Verdis Pryor enlisted in January 1942 and was sent overseas. Assigned to the 303rd Bomb Group / 359th Squadron, he was a photographer on board B-17 "Augerhead" of the 358th Squadron when it was shot down on the 31 August 1943 mission to the Amiens/Glisy airfield, France. Missing Air Crew Report - MACR 470 - Verdis' Escape & Evasion Report is E&E 377. Pryor landed in a tree, suspended about 10m from the ground. A Frenchman threw him a knife so he could cut the cords. He learned later that he had parachuted near Beauvais and, helped on his way by French citizens, he walked all the way through Beauvais, Amblainville, Paris, Etampes, Orléans, Vierzon. From there he took a train to Narbonne, another one to Port Bou near Perpignan and reached Cerbère on the Franco-Spanish border on 21 December 1943. He arrived in Spain on the 23rd, went to the US Consulate in Barcelona, stayed about 3 weeks in a hotel in that city while all necessary arrangements could be made for his repatriation to England. He reached Gibraltar on 3 February 1944 and left from there by air, arriving at Prestwick Scotland on 5 February 1944.



Awards: WWII Victory, EAME.