Northern Europe
Escape routes in northern Europe wove through Norway, Denmark, the Netherlands and Poland. Fishing boats, river barges and cross-border cycling runs moved evaders to Sweden or back towards the Channel. The pages below document the local helpers, RAF pick-up operations and research material for each country.
Explore More
Denmark
The Danish Escape Lines MI9 operations in Denmark were very limited compared with those further south in Holland, Belgium, and France. Denmark is surrounded on three sides by sea, its only land border…
Read moreDutch Escape Lines
This item is not intended to provide a wealth of details on events in the Netherlands during WW2, but simply a general overview of what happened. The simple map shows the relative location of England…
Read moreNorway
Much of Norway is inside the Arctic Circle, the nights are very long and inland temperatures often lower than –40C; for much of the time it is dark. Therefore escapers and evaders in Norway found thei…
Read morePoland
Poland’s escape story began on the very first day of the war. Even after the defeat of the September Campaign, the Polish underground and the Government in Exile built routes that allowed aircrew, int…
Read more