Will chase up a copy.
Similar ripping yarn The Lone Evader. Oz pilot shot down in a Wellington over Belgium. in the early days of WW2.
Others of the crew that survived wanted to head to the coast and/ or Switzerland.... the shorter and obvious routes.
This guy decides to go completely in the opposite direction for SW France thence into Spain.
Off on the hoof,with a wounded leg he eventually gets a bicycle and after 3 months or so, he gets a train ticket for the last bit before a smuggler leads a party of other escapees over the Pyrenees into Spain.
Back in the UK he is not allowed to fly ops over the Continent again.
All on his own...and with the help of some VERY brave French folk.
Bravo, that man.!