Bale Out! Escaping Occupied France with the resistance

Alfie Martin was born at Finaghy, Belfast in 1920. In 1938, like many young men at that time, he was hit by a feeling of patriotism. Forbidden by his mother from joining the Royal Air Force Volunteer Reserve – it was too dangerous! – in January 1939 he instead joined the Antrim Fortress Company, Royal Engineers. This was a Territorial Army company training one evening a week in central Belfast. Called up in August 1939 he served with the Engineers at Kilroot, Helen’s Bay and Magilligan before joining the Royal Air Force in May 1941. It was while serving with No 102 Squadron RAF, at Pocklington, Yorkshire, as an Observer on Halifax bomber HR663, that his aircraft was shot down over the French-Belgian border and this remarkable tale of escape from German-occupied France began.