Peter Stevens was a German-Jewish refugee who escaped Nazi persecution as a teenager in 1933. He joined the RAF in 1939 and after eighteen months of pilot training he started flying bombing missions against his own country. He completed twenty-two missions before being shot down and taken prisoner by the Nazis in September 1941. To escape became his raison d'etre and his great advantage was that he was in his native country. He was recaptured after each of his several escapes, but the Nazis never realized his true indentity. He took part in the logistics and planning od several major breakouts, including The Great Escape, but was never successful in getting back to England. After liberation, when the true nature of his exploits came to light, he was awarded the Military Cross. He then served as a British spy at the beginning of the Cold War before immigrating to Canada to resume a normal life. This is the story of a heavily conflicted young man, alone in a world that is in the midst of destruction. He is afforded an opportunity to help his persecuted people to obtain a small measure of revenge. It is at once a sad yet uplifting tale of thankless and unheralded heroism. AUTHOR: Marc Stevens, the son of Peter Stevens lives in Quebec where he is a senior executive of a food processing company. He began his research into the subject of this book in the late 1980s and has made extensive use of files from the British National Archives as well as meeting several of the key personalities in this story. ILLUSTRATIONS 45 b/w photos 1 map *
