Us Official Photographs

Allied Airmen in France

War II many Allied airmen, who were forced-down or escaped from German prison camps in France, were helped to safety by the French Marquis. The escapees would pass through the hands of the Marquis, French peasants, and seemingly innocent villagers who guided them across the French border into Switzerland. After the liberation of France the repatriated men boarded planes at a French airfield and were flown back to their bases and then home. Here, American airmen, released from Switzerland, are being checked off by officers of the Allied Repatriation Unit as they arrive by train at a little French border town. Each has no more to his name than the clothes on his back and the package in his hands. They will be flown back to their bases in England or Italy, then sent home. October 1944