For the first time, the Starshy Leytenant Devyataev's daring escape plan is translated from Russian into English.

Devyataev was shot down and captured on July 13, 1944 during a combat mission.

After numerous escape attempts, and preferring to die trying to escape than to remain and die in captivity as a prisoner in an extermination camp, this pilot carried out an audacious plan in two months to hijack an enemy plane and flee from his captors, culminating this feat on February 8, 1945.