unbreakable human courage and spirit in the darkest of times.  Available from HarperCollinsBarnes&Noble, and Amazon.


Marnham, Patrick, War in the Shadows – Resistance, Deception, Betrayal in Occupied France, Simon&Schuster.   In 1962 the young Patrick Marnham set off by car for a small village in central France. There he was taught French by an imperious countess, who he later discovered had fought in the Resistance until, betrayed, she was sent to Ravensbrück concentration camp. On the very same day that his hostess’s network was broken, Jean Moulin, de Gaulle’s delegate as head of the combined Resistance forces, was arrested in Lyons, where he was tortured by Klaus Barbie before dying in Gestapo custody. Was this coincidence, or were these events connected? The anonymous letter writer suggested a key to the mystery.  Using a knowledge of France gained from 12 years as the Independent’s Paris correspondent, and subsequent research in archives in England and France, Marnham set out to discover the truth about the betrayal of the old lady who had become his tutor and friend. Following a trail leading from London through Occupied Europe to the rank and file Resistance in lost corners of France, he has unravelled the story of a complex wartime deception, involving British, American and French intelligence services.  The War in the Shadows shines a light on the brutality and cynicism of the Secret War and reveals how it was actually fought. The result is a story of ruthless double-dealing worthy of John le Carré, but with this difference: it is not a fiction.  Available from Simon&SchusterAmazonBarnes&Noble, and Bookshop.Org.


Minardi, Marco, Bugle Call to Freedom, Monte San Martino Trust, 2020.   It was midday on September 9 1943, the day following the announcement of Italy’s surrender to the Allies. At PG 49, a prison camp at Fontanellato, in the Po valley, a bugle sounded three short blasts, the signal for the biggest mass escape by Allied PoWs in Italy during the Second World War.  In camps elsewhere in the country there was confusion. Many prisoners of war, obeying orders from London, stayed put, only to be swept up by the occupying German army and sent to Germany, long before Allied forces could reach them.  At PG 49, however, the Senior British Officer and the sympathetic Italian commandant came to an agreement. The wire was cut and 600 PoWs marched out of the camp into the countryside, in the nick of time before the Germans arrived.  The prisoners were free but facing an uncertain future. Should they go north to neutral Switzerland or walk hundreds of miles south to Allied lines? Either way, they would rely on the bravery of peasants in the plains and mountains to hide them from the Germans and Italian Fascists.  Drawing on both PoW memoirs and civilian eyewitness accounts, Italian historian Marco Minardi tells the compelling story of the escape and its aftermath. In this translation, published by the Monte San Martino Trust, the huge and, in some cases, tragic repercussions for the local community it become abundantly clear.  The Monte San Martino Trust is a charity founded by former Allied PoWs in Italy to repay the kindness of the contadini. It arranges scholarships for young Italians to study English in the U.K.  Available from Amazon and Barnes&Noble. To view a discussion of the book on YouTube, click on


Pinto, Oreste, Spy Catcher, New York: Harper & Bros.,1952.  A thrilling account of Counter-Intelligence in action, by the man Eisenhower called “the greatest living authority on security” – and who was personally responsible for the execution of seven spies. This is the true story of his adventures during World War II – first in England, where he was given the job of screening the thousands of refugees that poured into that country after the fall of France, separating the well-meaning unfortunates from those who tried to sneak in as Nazi spies. Later on the Continent, he served as chief of the Dutch Counter-Intelligence organization, attached to SHAEF. Each tale reveals a different aspect of successful spy-catching.  Available from AmazonABE Books.

Rankin, Nicholas, Defending the Rock, How Gibraltar Defeated Hitler. Faber and Faber, 2017.  Two months before he shot himself, Adolf Hitler saw where it had all gone wrong. By failing to seize Gibraltar in the summer of 1940, he lost the war.  The Rock of Gibraltar, a pillar of British sea-power since 1704, looked formidable but was extraordinarily vulnerable. Though menaced on all sides by Nazi Germany, Fascist Italy, Vichy France and Francoist Spain, every day Gibraltar had to let thousands of people cross its frontier to work. Among them came spies and saboteurs, eager to blow up its 25 miles of secret tunnels. In 1942, Gibraltar became US General Eisenhower’s HQ for the invasion of North Africa, the campaign that led to Allied victory in the Mediterranean.
Nicholas Rankin’s revelatory new book, whose cast of characters includes Haile Selassie, Anthony Burgess and General Sikorski, sets Gibraltar in the wider context of the struggle against fascism, from Abyssinia through the Spanish Civil War. It also chronicles the end of empire and the rise to independence of the Gibraltarian people.  Available from AmazonBarnes&NobleFaber&Faber, and Kobo.

Roosenburg, Henriette, THE WALLS CAME TUMBLING DOWN, A journey of bravery, heroism, and unbowed humanity, London: Scribe, 2021. In this gripping memoir, originally published in 1957, the Dutch author, codename ‘Zip’, recounts her extraordinary journey. A young fighter for the resistance during World War II, Zip is captured and held prisoner as part of the ‘Night and Fog’ unit, political prisoners who wait out the war in a crowded, secret cell. During their long days and nights, each creates a secret embroidery telling the story of their war, including when they are moved from place to place, writing each other’s names in morse code out of contraband black thread. Upon liberation, Zip must find her way back to Holland with her three companions, scant belongings, and any food they can ‘liberate’ or are given by the goodwill of soldiers or villagers along the way. In cinematic, sweeping prose, Zip reveals all the details of the time, including the camaraderie of fellow political prisoners upon release: the Dutch prisoners of war who have kept their uniforms intact; the French p.o.w.s in threadbare yet debonair getups; the French women resistance fighters who break out in song (‘La Marseillaise’) to reunite a hungry mob; not to mention the Russian liberators, and the American soldiers. The world they enter has turned upside down. The jovial spirit and giddiness they share at being free is uplifting and unforgettable. An adroit, page-turning and heroic tale of humanity — after the darkness, there is so much light. The Walls Came Tumbling Down is a true World War II classic. This is a new edition and contains an afterword by Sonja van ‘t Hof. Available from Scribe and Amazon.

Ross, Michael, The British Partisan: Capture, Imprisonment and Escape in Wartime Italy, Pen & Sword Military, 2019.  In this action-packed account, the author, a Welch Regiment officer, describes his remarkable Second World War experiences. These include his baptism by fire in the Western Desert against Rommel’s armor in 1942, the spontaneous help of nomad Arabs when on the run for ten days behind enemy lines, his capture and life as a POW in Italy.  Ross and a fellow officer made the first escape from Fontanellato POW camp only to be recaptured on the Swiss border. During his second escape, Ross fought against the occupying German forces in north Italy alongside the Italian partisans, who nearly executed him initially. He avoided recapture for over a year before finally reaching Allied lines.  The reader learns of the extraordinary courage and sacrifice of local Italians helping and hiding Allied soldiers. Ross’s story has a poignant conclusion as, while on the run, he fell in love with a prominent anti-fascist’s daughter whom he married after the war.
Originally published as From Liguria With Love, this superbly written and updated memoir is a powerful and inspiring tribute to all those who risked their lives to help him and his comrades.   Available from Amazon and Blackwell’s.









Copies can be obtained from boekenschrijvers,  or





Tellez Sola, Antonio, Le réseau d’évasion du groupe Ponzan – Anarchistes dans la guerre secrète contre le franquisme et le nazisme (1936-1944), (also available in a Spanish edition).  Google translation from French:  Antonio Téllez, after in-depth research, retraces here the story of Francisco Ponzan Vidal. He is a historical figure whose life embodied the activity of anarchists against Nazism during World War II. He deployed two major tasks, the intelligence service and the rescue of resistance fighters and persecuted and hunted people. Ponzan in the years of the Spanish Civil War (1936-1939) was part of the intelligence service of the Confederal Columns of the CNT on the Aragon front. More precisely, he was in the Special Peripheral Intelligence Service (SIEP). His mission was to cross enemy lines in order to spy on and exfiltrate the companions stranded in the nationalist zone. Once in exile, Ponzan and some of his companions put their experience at the service of the anti-fascist cause. They worked with other libertarian groups, and sometimes with the Allied secret services. They organized the most important escape network across the Pyrenees during WWII. The group known as the “Ponzan Group Escape Network” has not always sparked an understanding of the libertarian movement which has not always understood its characteristics and how it works. The importance of the group has, however, been recognized by Allied governments and by most historians of the Resistance. In this book, Antonio Téllez is the first to study the genesis and activities of the network. Its objective is to show the specifically libertarian aspect of the escape network of the Ponzan group.  Available from Amazon and Decitre.





3 responses to “New Escape & Evasion Books

  1. Have you read Night Sky by Clare Francis?






Leave a Reply


You are commenting using your account. Log Out /  Change )

Google photo


Twitter picture


Facebook photo


Connecting to %s