Roy Allen

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For the statistician, see R. G. D. Allen

Roy Allen (1918 - 1991), was an American bomber pilot from Philadelphia during World War II. On June 14, 1944, pilot Roy Allen and the crew of his B-17 Flying Fortress embarked on a mission over Nazi-occupied France that was supposed to be a milk run. It proved more dangerous than anything they ever imagined. Blasted by flak, Roy was forced to parachute into France. Trapped behind enemy lines, he was rescued by Colette Florin, a 21-year-old schoolteacher and member of the French Resistance. On his way back to England, Allen was betrayed by a traitor within the Resistance. Captured by the Gestapo, tortured, imprisoned and labeled a terrorist, he became one of 168 Allied airmen who were shipped across Europe on a nightmare rail journey to the Buchenwald concentration camp.

[edit] External links

Penn History Professor Thomas Chiders wrote a novel focusing around Roy Allen titled, In the Shadows of War: Three Lives United By French Resistance (the second novel in a trilogy written about World War II):

http://www.dailypennsylvanian.com/vnews/display.v/ART/2003/03/07/3e6864d01d9cb

Historical Drama that includes Roy Allen's Story:

[edit] Book

Thomas Chiders (2003). In the Shadows of War: An American Pilot's Odyssey Through Occupied France and the Camps of Nazi Germany. Henry Holt & Company. ISBN 0-8050-5753-6.