The Great Épinal Escape

On 11 May 1944, just four weeks before D-Day, sixty-seven American heavy bombers dropped 168 tons of bombs on the sunlit French town of Épinal on the Moselle river. Unbeknownst to the aircrew of the ‘Mighty Eighth’, this was the temporary home of over 3,000 Indian prisoners of war – and these bombs had just taken down the walls. The escapees took food and clothes and set off for the border. If they could make it to Switzerland, neutral territory, they would be safe. But between them and their go