Escape From Paris by Stephen Harding

Escape From Paris

A True Story of Love and Resistance in Wartime France

Stephen Harding

Grand Central Publishing · Print & ebook · October 12, 2021

This thrilling wartime adventure tells the true story of the downed American aviators who were rescued by French resistance fighters, taken to Nazi-occupied Paris, and hidden under the very noses of the Gestapo.

We earn from qualifying purchases.

Who it’s for
A wartime true story that keeps love, resistance, and danger in uneasy balance.
Genres
World War II: European Theater, Military Aviation, Military Lives
Published
Grand Central Publishing, October 12, 2021

Nearest books

Matched by what the books are about, then ordered by what their readers also loved. Most of these share its genre: World War II: European Theater.

  1. Nothing But CourageJames Donovan59% match
  2. The Hotel on Place VendomeTilar J. Mazzeo65% match
  3. Churchill's Secret MessengerAlan Hlad68% match
  4. Code Name: LiseLarry Loftis68% match
  5. The BohemiansNorman Ohler64% match
  6. The NineGwen Strauss62% match
  7. Last Twilight in ParisPam Jenoff59% match
  8. The NuggetP. T. Deutermann, John Pruden52% match

For younger readers: The Silent Unseen, For Freedom, Under a War-torn Sky

Start with three books, and this one can be the first.

Members get a new edition every morning: a route out from their books to essays, research and talks, with the reason for each.

Start with this book

About this book

This thrilling wartime adventure tells the true story of the downed American aviators who were rescued by French resistance fighters, taken to Nazi-occupied Paris, and hidden under the very noses of the Gestapo. Escape from Paris is the true story of a small group of U.S. aviators whose four B-17 Flying Fortresses were shot down over German-occupied France on a single, fateful day: July 14, 1943, Bastille Day.

Continue reading

They were rescued by brave French civilians and taken to Paris for eventual escape out of France. In the French capital, where German troops walked on every street and Gestapo agents hid around every corner, the flyers met a brave Parisian resistance family living and working in the Hôtel des Invalides, a complex of buildings and military memorials, where Nazi officials had set up offices. Hidden in the complex the Americans, along with dozens of other downed Allied pilots and resistance operatives, hatched daring escape plots. The danger of discovery by the Nazis grew every day, as did an unlikely romance when one of the American airmen begins a star-crossed wartime romance with the twenty-two-year old daughter of the family sheltering him—a noir tale of war, courage and desperation in the shadows of the City of Light. Based on official American, French, and German documents, histories, personal memoirs, and the author's interviews with several of the story's key participants, Escape from Paris crosses the traditional lines of World War II history with tense drama of air combat over Europe, the intrigue of occupied Paris, and courageous American and Allied pilots and French resistance fighters pitted against Nazi thugs. All of this set in one of the world's most beautiful and captivating cities.

Love Under Fire

A wartime true story that keeps love, resistance, and danger in uneasy balance.

Come here for

  • wartime France, with resistance threaded through the narrative
  • a sustained, true-story read with romance and danger in view

Expect

  • World War II history told as a narrative, not a briefing
  • A steady, immersive pace for a long read

Where it sits

Military Aviation64%
World War II: European Theater63%
Military Lives40%

Percentages are BookFrontier’s reading of the book.

Publisher categories

  • French History
  • World War II History
  • 20th-Century History
Authors
Stephen Harding
Publisher
Grand Central Publishing
Published
October 12, 2021
Format
Print & ebook
Reading lane
French History