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My escape from hell of Nazi Europe
by Paul R Taylor6/ 4/2007
AS his blazing RAF Halifax spun and plummeted through the skies
over Europe during the Second World War, airman Terry Bolter knew
there was no way out.
Centrifugal force was pushing him away from the hatch and into the
nose cone of the bomber, which had been shot down by a
Messerschmitt 109 as it returned from a raid on Frankfurt in
December, 1943.
"We dropped through the skies like a massive piece of lead,
screaming down with the sound of wind and engines for harsh and
throbbing accompaniment.
"The rest of the crew were silent. There was nothing to say that
mattered any more. My hand was dashing against the Perspex nose,
out of frustration or anxiety, or just something to do on that
endless journey down.
"And then the Perspex cracked open in front of me. A hole appeared
and I fell out. I pulled the ripcord and a mass of billowy silk
opened above me. Bits of the aircraft fell past as I twisted
around, then the Halifax roared by a few thousand feet away on its
last flight to earth."
The bomber crashed into the fields below, tingeing the clouds with
a burst of orange. One member of his crew had also escaped but the
rest perished in the crash.
The 20-year-old bomb aimer from Finchley, London, heard himself say
out loud: "You were lucky to get out of that". But he'd need more
than luck to escape from occupied Europe and make it back home to
Britain. Mr Bolter, 84, now lives in Alderley Edge and his story
features in Home Run, Escape From Nazi Europe.
The book recounts tales of the 3,000-5,000 airmen who evaded
capture after being shot down behind enemy lines during the
war.
Like him, the majority escaped by travelling through France over
the Pyrenees and into neutral Spain. They walked hundreds of miles,
swam raging rivers in the dark, climbed mountains, sneaked passed
German barracks and frontier posts, and talked their way through
checkpoints and snap inspections.
But for those who made it home, the real heroes were the members of
the Resistance and their families who risked torture and execution
to help the Allied servicemen - people like Philippe d'Albert Lake
and Andrée de Jongh. Mr Bolter put his life in Resistance hands
many times, including the day after he came down in the Belgian
Ardennes when he left his hiding place and approached a Belgian on
a push bike, who fortunately was a Resistance member.
In all, Terry stayed at more than 12 houses evading capture during
his six months in Brussels and Paris.
Some of his close shaves along the way are told in the book,
including when Gestapo officers raided the safe house where he was
staying in Brussels with a Resistance member he knew only as
Adrian.
"Lulu, Adrian's wife, rushed up the stairs and into my room.
`Terry, Terry, get up at once! The Gestapo are here'.
"Now I felt real fear but not the numbing sort that paralyses you.
I threw on my clothes in record time, stuffing my nightshirt into
my trousers, with a raincoat, scarf and trilby on top.
"I was ready just as Adrian came tearing up the stairs to tell me I
still had time to dash down to the coal cellar and hide. `What are
you doing, Adrian?' I asked. `I'm going over the rooftops!' he
said. `Well, I'm coming with you,' I replied.
Later he would discover the first place the Gestapo made for was
the coal cellar and the supposedly concealed trap door. The pair
jumped to an adjacent building and dropped down through a
skylight.
"Young women appeared wearing practically nothing at all followed
by middle-aged men, also in a state of undress, who should have
been at home with their wives. We had landed in a brothel!" The duo
then escaped through the streets.
Flight Lieutenant Bolter was even questioned by German officers in
Paris after a bomb exploded in the street while he was out walking
with a family but his fake papers identifying him as Cyrille van
der Elyst, a butter merchant from Limbourg, passed
inspection.
"It was one of those moments when I thought `This is very serious'.
I could feel it a bit in my legs and I was incredibly relieved when
he handed me back my papers," he recalls.
Mr Bolter, who has two sons, four grandchildren, and lives with his
wife Pam, followed the famous Comet Line escape route of Resistance
contacts and safe houses before catching a train to Bordeaux and
then crossing the Pyrenees into Spain.
He was awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross for his efforts
during the war as part of 77 Squadron, 4 Group Bomber
Command.
Earlier he had taken part in the bombing raids of the V2 rocket
base at Peenemunde on north east Germany. The V2 was the first
ballistic missile and the raids were among the most important of
the war.
When he finally arrived back in Britain, he was met at the station
by his father and brother.
"Pop saw me and was running towards me. It was a wonderful moment.
As we walked down our avenue, all the neighbours came out from
their houses, clapping and waving.
"A moment later my mother and I held each other close. That's what
the last six months had been about - the moment of being with my
family again."
As promised, he sent a coded message of his safe return to his
friends in the Resistance via the BBC: "La cravate rouge et bleue
est bien arrivée" - the red and blue tie has arrived safely."
Home Run, by John Nichol and Tony Rennell, is published by
Viking, £20.
Co-author John Nichol is himself a former RAF
flight lieutenant who was captured when his Tornado bomber was shot
down on a mission over Iraq during the Gulf War in 1991
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