Pilot on the Run, The Epic Escape From Occupied France of Flight Sergeant L.S.M. "Chalky" White, RNZAF. (Spitfire pilot) By Errol Brathwaite.

Publisher: Century Hutchinson Ltd., 1986, First Edition.

Good hardback with jacket; binding firm; a little rubbing and bumping to edges, no inscriptions; foxing to some pages, otherwise very good. Jacket has slight edge-wear; fading to spine; minor marks, foxing to reverse side. 185 pages, photos. Review:

"This is a fantastic book, telling the incredible story of 485 (NZ) Squadron Spitfire pilot Les "Chalky" White's escape after crashing in France. While escorting Marauder bombers on an attack on the 22nd of August 1943, Chalky shot down a FW190, was himself shot down, and on his descent to French soil shot down a second FW190. He crash landed, and made an escape from the downed Spitfire. He then began an incredible journey from near Le Havre, northern France, where he crashed, all the way down to Spain and Gibraltar. He did it without the aid of the Underground assisted routes, and the only time he was involved directly with the Underground was by chance when one member helped him across the Pyrenees. All the way he took extreme risks, knocking on doors at random, bumping into teenagers who were keen to assist, and not being able to speak a word of French or Spanish, or German for that matter. He escaped from German capture right at the beginning, having been a "prisoner" for less than an hour, and from that time had to use cunning to avoid the German soldiers and Gestapo, and the French Gendarme. The book is written by a great author, Errol Braithwaite, who'd also been in the RNZAF as a Ventura gunner in the Pacific. He has a real way with storytelling and captures the mood well. The book is very difficult to put down once you begin to read it."

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