What were successful POW rescue missions in World War 2?

Answer 1

The one case that springs to mind, though not strictly a rescue of POWs, is the attack on the Gestapo Prison at Amiens in 1944 engineered by RAF Mosquitos. The aircraft (mostly I think Australian and New Zealand crews) had to pick out their target with pinpoint accuracy due to the fact two hospitals were in the immediate area - one only a hundred yards or so away. To get the accuracy required the planes had to fly so low that special fuses had to be fitted to the bombs to prevent aircraft being blown up by bombs dropped by the aircraft in front. In fact one plane was so low that its tail wheel was ripped of by a roof and another dented its nose in the same way. The purpose of the raid was to destroy the guard quarters and the perimeter walls allowing important members of the resistance held prisoner to escape. Although some prisoners were killed over 250 or so were able to escape. More input: * I will just add that the bombing technique was to "skip" the bombs along the asphalt surface of the road that led directly to the prison, with delayed action fuses. The prison was located at a "T" intersection, and the approach road had trees along either side that were about 60 feet high, so that feature was used to calculate the delay on the bomb settings.