Pat O'Leary Line
The Pat O'Leary escape line helped Allied soldiers and airmen stranded or shot down over occupied Europe evade capture by Nazi Germany and return to Great Britain.
Downed airmen in northern France and other countries were fed, clothed, given false identity papers, hidden in attics, cellars, and people's homes, and escorted to Marseille, where the line was based.
"Pat O'Leary" was the pseudonym of Albert Guérisse, one of the early leaders of the line, which helped more than 600 Allied soldiers and airmen escape from France to Spain.
[1] The Pat O'Leary Line was one of many escape and evasion networks in the Netherlands, Belgium, and France during World War II.
For example, on one day, 14 October 1943, 82 bombers with 800 crewmen of the U.S. Eighth Air Force were shot down or crash-landed in occupied Europe.
Most surrendered or were captured by the Germans, but about 1,000 made their way to Vichy France, nominally independent, especially the coastal city of Marseille where many took refuge in the British Seaman's Mission headed by a Presbyterian minister named Donald Caskie.
Donald Darling, working for the British intelligence agency MI9, in Portugal (later Gibraltar) engaged businessman, Nubar Gulbenkian, to lay the groundwork for a network of people to guide stranded allied soldiers over the Pyrenees mountains to neutral Spain from where they could be repatriated to the United Kingdom.
The escapees were then moved onward by train or car to the British Consulate in Barcelona, and then flown back to the United Kingdom, usually from Gibraltar where the MI9 office was headed by Donald Darling.
[12] Working for the escape line became more dangerous in November 1942 when the German military occupied Vichy France and took control of much of the government.
"[14][15] According to Neave, the Pat Line helped more than 600 allied soldiers and downed airmen escape from France to Spain and return to England.
As exfiltration by felucca down the French and Spanish coasts to Gibraltar became more dangerous, the Line used land routes through the easternmost Pyrenees, and, as that also became more hazardous, shifted its main routes to the high Pyrenees further west which were not patrolled extensively by German soldiers, French police, and Spanish border guards.
From there the guide and escapees hiked across the border, via the slopes of Mont Valier, 2,838 metres (9,311 ft) in elevation, and onward to the small town of Esterri d'Aneu in Spain.
The Ponzán group had no affection for the British and Americans, but accepted money and arms from the allies to further their objective of overthrowing the Franco government of Spain.
Cole worked his way into the confidence of the Pat line by successfully escorting several groups of airmen from Lille in northernmost France to Marseille.
[22] The government of France later recognized 475 men and women, 89 percent of them French, for their work with the Pat Line helping allied soldiers and airmen escape occupied Europe.
[25][10] Nancy Wake was a courier for the Pat Line and, along with her husband, Henri Fiocca, sheltered many airmen in their luxurious Marseille apartment.
