Derek Shuff

In 1941 air gunner Sergeant Jack Newton's Wellington is hit by flak on his first bombing raid over Germany. Miraculously, the skipper makes an emergency landing on a German-occupied Belgian airfield, narrowly avoiding Antwerp Cathedral. Having torched the plane, the crew give the unsuspecting Germans the slip and are hidden by the Resistance. Hoping to make it to the coast and back across the Channel, the airmen are surprised when the 23-year-old female leader of the Comete Escape Line, Andree de Jongh – codenamed Dedee – has other plans for them. Full of terrifying and humorous moments, this is the story of the epic journey of the first British airman to escape occupied Europe during the Second World War.

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