The Shelburne Line Allowed up to 200 Airmen to Get Back to England to Fly against Nazi Germany

The Shelburne Line, facilitated by Military Intelligence, Section 9, was something like the American Underground Railroad, but in this case, it was developed during the waning days of World War II to help evading or escaping aircrew to get back to fly against the Nazis. Wherever the airmen went down, they were first housed in Paris, then were accompanied to a small town in Brittany, where a BBC announcement would alert the helpers to start conducting the airmen to “la maison d’Alphonse” atop a Nazi patrolled promontory. From that house, they would have to descend a steep cliff, wait anxiously for oarmen in smaller vessels, and then get into a larger ship, and back to Dartmouth. In silence and in stealth and risking the lives of everyone concerned they escaped to fly again. This is their story.