This section is quite different to the rest of the site - it contains stories and articles not necessarily connected to either Conscript Heroes or the Pat O'Leary escape line - but I hope the reader will find them of interest anyway. As you will see from the credits, many people have contributed to the information used in these articles, but with some notable exceptions, the words are mostly my own. I will be adding to this collection as time and circumstance permit ...
In early 2008 I was able to add three new articles about USAAF evaders. The first had been previously posted elsewhere on the internet, the second is a translated extract from a French book whilst the third was only ever intended for the man's family. I am particularly grateful to all three authors for allowing me to publish their work here, and hope you find them as interesting as I do.
In late 2008 I added two lists of escapers and evaders, one of British MI9 numbers and one of US MIS-X numbers. Both lists continue to evolve as new information is added.
In 2009 I started looking at escape lines in Brittany. Using Roger Huguen as my main source, I have written three articles, the first about Louis Nouveau and the Pat Line connnection, the second about Oaktree and the third about the Shelburn escape line.
In early 2010 I added two more lists of evaders - one of men helped by Georges Broussine's Bourgogne escape line and one of Freteval evaders.
In April 2010 I launched a website entitled WWII Escape and Evasion Information Exchange - its intended purpose should be self-explanatory. The EEIE site is linked to this one and shares some of the articles listed below.
Rudolf Ptacek - Rudolf was one of the three Spitfire pilots who escaped from France with my father
Andrée Borrel - Andrée worked with the PAO before she escaped to England and joined SOE
Dominique Edgard Potier - Ed Potier was a Belgian MI9 officer who died at Reims in January 1944
For Ari Rabinowich - Ari was an SOE radio operator that a FANY friend knew at Thame Park
On Their Way Back - the Fillerin family from Renty, Pas de Calais, and some of their 'parcels'
Create or Quarantine - a day in the life of a young woman at Ravensbrueck
Alex Nitelet - Belgian fighter pilot, Pat Line parcel and radio operator for Pat O'Leary
Stella Lonsdale - an Englishwoman recruited as a German agent, then sent to England by Pat O'Leary
Charles Murchie and Harry Clayton - a tribute to their pioneering work in the Marseille Organisation
Bob Milton - a pilot who crashed in France March 1941, and returned to England in January 1943
The Great Ramble - the odyssey that inspired a best selling novel about escape and evasion in France
News of Sgt Philo - a concerned mother's letter that crossed all the frontiers - by Derek Richardson
Johnny Hopper - his war against the Germans - by Robert Wernick
Six Days in September - one party's journey from the Pas de Calais to the Pyrenees
Operations Bluebottle I and II - the first PAO sea evacuations from southern France
Message in a Matchbox - first news of Pat O'Leary and Tom Groome from Dachau
The Last Passeur - in remembrance of Paul Barrau, who died in 2005 - by Scott Goodall
The Big Party - perhaps the largest party of servicemen taken south from the Pas de Calais
Six Weeks at Miranda - after travelling the length of France and crossing the Pyrenees ...
Tom Kenny and the Arrests at Room 530 - a close call for the Marseille Organisation
Operations Titania and Rosalind - the last PAO sea evacuations from southern France
Who was George - evader Bill Knagg's modern-day search for his war-time helpers
Escape from Besancon - the real story of Gordon Laming's escape from Frontstalag 142
The Chauny Escape Line - details of the men helped by Etienne Dromas and his Chauny organisation
Early Escapers - some escapers who got back before the escape lines were established
Receipt for a Dead Canary - extracts from the memoir of Elizabeth Lucas Harrison
In Some Corner of a Foreign Field - in memory of Pte Alfred Edward 'Sandy' Riley 2/6 East Surreys
Odd Bod Ken Nolan - shot down over Arnhem and hidden by the Dutch Resistance - by Ken Nolan
La Resistance dans le Ternois - by René Guittard - in both English and the original French
Victor Reynolds - Our Man in Estramoz - by Alberto Franco
Seawolf and Seadog - felucca operations from Gibraltar to the southern French beaches in 1942
Tragedy in the Pyrenees - by Warren B Carah
Tail End Charlie - how four crewmen from a B-17 were helped to safety - by Dominique Lecomte
World War Two and Beyond - a P-47 pilot brought home courtesy of SOE - by Ken Williams
Roland Lepers - my father's French courier from Bethune to Marseille
Shelburn - a list of servicemen brought out on the five Bonaparte operations
MIS-X Numbers - a list of US servicemen with their MIS-X escape and evasion report numbers
Harold Cole - Pat Line Courier
MI9 Numbers - a list of British and Commonwealth servicemen with their MI9 escape and evasion numbers
One Last Letter - from F/O Count Jacques M J A d'Ursel RAF - courtesy of Michael Moores LeBlanc
MIS-X Research - can you help the US National Park Service find out more about Fort Hunt and PO Box 1142 ?
Evasion in Brittany - Louis Nouveau and the Pat Line connection
Evasion in Brittany - the Oaktree Mission of Val Williams and Ray Labrosse
Evasion in Brittany - the Shelburn escape line
Bourgogne - a list of servicemen helped by Georges Broussine's Bourgogne escape line
Operation Sherwood - a list of servicemen sheltered in the Freteval forest by MI9 Mission Marathon
This page updated 26 Apr 2010