User:Smallchief/Tijeras Pueblo

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Escape and evasion lines (World War II)

The routes used by the Pat, Comet, and Shelburne escape lines to smuggle airmen out of occupied Europe.

Participation in the escape networks was arguably the most dangerous form of resistance work in occupied Europe...The most perilous job of all was handled mostly by young women, many of them still in their teens, who escorted the servicemen hundreds of miles across enemy territory to Spain.[1]

During the Second World War citizens in the occupied countries of Europe were not free to move about without identification cards and travel permits. Nazi patrols stopped, and searched citizens without warning or reason. Controls on travel and the frequent patrols made it extremely dangerous to move allied evaders from place to place because there was always a possibility that they would be stopped. If arrested, an evader was interrogated, sometimes tortured and sent to a POW camp. The guide /helper, however, was interrogated, often tortured, imprisoned in a concentration camp, or executed and her or his family and friends were at great risk.[2]

My name is Andrée...but I would like you to call me by my code name, which is Dédée, which means little mother. From here on I will be your little mother, and you will be my little children. It will be my job to get my children to Spain and freedom.

Andrée de Jongh to downed airmen.[3]

Our lives are going to depend on a schoolgirl.

A downed airman.[4]

Escape and evasion lines in World War II assisted people to escape European countries occupied by Nazi Germany. The focus of most escape lines was helping British and American airmen shot down over occupied Europe evade capture and escape to neutral Spain, Switzerland, or Sweden from where they could return to the United Kingdom. Escape lines also helped other people fleeing persecution.

Typically, downed airmen were found, fed, clothed, given false identity papers, and hidden in attics, cellars, and people's homes by a network of volunteers who worked with the escape lines. Airmen were then accompanied by guides, also volunteers, to neutral counties. The most common routes were from Belgium and northern France to Spain. Travel through occupied France was mostly by train, followed by a crossing on foot of the Pyrenees mountains into Spain. Once in Spain the airmen were usually assisted by British diplomats to travel to Gibraltar and then flown back to the United Kingdom.[5]

Approximately 2,000 British and 3,000 American airmen were helped to evade German capture during the war. Airmen were assisted by many different escape lines, some of them large and organized, others informal and ephemeral. The work of the escape lines was labor intensive. The Royal Air Forces Escaping Society estimated that a total of 14,000 volunteers worked with the many escape and evasion lines by 1945. Many others helped on an occasional basis, and the total number of people who, on one or more occasions helped downed airmen during the war, may have reached 100,000. Perhaps one-half of the volunteer helpers were women, often young women, even teenagers. Several of the most important escape lines were headed by women.[6][7]

The work of helpers of escape lines was dangerous. Given the large number of helpers scattered over large areas, escape lines were relatively easy for the Germans to infiltrate. Thousands of helpers were arrested and more than five hundred died in concentration camps or were executed.[8]

Initially, escape lines were self-financed by individuals in occupied countries. However, two UK clandestine organizations, mostly MI9 but also Section DF of the Special Operations Executive, financed the large escape lines and the U.S. clandestine organization MIS-X helped prisoners of war (POWs) escape from German POW camps.[9]

Escape lines[edit]

References[edit]

  1. ^ Olson, Lynn (2017), Last Hope Island, New York: Random House, p. 289.
  2. ^ "Memorial to Comete Line," [1]. accessed 5 Feb 2020
  3. ^ "Martin, Douglas (18 Oct 2007), "Andrée de Jongh, 90, Legend of Belgian Resistance, Dies," The New York Times.
  4. ^ "Martin, Douglas (18 Oct 2007), "Andrée de Jongh, 90, Legend of Belgian Resistance, Dies," The New York Times.
  5. ^ Ottis, Sherri Greene (2001), Silent Heroes: Downed Airmen and the French Underground, Lexington: University Press of Kentucky, pp. 53-69
  6. ^ Rossiter, Margaret L. (1986), Women in the Resistance, New York: Praeger, pp 23-24
  7. ^ Nichol, John and Rennell, Tony (2007), Home Run: Escape from Nazi Europe, New York: Penguin, p. 470
  8. ^ Neave, Airey (1970), The Escape Room, Garden City, NY: Doubleday, p. xiii
  9. ^ "MIS-X," National Museum of the United States Air Force, [2], accessed 5 Feb 2020
France: Allied aircraft losses, casualties, and evaders, 1939-1945[1]
Aircraft lost Airmen killed Airmen captured Airmen rescued Airmen exfiltrated
United Kingdom 4,059 9,349 2,088 1,039 1,312
United States 2,905 4,780 3,574 1,748 1,741
Total 6,964 14,129 5,662 2,787 3,053

324 evading airmen in Netherlands [4] 98 evading airmen in Denmark. 1025 flyers from Great Britain, Canada, New Zealand, Australia, Holland, Norway and Poland and 135 American flyers killed in Denmark. [5]

1,464 RAF planes shot down in Belgium; 729 US planes shot down in Belgium [6] approximately 3,900 RAF airmen killed in Belgium. 3850 planes shot down in Netherlands, almost 4,000 killed. [7]

80,000 planes lost in Europe operationally, 42,000 British and 38,000 American. Ellis, John (1993). World War II - A statistical survey. Facts on File. p. 259. ISBN 0-8160-2971-7.

References[edit]

  1. ^ "France-Crashes" [3], accessed 3 Feb 2010
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