Aircraft Down!: Evading Capture in WWII Europe by Philip D. Caine

Aircraft Down!: Evading Capture in WWII Europe by Philip D. Caine is a rather disappointing collection of stories of Allied pilots trying to avoid capture. The major problem is that Caine has fallen into the "popular history" trap of providing internal monologue. "He knew he had to get away from the crash site quickly." The stories themselves are actually pretty good and would make excellent novels. The pilots often had to trust people on very little evidence as well as come up with new ideas on-the-fly. There is a far too short introduction discussing the history of the various underground lines used to move personnel to neutral Spain. Two of the stories involve planes crashing in Greece and Italy which was interesting.

Not recommended!

Is available through Abebooks.



For more WWII book reviews Take a look at My World War II bookshelf.