In the summer of 1941, a scheme was finally put in place whereby captured Allied servicemen who were injured, or otherwise not eligible to fight, would be repatriated back to England in exchange for injured German POWs, and at the beginning of October, some 1,500 men were brought from Germany to the Heilag (Heimatlager - repatriation camp) established on the site of an old British barracks (now the Parc du Madrillet) at Sotteville-lès-Rouen. However, by the time the men reached Rouen, the Germans had changed their minds, and the exchanges that were due to take place between 4 and 7 October, were cancelled.

James was captured that morning and taken to a German hospital in Morlaix where his left arm was amputated. On 6 May, he was taken by train via Paris, to the Dulag Luft at Frankfurt. Next day, James was transferred to a civilian hospital, where he joined 15 other RAF personnel until he was returned to the Dulag on 29 July. Next day, he and about 56 other RAF personnel were sent to Stalag IXC (Bad Sulza), where they were housed in the town hall. Ten days later, James was transferred to the main camp, where he stayed until 2 October, when he says that a number of Army wounded were sent to the Heilag at Rouen under a repatriation scheme, James donning an army uniform to join them.

After a two-day journey to Rouen, the prisoners were taken to the Caserne Jeanne d'Arc but soon suspected there was a problem with the proposed repatriation scheme when they were moved into the Heilag, situated on a racecourse outside the town (at Sotteville) , where they were housed in British Nisson huts, surrounded with British barbed wire. The RAF ORs were given a hut to themselves, James joining thirteen other sergeants and one corporal, with three RAF officers (under P/O Colson) also in the camp.

Sgt William J Magrath (683) from Belfast, was the observer of 82 Squadron Blenheim R2772 (Blair) attacking the aerodrome at Aalborg in Denmark on 13 August 1940 when they were shot down by fighters, and crashed into a fjord west of Aalborg at about two o'clock that afternoon. They were picked up by local men a few hours later and taken to a hospital at Aalburg, both the pilot, Sgt D Blair, and gunner, Sgt W Greenwood, having slight wounds while Magrath had a broken arm and leg.

They crossed the demarcation line somewhere between Nevers and Clermont-Ferrand, being taken across the river Loire in a small boat on the night of 19 December. Next day, they were taken by car to Chemin-sur-la-Fosse (query), and took a train to Marseille, arriving at six o'clock on the morning of 22 December, where they were recorded by Louis Nouveau on pages 48 and 49 of Volume 44 of his 1823, 70-volume Complete Edition of Voltaire. On 24 December, they were taken to Toulouse, and on 27 December, to Port Vendres, crossing the Pyrenees with two guides and four Belgians, and arriving at Vilajuiga in the early hours of 29 December. They were then taken by train to Barcelona and handed over to the British Consulate-General. Oliver James and Bill Magrath left Gibraltar by sea for Gourock on 4 March 1942.

Major Robert Challenor (711), a peace-time engineer from Blackpool, who had served in the 1914-18 War (where he lost an eye and so wore a black eye-patch) , was serving in the Second War with the Royal Engineers. On 8 June 1940, he was withdrawing from a position on the river Andelle, north of Rouen, towards the Seine, east of Rouen with about 130 men but on finding themselves surrounded, Challoner split the party into groups of 10 or 12, each with an NCO, and ordered them to head east. He says that the group with him soon found they could not go on, and he carried on alone, marching for seven days [heading south until] reaching the Seine near Limetz (assume Limetz-Villez) , where he was captured on 17 June. He was taken by lorry to Neuf-Marché , where there were a number of French POWs. A few days later, he was transferred to Saint-Omer, where he joined six other British officers, and they were taken by train to Arras, to join some 400 French troops. On 25 June, they were marched to Cambrai and put on a train which took them through Belgium and Holland to Oflag VIIC at Laufen, in south-east Bavaria. In August, Challoner was told that he would be repatriated, and on 19 February 1941, this was confirmed by a Swiss Board but it wasn't until 26 September that he left Laufen for the Heilag at Rouen.

Challoner reports that the camp was on a racecourse and that there were 1,308 men, including 126 officers held there. He says that he acted as adjutant for the prisoners, and “gained the confidence” of Colonel Martin, the German Commandant.

They were hidden in Rouen for nearly two weeks before the Frenchwoman and her friend, along with the two policemen, took fifteen (sic) evaders by train to Paris, arriving there at two o'clock in the morning. They went to a house where they stayed with a French family (no names given) until taking an early morning train to Dijon, arriving that evening, and crossing the demarcation line that night to Chagny (sic), where they boarded a train to Lyon.

On 22 September, Newman left Spangenberg for Bad Sulza where officers and men were being gathered for repatriation, and three days later they left Germany, sent on two trains to Rouen. At Rouen, they were held on the trains for three days, and on the “breakdown of the repatriations scheme”, the men were put into French barracks and the officers in a convent in the town before they were all transferred to an old British Base Depot Camp on the racecourse, across the river at Sotteveille. They were housed in Nissen huts with no flooring, and at first, no fuel for heating, and on 19 December, a thousand of the POWs were removed to Poland. Newman reports that there were a number of doctors and padres, as well as some Australians and New Zealanders who worked in the cook-houses and at wood-cutting. All the remaining POWs were put into a small compound with a fairly heavy guard. He says that when Major Challenor (711) and his party of 14 got out on 31 January, there was a colossal “flap” and the whole camp had orders to move to Poland.

Newman reached Beaumont that evening, and went to find the local curé, however he said he was unable to help as the town was full of Luftwaffe and other Germans officers. Newman settled down in a haycart but was discovered by the owner who moved him to his best barn for the night. Next day, Newman returned to Le Gros-Thiel to look for Findlayson, and finding no trace of him, decided to return to Rouen. After a night spent in a hotel at Rexonne (query), Newman walked back to Rouen but found no-one at the address apart from an elderly charwoman. Newman then decided to go to Paris, and was walking along a main street in Rouen when a small Frenchman asked him if he were English. He told Newman to follow him, led him to a café, and on learning that Newman had no real plan, took him back to his house at 17 rue de Lecat. The man was Bernard Pigeon, married to Lucie and with a daughter Paulette, who sheltered Newman for the next three weeks. Mons Pigeon introduced Newman to man who said that he could get him home, and gave him an address at Chateaurault where he said that Newman would find help in crossing the demarcation line. On 17 March, Newman went to Chateaurault but found nothing, and so took a train to Tours, where he also had an address. He was advised to go to Le Haye-Descartes (now just Descartes), and so took a bus to La Celle-Saint-Avant, arriving there on the evening of 17 March, where he spent the night on a farm. Next morning, he was taken to Le Haye-Descartes, a man on a bicycle taking his valise, and guiding him to a house in Le Haye, where the owner instructed a gardener boy to show Newman how to cross the demarcation line. The boy took Newman to a family where the daughter arranged for her younger brother to take Newman across the line the following day. Newman stayed overnight with the family, and next day, the boy took Newman by bicycle to another farm about 3 kms NE of the town where they left their bicycles and walked across the fields to a farm, where another boy took Newman to another farm at Abilly, in the unoccupied southern zone, where the first family's daughter joined him, and put him on a bus for Le Blanc .