Nicky Barr. Various sites in Northern Italy
Nicky Barr was a fighter ace flying with the Royal Australian Air Force during the Second World War. A rugby player before the war, Barr was credited with 12 combat victories, and was awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross with Bar (DFC) and the Military Cross (MC) for his services, with the MC coming for his services aiding others besides himself in successfully escaping the enemy and returning to active service.
Barr was shot down twice behind enemy lines, both times managing to evade capture and return to service, despite being wounded in one incident. In June 1942 he was forced to parachute from his damaged fighter and was captured by Italian troops in the Libyan desert, again seriously wounded. After being treated at Tobruk he was transferred to Italy and imprisoned near Bergamo.
Barr was an intractable prisoner, making repeated attempts to escape from the Italians. On one attempt he was near the Swiss border when he tried to overpower a customs officer by hitting him over the head with a rock, he was initially charged with murder. When it was proven that the officer had survived the attack he was placed in solitary confinement. When a group of prisoners including Barr was shipped to Germany as Italy was nearing surrender, Barr escaped by jumping from a train near the Brenner Pass, eventually being found by a group of Italian partisans.
He was recaptured, escaped and was recaptured again before he was found by allied troops who were involved in sabotage activities. Twice more Barr was captured by either German or pro-Mussolini partisans before he crossed the Apennine Mountains leading more than a dozen former POWs to safety.
After recovering from the combined effects of his wounds, malaria, malnutrition, exhaustion, and sepsis, Barr returned to active service with the RAF during the Normandy campaign and through the rest of the war in Europe. He primarily operated against the V1 and V2 launching sites. After the war he returned to a wife who had been told on three separate occasions that her husband had been killed, and although his injuries prevented a return to rugby he began an ultimately successful business career. His subsequent success led to his being awarded an OBE in 1983.