Aircraft Down!: Evading Capture in Wwii Europe [Hardcover]

Philip D. Caine (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: November 1997

An authority on pilot evasion, escape, and survival recounts extraordinary adventures that took place in Holland, Belgium, France, Spain, Italy, Albania, and Greece during World War II.

--This text refers to the Paperback edition.

Editorial Reviews

Review

"AIRCRAFT DOWN! covers a neglected area of WWII aviation history and covers it well. Although there have been other books on evaders, none have gone into so much detail, enabling the reader virtually to share the courage, fear, ingenuity, and luck of the downed airmen. Despite this detail, it is very readable and spiced with humor. Additionally, the willingness of the underground and the general population of the occupied areas to help the evaders at the risk of their own lives is inspiring. This is an excellent book, and I recommend it highly." Donald S. Lopez, deputy director, National Air and Space Museum --This text refers to the Paperback edition.

About the Author

Brig. Gen. Philip D. Caine, USAF (Ret.), has more than 4,500 hours of flight time, taught military history at the U.S. Air Force Academy, and is the author of American Pilots in the RAF (Brassey’s, Inc., 1993) and Aircraft Down! Evading Capture in WWII Europe (Brassey’s, Inc., 1997). He lives in Monument, Colorado. --This text refers to the Paperback edition.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 285 pages
• Publisher: Brassey's Inc; 1st edition (November 1997)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1574880861
• ISBN-13: 978-1574880861
• Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 6.2 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (10 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,960,269 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

32 of 32 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars gripping and terrific!, May 3, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: Aircraft Down!: Evading Capture in Wwii Europe (Hardcover)

Telling the stories of 6 separate evasion episodes in Europe in WWII, General Caine writes a gripping book. I literally could not put down this book once started! Other than screaming "screenplay", the true tales are incredible and fascinating. The evasion stories are detailed enough to make sense, but not a textbook to confound you. The risks taken by the underground and resistence are as powerful as the efforts of the airmen who get back alive. This is a GREAT book; ideal for anyone with any interest in history, WWII, human courage, and escape sagas.

9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Detailed & Entertaining, October 31, 2001

By 

B. Barrett (Kansas City, MO USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Aircraft Down!: Evading Capture in WWII Europe (Paperback)

I found this book gives a lot of insight to evaders and some of the less well known facts of the war. The book has a fairly fast pace but also has a lot of detail. The first three stories deal with downed flyers in France and Belgium who eventually made it to Spain and then British held Gibraltar. Spain was sympathetic to Germany, and treated evaders harshly until 1943 when it became politically necessary for them to develop a better relationship with the Allies.

The fourth story is of a later evader in Belgium who was able to meet the oncoming Allies in 1944 instead of going to Spain. The fifth story details the evasion of an entire bomber crew from the island of Corfu over to Albania. They stayed at a guerilla camp in the mountains and eventually escaped by ship to Italy after much hardship. The final story is of of a flyer who evaded through Italy. Originally captured by the Germans upon landing, he was released from jail with many others when Italy signed an armistice with the allies. He spent the rest of his time evading the Germans and travelling around Italy (with much help from Italian partisans) and finally escaping to the Allied lines after many setbacks.

One of the central themes of the book is the sacrifice made by the occupied population to feed and help the Allied fliers escape. Every story has a follow-up at the end about the later life of the evader and what happened to the people that helped them evade (if known).

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Personal Memoirs., May 25, 2004

By 

John P. Rooney "John" (Massachusetts) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Aircraft Down!: Evading Capture in WWII Europe (Paperback)

"Aircraft down" by Philip D. Caine, sub-titled: "Evading Capture In WWII Europe". Brassey's, Dulles, Virginia, 1997

The author is a retired Brigadier General, United States Air Force, where he was once responsible for training at the Air Force Academy for "SERE (survival, evasion, resistance, escape). This gave him a professional interest in the history of evaders in Nazi occupied Europe. Philip D. Caine has also written books on Americans serving in in the Royal Air Force, (e.g. in the "Eagle Squadron") including "American Pilots In The RAF".

In this book, "Aircraft Down", he has drawn on his training and experience to write six separate stories, of individuals and crews, shot down behind the lines in enemy held Europe. The first three stories deal with Americans who were flying in the RAF. These three were fighter pilots, who came down alone. They were not alone on the ground, however, as they all needed the help of the local populace to escape Nazi searchers.

The fifth story is different: the entire crew of a B-17 Flying Fortress comes down on the island of Corfu, off the coast of Albania/Greece. Here, again, the common thread is that he local populace has to work together to first provide refuge for the evaders and then to provide a means of escape.

In all of the stories in this book, the author has worked to put a human face on the evaders. His research has been sufficient to give a personal memoir flavor to each story, and his follow-up on post war meetings, provides a sense of closure to the story. He relates the excitement when an evader meets the same woman working in the same field as on the day he was shot down, some 40+ years ago.

The book is concluded with a very short chapter entitled, "The Art Of Evasion And Survival", which points up that the personal resourcefulness of the downed pilot is often the key to a successful escape. General Caine has avoided the usual impersonal book, often written by General Officers, dealing with statistics numbers and unit identification, all at the "higher" strategic level. Instead, happily, he has used personal interviews and much research to provide a fine book telling the stories almost as if they were all personal memoirs.