The heroics of an SAS commando who achieved the 'impossible' escape from the Gestapo after blowing up a German train can be revealed 81 years on.
Squadron Quartermaster Sergeant John Alcock appeared doomed when nearly 40 enemy troops surrounded the French farmhouse he was hiding in.
But he orchestrated a daring escape during a close quarters shoot-out, killing six of the enemy and leaping over a wall with his adversaries in close pursuit.
He then lay in wait in dense woodland and picked off the enemy one by one before carrying on towards the Allied lines on the French-German border.
The final dash for freedom saw him weave his way through German frontline positions in the Vosges Mountains, the most heavily defended lines in all of Western Europe, undetected.
