Crest of the RAF Escaping Society (Canadian Branch). "Solitur Ambulando" (Walking Alone)

Evaders and Escapers

Escape and evasion lines in World War II helped people escape Western European countries occupied by Nazi Germany. The focus of most escape lines was assisting British and American airmen shot down over occupied Europe to evade capture and escape to neutral Spain, Switzerland, or Sweden from where they could return to the United Kingdom. A distinction is sometimes made between "escapers" (soldiers and airmen who had been captured by the Germans and escaped) and "evaders" (soldiers and airmen in enemy territory who evaded capture). Most of those helped by escape lines were evaders.

Some escape and evasion lines such as the Shelbourne or Burgundy Lines were created by the Allies specifically to assist their soldiers and airmen stranded in German-occupied territory. Others were the product of a combination of allied military personnel and local citizens in occupied territory, such as the Pat O'Leary Line. Some escape lines were created and operated by civilians as grass-roots efforts to help people fleeing the Nazis, such as Comet, Dutch-Paris, Service EVA or the Smit-van der Heijden line, and did not restrict themselves to helping military personnel but also helped compromised spies, resisters, men evading the forced labor drafts, civilians who wanted to join the governments-in-exile in London, and Jews.

About 7,000 airmen and soldiers, mostly British and American, were helped to evade German capture in Western Europe and successfully returned to the United Kingdom during World War II.[3] Many of the escape lines were financed in whole or part by MI9 of the British Directorate of Military Intelligence and other Allied organizations. Wikipedia

Escape and Evasion Lines

MI 9