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WWII’s Great Escapes follows explorer and former Royal Marine Monty Halls on the path of the Freedom Trails. Tens of thousands of men and women staked their lives following these little-known routes through unknown, enemy territory and out of Nazi occupied Europe. The Freedom Trails led to safety, but many were extremely perilous. To find and complete them required the help of local resistance fighters, who risked their own lives to save others.

Monty retraces these extraordinary journeys, discovering what it took to escape and meeting the ordinary men and women who became heroes in the process.

Titles include:

Pyrenees
Monty treks one of the toughest and most famous trails out of Nazi occupied France, taking him through the valleys and passes of the Pyrenees mountain range and into Spain. His route was part of an escape network that began in Paris and was fraught with danger – from German soldiers, the Vichy police, local informers, and the mountains themselves.

Rossano
Monty travels to Rossano in Northern Italy, a gathering point for escaped POWs after the Italian Armistice and the start of the Operation Galia exfiltration. His journey takes him over precipitous ridges of the Marble Mountains and through the formidable Gothic Line, following the route the SAS took after their successful mission.

Slovenia
Monty heads to Slovenia to retrace one of the most daring, yet little known, mass escapes of Allied prisoners during the Second World War, made possible only with the help and kindness of ordinary people. Over 80 fellow prisoners traveled 150 miles through rough terrain – facing the elements, German patrols, ambush, and betrayal.

Sulmona
Monty tells an incredible story of evasion and escape through unknown, hostile territory in central Italy. He follows the route taken by  prisoner of war Len Harley, who spent months on the run before braving snow, ice, and Nazi patrols to escape over the mountains of the Majella.