The Comet Escape Line

This is the story of the brave civilians who helped Allied airmen and other evaders to escape from occupied Europe and return to Britain, via Gibraltar or Lisbon

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As German forces took control of their country, a group of young Belgians conceived an audacious plan to smuggle downed Allied airmen and other evaders from Belgium, through France and over the Spanish border. So began the Comet line. Many incredible escapes followed, from safe houses in Brussels, along hazardous train journeys via Lille to Paris, to goat paths through the Pyrenees mountains, evading both German and Spanish border patrols. In this gripping new study, Alexander Stilwell reveals the personalities and motives of the Comet line founders, the British intelligence organisation (MI9) that supported it, the campaign by the Gestapo to destroy it, and the work of the Nazi collaborators who infiltrated the Comet line with disastrous results. Above all, this is the story of the incredibly brave civilians who risked their lives to help Allied airmen and other evaders to escape from occupied Europe.