The Ones Who Got Away: Mighty Eighth Airmen on the Run in Occupied Europe

Historian Yenne (America’s Round-Engine Warbirds) offers an exhilarating account of the U.S. Army Air Corps Eighth Air Force, which flew daylight bombing missions from bases in England over Germany and occupied Europe from 1942 to 1945. Of the 210,000 crew members who flew these missions, Yenne notes, “50,000 were shot down over Europe. Of these, 26,000 died and 21,000 were captured as prisoners of war. Only 3,000 got away.” Though bomber crews received training to evade capture if shot down over enemy territory, most did not speak the local languages. If they landed in Germany, they were likely to be killed by angry civilian mobs who considered them “flying terrorists.” In France and Belgium, resistance fighters were instrumental to the survival of the downed crews, who sometimes joined their hosts’ cause. (For instance, pilot Joel McPherson served as a getaway driver in rural France for a band of guerrillas that didn’t know how to drive.) Airmen who attempted to return to Britain, usually over the Pyrenees, risked arrest in Spain. If they managed to make it back, they were permanently grounded, lest they be shot down again, captured, and forced to reveal how they escaped the first time. Drawing on firsthand accounts, Yenne relates this vigorous history as a series of individual stories about different airmen’s crashes, exploits, and escapes. WWII history buffs will devour this. (Jan.)