Survival Against All Odds

A Royal Air Force pilot recounts his harrowing wartime experiences, including being shot down over occupied France, in this thrilling WWII memoir.

Born in North London in 1922, John Misseldine enlisted in the Royal Air Force as soon as he turned eighteen. After training in California, he flew fighters with 611 Squadron, led by the legendary Battle of Britain veteran D.H. Watkins. Then, on June 8th, 1942, Misseldine was shot down over Nazi occupied northern France.


For more than two months, Misseldine was on the run from the Gestapo, aided and abetted by the French resistance and British Intelligence. Journeying south, he eventually made his way to Gibraltar and escaped back to the British Isles.


Misseldine was later commissioned as a pilot officer and posted to Algeria to ferry new Spitfires and Hurricanes to front-line squadrons supporting the Eighth Army. It was there that he met and married a French girl, Mauricette. Sixty-four years later, they are still together.