D-Day Plus One: Shot Down and on the Run in France

By Adam Wilkins and Frank Holland

The day after D-Day, the most momentous day of the Second World War, Frank Holland was an RAF pilot whose Typhoon aircraft had just been hit by German antiaircraft fire during a low flying attack on a marshaling yard in Normandy.

He managed to take the aircraft up to 1200 feet but then the engine went dead and his Typhoon soon began heading towards the earth at an accelerating and frightening speed. Struggling frantically, he just barely got free of the cockpit and baled out four or five seconds before the crash. His parachute didn’t open but he fell into a wood, crashing through the branches of an oak to dangle precariously fifteen feet up. Breathing hard, he experienced a few seconds of relief at survival. But then he realized German troops would be swarming around within minutes. He had to get away, and fast…

So begins Frank’s tremendous adventure as he evaded capture for months, sometimes by barely a whisker, to make it back home to the city of his birth, Cambridge. A riveting true story told in a masterly fashion.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Grub Street Publishing
• Release date: Jul 5, 2007
• ISBN: 9781908117526

Reviews for D-Day Plus One

[chris_el-1 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

The personal memoirs of a WWII British pilot written while living in his retirement home in France over 60 years after D-day. He starts out with his boyhood and school and moves on to joining the military and wanting to fly. He was one of two chosen from a large group of applicants to go to pilot training, picked in part because he golfed like the officer's picking the candidates.

After passing his training the RAF sent him to Canada to be an instructor to other pilots. Eventually they sent him to fly in the European theater flying dive bomber type missions. He was one of the fortunate ones that lived. He was shot down during D-day and he relates his escape through German occupied France over weeks getting back to friendly lines. Interesting book and loved the British slang that crept in every once in a while. Apparently once upon a time "wizard" = modern equivalent of "awesome".

[slipdigit · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

This an autobiography of Typhoon pilot shot down on the 7th of June, 1944, west of Caen. He evaded capture for 70 days, living among and with French farmers. Initially he was hidden in barns and the like, but eventually was transferred away from the fighting to a family that had a small house detached from the main living quarters, where he initially hid. A few days later, refugees from Caen passed through the town, and he mixed in with then to appear to be a refugee that had family there. He was able to move around openly, even talking regularly with German soldiers. He knew enough passable French such that while the local knew he wasn't French, the Germans did not.Over all, it was a interesting story and I liked reading about the British point of view. The book could have used a bit more editing and polishing, but overall he told a good story.