{"product_id":"last-man-out-ronald-m-wade-9781764777605","title":"Last Man Out: An RAF Rear Gunner's True Story of Fire, Wire, and the Long Walk Home","description":"\u003cstrong\u003eHis life. Or the man beside him. Sergeant Ron Wade had seven seconds to choose.\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eOn the night of 16 January 1941, twenty-three-year-old Ron was about to jump from a burning Whitley bomber over the Dutch coast.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eThen he saw his navigator coming up the fuselage. Parachute and harness in his hands. Unable to put them on.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eThe aircraft was on fire. The silk was on fire. The North Sea was below.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eRon turned back. He zipped the navigator's harness shut, pushed him out, and jumped after him.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eHe was the \u003cstrong\u003elast man out of Z6462\u003c\/strong\u003e.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003e\u003cem\u003eLast Man Out\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/strong\u003e is the true story of the four and a half years that followed: four German prison camps, the camp the world would later know from The Great Escape, a 500 km forced winter march that killed men by the hundred, a homecoming that was harder than the wire, and a postwar Air Ministry that quietly stripped him of the rank he had earned behind it.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eInside \u003cem\u003eLast Man Out\u003c\/em\u003e you will discover: \u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cul\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003eThe seven-second decision\u003c\/strong\u003e that defined a life, and the navigator who lived because of it.\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003eStalag Luft III\u003c\/strong\u003e, the camp Hollywood made famous, where Ron helped dig the first tunnels.\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003eThe Long March of 1945\u003c\/strong\u003e: 500 kilometres on foot in the bitter winter, with dysentery, raw horsemeat, and SS troops shooting stragglers from behind.\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003eThe rescue Ron never talked about\u003c\/strong\u003e: how he organised the rota that carried failing men to safety, and the \u003cstrong\u003e25 to 40 prisoners who walked home because of him\u003c\/strong\u003e.\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003e15 April 1945\u003c\/strong\u003e, Ron's birthday, when RAF Typhoons mistook his column for retreating Germans. A man he had been carrying for a week was cut in two beside him. British tanks were 25 kilometres away, rolling into Bergen-Belsen. Ron didn't know.\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003eThe rank they took back\u003c\/strong\u003e: how the Air Ministry, after Ron came home half-deaf with a fractured skull, quietly demoted him from Warrant Officer to the lowest enlisted rank in the RAF.\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003c\/ul\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eOrder \u003cem\u003eLast Man Out\u003c\/em\u003e today, while there are still men like Ron to remember.\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eAuthor:\u003c\/b\u003e Ronald M. Wade\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eISBN-10:\u003c\/b\u003e 1764777603\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eISBN-13:\u003c\/b\u003e 9781764777605\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePublisher:\u003c\/b\u003e Levity\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eLanguage:\u003c\/b\u003e English\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePublished:\u003c\/b\u003e 06\/01\/2026\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePages:\u003c\/b\u003e 154\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eFormat:\u003c\/b\u003e Paperback\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eWeight:\u003c\/b\u003e 0.47lbs\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eSize:\u003c\/b\u003e 9.00h x 6.00w x 0.33d","brand":"Ronald M. Wade","offers":[{"title":"Paperback","offer_id":48997810995455,"sku":"9781764777605","price":18.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"url":"https:\/\/www.whiterainbookhouse.com\/products\/last-man-out-ronald-m-wade-9781764777605","provider":"WR Book House","version":"1.0","type":"link"}