Wingless Victory: The Story of Sir Basil Embry's Escape from Occupied France in the Summer of 1940
Anthony Richardson
Nov 2016 · Lucknow Books
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234
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About this ebook
WINGLESS VICTORY is the story of an audacious and desperate man on the run, the record of one of the first wartime escapes through Occupied France. It reads like a first-class thriller and, as one critic puts it, "leaves fiction gasping far behind." On May 27, 1940, Wing-Commander Basil Embry (later Air Chief Marshal Sir Basil Embry, and Commander, Allied Air Forces in Central Europe 1953-56), although appointed to a higher command, decided to lead his old squadron into battle for the last time. Within the hour he was shot down in France and found himself alone, unarmed, and in uniform. Capture was inevitable. He was, in fact, captured three times, but refused to submit. Once he broke from a column of prisoners under the muzzle of a German machine-gun. Another time he fought his way out, killing three Germans with a stolen rifle and then hiding in a manure heap for nearly six hours. But perhaps the most amazing of all his exploits was the occasion on which, in the role of a fanatical member of the Irish Republican Army, he shook his fist under the nose of a German inquisitor, yelling hatred and abuse of Britain until his captors finally turned him loose to find his own way home. At this period there was little of escape technique to guide him and he had no opportunity to lay plans or prepare equipment. Yet, by sheer courage and wit, he found his way back to Britain to fight and fly again. He won the D.S.O. and three bars, and the D.F.C.
"The author succeeds in communicating vividly, yet unpretentiously, the sensations of a man on the run....About ten times as exciting as a fictional thriller."—Sunday Times
"A thrilling and authentic escape story—will prove a classic."—Daily Herald
"The records of World War II have no wilder or stranger story to tell."—Tatler
"It is an extremely exciting story, but well spiced with humour as well."—Illustrated London News
"The author succeeds in communicating vividly, yet unpretentiously, the sensations of a man on the run....About ten times as exciting as a fictional thriller."—Sunday Times
"A thrilling and authentic escape story—will prove a classic."—Daily Herald
"The records of World War II have no wilder or stranger story to tell."—Tatler
"It is an extremely exciting story, but well spiced with humour as well."—Illustrated London News
WINGLESS VICTORY is the story of an audacious and desperate man on the run, the record of one of the first wartime escapes through Occupied France. It reads like a first-class thriller and, as one critic puts it, "leaves fiction gasping far behind." On May 27, 1940, Wing-Commander Basil Embry (la...
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About the author
Anthony Thomas Stewart Currie Richardson (1899 - 4 February 1964) was a British author of adult adventure fiction and non-fiction.
Born in the Kensington district of London and educated at Marlborough College, Richardson was commissioned in the Royal Air Force Volunteer Reserve (Administrative and Special Duties Branch) in 1940. He served in the same squadron as Wing-Commander Basil Embry and later became the squadron's Adjutant.
Richardson is best known for Sir Basil Embry's story on his escape from France in 1940, Wingless Victory, which was first published in 1950. He is also known as a novelist and for his volumes of war poems, many of which dealt with Sir Basil Embry's squadron.
He died in 1964.
Anthony Thomas Stewart Currie Richardson (1899 - 4 February 1964) was a British author of adult adventure fiction and non-fiction.
Born in the Kensington district of London and educated at Marlborough College, Richardson was commissioned in the Royal Air Force Volunteer Reserve (Administrative a...
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