ABSTRACT
For escapees and evaders looking to join or rejoin Allied forces, their obvious route was to find sanctuary in one of Europe’s few remaining neutral states. Journeys were inevitably long, fraught with dangers and involved crossing heavily guarded frontiers – and there was no guarantee of acceptance once in neutral territory as fugitives could sometimes be handed back to their pursuers. For most Belgians, Spain was the preferred route although there were also escapes to both Switzerland and Sweden. The Franco regimes was far from welcoming but for the most part abided by their international legal obligations, while representatives of the Allied powers, often working in tandem with illegal escape networks such as Comète and the ‘Pat’ line, attempted to remove their servicemen from Spanish captivity and expedite their transfer to the United Kingdom and back into active service.
