To survive baling out from a doomed aircraft or a crash-landing in enemy occupied territory certainly required a large element of luck. To then manage to return to Allied shores inevitably needed considerably more good fortune and often the assistance of local patriots and resistance workers.returncharacterreturncharacterThis book contains the amazing stories of over seventy such escapes, many first-hand accounts. It includes aircrew who found their way to freedom from Europe and places as far away as the Bay of Bengal. There are stories of hi-jacked aircraft, crossing crocodile infested swamps, evasion by camel and coffin, survival in the jungle and brushes with the Gestapo.

Alan W Cooper joined and served in everything from the cubs to the Army cadets until when aged 17 he enlisted in the Territorial Army (2nd Monmouthshire Regiment) as a boy bandsman and served with them until 1958 when he was called for National Service with the South Wales Borderers (They of Rourke's Drift fame) but having already decided to become a regular soldier he enlisted in the 4/7th Royal Dragoon Guards band and subsequently learned to march wearing spurs. A year in the Royal Military School of Music followed and then service in Germany and Yorkshire until 1963 when he transferred to the Coldstream Guards band in London. As his interest and archives grew he decided to attempt his first book and in 1982, and had his first book 'The Men Who Breached The Dams' published. It is the story of the raid on the Ruhr dams in 1943, but from the eyes of the men who carried out this daring, and very gallant operation, their efforts, and their story. He has gone on to write many WWII history books, often with the guidance from other men who served