I've just heard that Gordon Mellor, one of the few surviving Comet evaders, passed away last night.
https://www.legasee.org.uk/oursecret...ordon-mellor-/
Gordon was a Halifax navigator and his aircraft (W1216) was shot down near Turnhout by a German fighter during the night of 5/6 October 1942. He was picked up by Comet on 12th October.
Two weeks later (!) he crossed the Pyrenees at night, waded through the Bidassoa river that marked the Franco-Spanish frontier, left Gib in a DC-3 and arrived at Portreath on 1st November.
He finally published his story in 2016 - "ETA: A Bomber Command Navigator Shot Down and on the Run" - available from the usual suspects.
Gordon was one of the leading lights in the campaign for a memorial to those of Bomber Command who fell and I understand that at one moment, he stood to lose his house.
A great man - self-effacing, eternally modest and one of nature's gentlemen from that greatest of generations.
RIP Gordon.