A fighter pilot who bailed out or belly landed in a field would often be paired with a wing man or element leader who could, at least in some cases, follow his friend down. For belly landings, the pilot would immediately exit the aircraft and wave to his companion above, signaling that he was okay and running away. Immediately afterwards, the pilot still in the air would strafe the downed fighter, destroying its usefulness to the enemy. Upon returning to base, that pilot would then file a Missing Air Crew Report with information on what he witnessed and where the downed pilot was last seen.

1. Hi guys
Its my new world history article,
What's a pilot supposed to do after they get shot down?
For World War II, the advice depended on where the pilot or aircrew went down.
A fighter pilot who bailed out or belly landed in a field would often be paired with a wing man
or element leader who could, at least in some cases, follow his friend down. For belly
landings, the pilot would immediately exit the aircraft and wave to his companion above,
signaling that he was okay and running away. Immediately afterwards, the pilot still in the air
would strafe the downed fighter, destroying its usefulness to the enemy. Upon returning to
base, that pilot would then file a Missing Air Crew Report with information on what he
witnessed and where the downed pilot was last seen.
Bomber crews often bailed out either in the middle of intense combat near the target, or
bailed out of an unaccompanied crippled aircraft that lagged behind before eventually
failing. Thus, they might be seen exiting the aircraft, but were almost never observed all the
way to the ground.
Once on the run, the pilot would first want to get away from the aircraft if they had belly
landed, or if they parachuted to a landing very near to the crash site. That aircraft will attract
a lot of attention. Another high priority is to bury or hide your parachute so you don’t leave a
big clue to where you landed.
However, pilots were taught not to keep running too far. The most intense search by the
enemy will likely develop quickly. If you’re on the move, you may be easily spotted, either by
enemy soldiers or by residents in the area who the soldiers will be questioning. So, the
advice was to find the first good hiding spot and disappear into it for 24 to 48 hours.
After a day or two, the enemy would usually abandon their search, or scale it back. Only now
do you start your journey out. While it would have been foolish to interact with any local
people when you were initially trying to be invisible, now you can try to ask for assistance if
some of the local population may be sympathetic. That would usually be the best option if
you were downed in France or the Netherlands. It could be riskier in northern Italy, where
there were both anti-fascists and fascists, but there weren’t a lot of options other than
taking the risk.

2. A helpful local could at least swap your military uniform for civilian clothes, feed you, and
suggest the safest path to follow. If you’re carrying a pistol, you may want to ditch it if you’ll
be wearing civilian clothes. An unarmed disguised pilot is a non-combatant evader
protected by the laws of warfare. An armed disguised pilot is a combatant out of uniform
who can be shot as a spy. If you’re lucky, the first person you contact can help you make
contact with the underground resistance or partisans. If not, you’ll have to keep trying -
There are some exceptions, but realistically you’ll eventually need to somehow contact the
organized resistance, or have them find you, unless you’re rather close to allied lines.
If you landed deep in Germany, your chances of successful evasion were very poor. Likely
the best outcome is being captured by regular units of the German armed forces, who
tended to treat captured airmen according to the law. Capture by angry civilians or by the
Gestapo could lead to your murder. Nonetheless, a few pilots made it out alone from fairly
deep in Germany. In one remarkable case, a downed pilot stole a wheelbarrow and started
pushing it west. A lone stranger walking down the road attracts attention. A lone guy
pushing a wheelbarrow is just a local peasant. He pushed that wheelbarrow all the way to
France unmolested.
In northern Italy, you’re facing a long walk if the partisans pick you up. It may not be all that
far to your base in southern Italy, but you would have to cross through the German front
lines to get there. Too risky. The safest way out is across Italy, through Slovenia, down to
central Croatia, and then back to the Adriatic coast, passed along from one partisan group
to the next as you go. This could take many months.
Many air crew went down in Yugoslavia, particularly Croatia, as crippled bombers returning
to Italy from missions far into the Reich would make it that far before failing. Here the
Germans and Croatian fascists controlled the larger cities and major transportation links,
but Tito’s partisans and Mihailovic’s Chetniks controlled the countryside with much popular
support. Here your odds were quite good for finding very helpful locals and rapidly being
placed under the protection of partisans, who had well-organized evacuation routes for
downed pilots. Also, the British had small special-operations teams scattered throughout
Yugoslavia and even in northern Italy whose primary job was to work with Tito’s partisans
and aligned Italian partisans in rescuing downed airmen. There were also American OSS
teams who could assist downed airmen in northern Italy and Yugoslavia. Once under their
guidance, your odds of a successful evasion were excellent.
If a member of your family was a downed airman in World War II and you do not have their
Missing Air Crew Report, please send me a private message and I’ll help you get a copy. I
may also be able to locate Escape and Evasion reports. Finally, if you have any stories or
information about allied airmen who evaded in Yugoslavia, please contact me.

3. Rescued U.S. airman Robert Glasby with Yugoslavian partisans at a concealed hospital in
the forests of southern Slovenia. Credit: National Museum of the U.S. Air Force