Tom Maxwell at his 93rd birthday party in Devon (Image: AdrianMaxwell/BNPS)
Tom Maxwell was a 19-year-old rear gunner in 1944 on his sixth sortie when his Lancaster was hit by anti-aircraft flak in German-occupied France. He baled out at 8,000ft in the pitch black and limped to a farm near Rouen in Normandy where he was hidden by the farmer and his wife in their attic for 10 days. Tom asked his hostess, Madame Tancre de Maertens, for fried eggs on toast - and months later when Allied troops arrived she recalled the "strange" snack. She cooked them the same treat and - inadvertently thanks to Tom - "Oeuf sur le pain grille" reached local cafes.
With Resistance help, Tom got false identity papers and a lift to Paris where he caught a train to Toulouse in the south of France.
He reached a town in the Pyrenean foothills and joined a party of 12 Allied airmen who walked for three days through the mountains into Spain.
After travelling by train to Gibraltar, he flew back to Britain on May 22, 1944 - 10 weeks after jumping from his plane.
Tom was given a Distinguished Flying Cross for his escape and rejoined 622
