Lieutenant Hartin was among some of the first American airmen flying missions over German-occupied territory to bail out of his aircraft and evade his way back to England. His escape and evasion (E&E) report, the earliest completed form in the MIS-X files, is an excellent example of the accounts of the 3,000 or so evaders who followed. Hartin’s narrative covers the spectrum of challenges that evaders faced: exiting his bomber, landing in France, hiding from the Germans, receiving assistance from local peasants, crossing the Pyrenees Mountains into Spain, and eventually returning to the United Kingdom. The report also contains the various annexes and forms contained in most of the E&E reports. Hartin, like many of the evaders, did not include the full names of his crew members. Unlike most of the reports that followed, he did not list information about them being killed, captured, missing, or successfully evading.

More than 11,000 United States Army Air Force planes—bombers, fighters, and transports—went down in German-held territory during World War II. The causes for their departure from the skies included flak, national socialist fighter attacks, midair collisions, fuel depletion, and mechanical problems. Of the American aircraft crew members in those planes, approximately 26,000 died as a direct result of enemy fire. Another 30,000 crewmen survived their aircraft disasters by either crash-landing their planes or parachuting into enemy territory only to be captured and become prisoners of war.

Only about 3,000 of the almost 60,000 Americans shot down over Europe between 1942 and 1945 managed to evade the Germans and make their way to friendly territory. From there they were returned to Great Britain where they were interviewed and debriefed by Military Intelligence Services.

Each airman had his own story with events that were sometimes harrowing, often daring, frequently ingenious, at times incredulous, occasionally humorous, always unpredictable, and yet—as amazing as it may seem—routinely similar to the others.