I see that Tony Snell has died.He had a hair raising experience in Sicily flying No 242 Squadron Spitfires. Shot down over Sicily, he was captured and escaped to Switzerland when being conveyed to Germany in North Italy. His experience,"The Man Who Would Not Die" was related in Paul BricknIlls excellent publication in 1952 "Escape or Die"...a gripping tale of a man determined to escape. Badly wounded from his maltreatment,he had to receive treatment for his wounds in Switzerland after first receiving treatment in a Catania German field hospital...required further treatment after the war. Wounds were extensive to the arms One bullet between the fingers of the right arm Two bullets in the right shoulder Two bullets through the left arm One bullet graze on the left hip One bullet chipping the spineand another lodged near the spine 15 pieces of grenade shrapnel in the body and legs.One piece severing the radial nerve of the left wrist. DT obituary.....http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/obituaries/10228970/Flight-Lieutenant-Tony-Snell.html Tony Snell returned to flying duties and before the end of the war was one of the first pilots to convert to the Meteor with No 504 Squadron.
