Silent Heroes: Downed Airmen and the French Underground [Hardcover]

Sherri Greene Ottis (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: June 1, 2001

" In the early years of World War II, it was an amazing feat for an Allied airman shot down over occupied Europe to make it back to England. By 1943, however, pilots and crewmembers, supplied with "escape kits," knew they had a 50 percent chance of evading capture and returning home. An estimated 12,000 French civilians helped make this possible. More than 5,000 airmen, many of them American, successfully traveled along escape lines organized much like those of the U.S. Underground Railroad, using secret codes and stopping in safe houses. If caught, they risked internment in a POW camp. But the French, Belgian, and Dutch civilians who aided them risked torture and even death. Sherri Ottis writes candidly about the pilots and crewmen who walked out of occupied Europe, as well as the British intelligence agency in charge of Escape and Evasion. But her main focus is on the helpers, those patriots who have been all but ignored in English-language books and journals. To research their stories, Ottis hiked the Pyrenees and interviewed many of the survivors. She tells of the extreme difficulty they had in avoiding Nazi infiltration by double agents; of their creativity in hiding evaders in their homes, sometimes in the midst of unexpected searches; of their generosity in sharing their meager food supplies during wartime; and of their unflagging spirit and courage in the face of a war fought on a very personal level.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

The British bombed occupied Europe and Germany by night; American aircraft bombed by day. German fighters and flak gunners downed hundreds of aircraft, and thousands of airmen found themselves hunted by the Germans on the ground or in offshore waters. Enter the French Resistance. Independent scholar Ottis has produced a valuable addition to the "hidden" history of WWII, showing us the men, woman and sometimes children who helped Allied airmen evade capture, with more than 5,000 crewmen returned to England. Ottis, using primary and secondary materials as well as her own interviews with French civilians, tracks in suspenseful detail the three major routes for getting the airmen across the Pyrenees to Spain. Whole villages sometimes were at risk if the Gestapo found and cracked down on a "line." Executions and deportations to concentration camps were commonplace. Ottis also reports on postwar reunions, including a trek that reenacted one of the lines into Spain. This is the first documented (including 30 b&w photos) study of escape routes in almost 30 years, and it makes for a valuable addition to WWII history. (May)Forecast: American encounters with the Resistance is an underexplored area of Franco-American relations and should draw readers from beyond the WWII market. The individual stories Ottis has unearthed are detailed enough to interest producers.

Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information, Inc.

Review

"This carefully researched text tells a story at once romantic, factual, and ennobling. Emblematic of the truly significant sacrifices and triumphs of a passing generation." -- Kirkus Reviews

"Ottis has written the only comprehensive study on escape and evasion in Western Europe in the last thirty years, and she does so with powerful stories of courage, taken directly from those who participated in the resistance." -- McCormick (SC) Messenger

"Flypast A very valuable book." -- NYMAS Newsletter

"Tales of French underground resistance units are a familiar element of World War II history. The 'Underground Railroad' lines organized to lead the downed fliers to safety rarely have earned equal attention. This book is a well-documented effort to make up for that omission." -- Proceedings

"A valuable addition to the 'hidden' history of WWII, showing us the men, women, and sometimes children who helped Allied airmen evade capture.... The first documented study of escape routes in almost 30 years." -- Publishers Weekly

"She makes the individual Frenchmen -- the heroes of her book -- live, and the reader goes hand-in-hand with the helpers as they face the tension, uncertainty, and danger associated with aiding their allied charges." -- Register of the Kentucky Historical Society

""Undoubtedly one of the most stirring accounts of the assistance rendered downed American and British flyers shot down over France and Belgium.""This is one book that needs to be read and re-read for its lessons in survival, evasion, and escape from would-be captors.""Well-written and superbly documented." -- Leo J. Daugherty III, World War II Quarterly" -- Leo J. Daugherty III, World War II Quarterly

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 248 pages
• Publisher: The University Press of Kentucky; 1st. edition (June 1, 2001)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0813121868
• ISBN-13: 978-0813121864
• Product Dimensions: 9.3 x 6.3 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.3 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,876,323 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Discover books, learn about writers, read author blogs, and more.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Great Source for Reference, August 22, 2009

By 

J. E. Ballantyne, Jr. (Youngstown, Ohio) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Silent Heroes: Downed Airmen and the French Underground (Hardcover)

I purchased this book to use as a reference source for a theatrical script which I have in development. This is a great book. Very informative on the subject of downed airmen in France and the numerous escape networks during World War II. Of particular interest was the huge amount of information on the O'Leary Line, which was one of the major escape networks.
The writing style of the author made it easy reading and made it difficult to put the book down. This work will be a very valuable piece of the puzzle as I further develop this theatrical work. It enabled me to take a totally different look at what I was trying to accomplish and put me on the right track.

Highly Recommended

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Great History, July 11, 2008

By 

Massacist "Master of My Illusionary World" (My own Mind) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Silent Heroes: Downed Airmen and the French Underground (Hardcover)

Anyone who is a fan of undeground works, or is just a World war II studier should get this book. It highly details the work of the French escape lines of WWII, and the helpers who gave up their lives for the soldiers. It is a great read.