Under the Wire: The Wartime Memoir of a Spitfire Pilot, Legendary Escape Artist and "Cooler King"

Bill Ash, an American flying Spitfires with the Royal Canadian Air Force, was shot down in March 1942. Surviving both the crash and immediate capture, Bill was eventually betrayed to the Gestapo. His life was saved by the Luftwaffe, who sent him to the Great Escape POW camp, Stalag Luft III. From here, Bill began an extraordinary 'tour' of Occupied Europe, breaking out of one camp - over the wire, under it in tunnels, through it with cutters or simply strolling out of camp gates in disguise - and being dispatched to the next.