The Australian War Memorial Collection. Test site
Lille, France. June 1945. Joe Balfe presents members of the Lille area with a certificate for their participation in assisting Allied airmen to escape. From left to right: John Madge RAF, an escaper (partly obscured); Joe Balfe; B. Johnson who worked for the route from Anglet in France; others unidentified. Mr Johnson, an Englishman who had worked for the Comte de Baillet La Tour, chairman of the International Olympic Committee in Brussels before the war, had tried to flee to England via Spain, but on finding the border blocked had settled with the de Greef family of Belgium and all became involved with the escape route. This route was used by 283 Allied airmen to escape over the Pyrenees from France to Spain. The Comet (Comete) route ran from Brussels via Paris, Bayonne, Ciboure and into northern Spain. Small groups of usually four airmen accompanied by an english-speaking escort and a local guide made their way over the dangerous route. Towards the end of the war, it was not possible to take the airmen over the border and they were held in camps hidden in the Ardennes in Belgium and the Freteval Forest in France. (Donor W. Jay)
Ciboure, France. August 1946. Colleagues who had been part of the Comet escape route sit on the grass in a field, the Pyrenees Mountains in the background. This route was used by 288 Allied airmen and
Bierges, Belgium. April 1980. Noel Eliot (left) with Baron Jean (Big John) de Blommaert de Saye, outside his home. Baron de Blommaert de Saye, a Belgian Army officer who went underground after the inv
Probably Ciboure, France. c. 1945. Florentino Goicoechea (front), a Basque peasant sits by the side of the road, his leg wrapped in a blanket while he is convalescing from a broken leg. He is with co
Forest of Freteval, France. April 1980. Noel Eliot stands at the probable site of the first camp in the forest where eventually 152 allied airmen were hiding waiting for liberation. The camps were par
Forest of Freteval, France. c. July 1944. Eight of the 152 allied airmen hidden in the forest, part of the Comet (Comete) escape route organised by the Underground which included camps in the Forest o
Forest of Freteval, France. April 1980. The memorial commemorating the participation of the Underground in setting up two camps in the forest where eventually 152 allied airmen were hiding between May
