By train, bus, and on foot almost 2,000 miles

 

Shortly after the war’s outbreak, Scotsman Bert Conville joined the 1st Glasgow Highlanders, part of the famous 51st Highland Division. Near Cherbourg, the Germans overtook his battalion on July 17, 1940.

 

Bert and 30 of his comrades spent eight days captive in a field before being stuffed into a cattle train bound for a German POW camp. As their comrades distracted the guards, Bert and a pal from Glasgow, John McCubbin, leapt from the train near Brussels in neutral Belgium.

 

Heading toward British lines, the pair hid in the woods for six weeks. Cold weather drove them to venture into a village. There, an Englishman gave them civilian clothes and referred them to Anne Duchene, a member of the Belgian Resistance. An Irish woman married to a Belgian, Duchene allowed the escapees to stay with her and her daughter.

 

Bert convinced the Gestapo that he was a Belgian deaf-mute known as Bobby Colt and got a job in a German-run meat factory. But an informant blew his cover, and the Gestapo raided Duchene’s house, shooting and capturing John and sending Duchene and her daughter to concentration camps.

 

Bert fled along a dangerous escape route, the Comet Line. Set up by the resistance, the Comet Line offered escapees food, clothes, and false identity papers before hiding them in attics or cellars. A network of people guided Bert by train, bus, and on foot almost 2,000 miles to the British Consulate in Bilbao, Spain, from where he sailed to the Allied base on Gibraltar. From there, Bert sent his wife a message: “All is well. Hope to be home soon, possibly for New Year. Be sure and get a bottle in.” It was the first she’d heard from him in 13 months. From Gibraltar, he shipped out after 17 months on the run. One of roughly 5,000 men to evade capture on the Comet Line, Bert Conville arrived home in December 1941.