Overview

As a young subaltern in the Coldstream Guards, the author lost his arm at Dunkirk and was captured but eventually escaped via Lille, Paris, Marseilles, Spain and Gibraltar. He describes the fierce fighting outside Dunkirk, his captivity, escape and extraordinary life in Vichy France, before the Germans controlled it. His fellow escapees and the French who sheltered them make a rich cast of characters. On return to London, Langley is recruited into the Secret Service and told to organise the safe return of allied soldiers, sailors and airmen who had succeeded in either escaping from or evading the Germans. He describes the astonishing courage and sacrifice of the heroic underground operators who ran these escape lines across Belgium and France. Despite betrayal and infiltration from Germans, collaborators and traitors, over 3000 men were safely brought back to 'fight another day'. Langley and Airey Neave, who joined him after his historic home run from Colditz, had to wrestle with rival secret organisations for resources to carry out their vital work. All this and more is brilliantly described in this gripping, beautifully written book. 8-16 pages b/w plates

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9781781592533

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This book carries a foreword by the Late Airey Neave MP who was murdered by an IRA bomber. Appropriately, the same publisher has reprinted, in a new format, the book by Airey Neave that was originally published in the early 1950s. The two men served together after escaping German prisons, having been captured during the closing stages of the Battle of France. Together they combined their experiences to help evaders and escapers to exfiltrate from Occupied Europe as members of MI9. Langley was head MI9. The two books complement each other and expand the combined story. Neave was wounded at Calais and ended up in the 'escape proof' Colditz Castle, where he was to make the first successful 'home run' escaping via Switzerland. Langley lost an arm at Dunkirk, was captured, but eventually made his escape Lille, Paris, Marseilles, Spain and Gibraltar. Firetrench Reviews

Author Information

James Maydon (Jimmy) Langley was born in 1916 and graduated from Cambridge before joining the Coldstream Guards. Post-war he worked for Fisons and then ran the Deben Bookshop at Woodbridge and the Ancient House Bookshop, Ipswich. He died in 1983

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