One Down, One Dead - Hardcover

by Frank Speer (Author)

Two WWII fighter pilots, raised on different continents and trained in different countries, fight life or death combat with the Luftwaffe over Europe. They flew P-51 Mustangs in the 4th Fighter Group and contributed to the Group score of a record 1000-plus enemy planes destroyed, the highest total of any Allied Group. They became Aces within a day of each other; then one was killed in combat on D-Day, while the other, having been shot down, trekked across northern Germany in a futile effort to evade capture.

He is finally captured and as a POW, is forced to participate in a "Death March." After several unsuccessful attempts, he and a fellow POW finally escape. Leading a handful of French forced-laborers they capture 25 German soldiers, turn them over to Patton's advancing Third Army and eventually return to the U.S. by hospital ship.