At the end, he was trying to save his wife by stealing a reconnaisance plane.
Not only it's unarmed, at that time in 1943 the allies do not have air superiority over Europe yet.
Whether he flew north toward the neutral country of Sweden or south toward Switzerland and he will have to fly over German occupied territories of France, Belgium, Holland and over Germany itself, he wouldn't had been able to make it.
The plane was a Lysander, used by the British early in the War for liaison and army cooperation. Because of its ability to land over a short distance on rough ground, it was often used for working with the Resistance. But in the film, flying to Dieppe only involved crossing the Channel.
The Lysander had a range of 600 miles, and so the only possible (but still unrealistic) neutral country to reach would have been Switzerland, some 500-700 miles away. Even that would have been at extreme range, and Max left in such a hurry that I doubt he even had the charts ready. And yes, it involved flying over enemy-occupied countries and landing in any of them would have branded him a traitor. But wait, he became a traitor anyway if he stole a British plane and escape with an enemy agent aka his wife.
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No, Spain is in excess of 1,000 miles away from England - much farther than either Switzerland (500-700 miles) or Sweden (some 800 miles). For example, it would be 1,200 miles from London to Barcelona near the Spanish frontier. Cut that number down because Max's airfield was presumably near the southern coast of England, but it would still be far beyond reach.
On the other hand, Ireland, which was also neutral at the time, is far closer and for most routes it would be less than 400 miles - and so within reach. I wonder what kind of reception they would get if he chose to fly there.
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Yup, he could just join the partisans like he did on the prison mission.
shareJust saying that plane will be easy picking for a German FW190 or ME109.
shareI also thought stealing a Lysander was somewhat weak - it was not a fast plane though perhaps it could outrange any pursuit.
With a srange of 600 miles it could perhaps reach the spanish border, perhaps even switzerland.
I'm not convinced about the air superiority theory.
Movie starts 1942. (let's say early 1942)
Marianne moves to Britain a month later.
Nine months for the birth of Anna - so about early 1943
Fast forward one year later - early 1944. (close to Feb/March I expect, judging by the talk of Max leading the resistance on D-Day)
So its reasonable to suppose that by March 1944 Max might have been able to pull it off to Switzerland in the Lysander as NAzi air superiority might have been weak by then
I think he could only have access to the Lysander because that was the one he was flying. He could not possibly be seen by people in the airfield fueling a bomber or some longer-range aircraft, and I am surprised that no one asked him why his wife and kid were with him. He could not have used a fast fighter for the same reason.
As I said in an earlier post, Spain would have been too far compared to Switzerland and (as another poster suggested) Ireland. Air superiority or not, there was always a chance for a single plane to slip through, but the odds were quite forbidding (navigation problems, fuel, danger from both the British and Germans). The range of the aircraft was more useful in ruling out immediately alternatives that were impossible than in showing which ones were practical.
Thanks for your reply. On some further thinking I realised that if I were Max and my wife's life was in danger - possibly mine as well - I'd take my chances with any aircraft and any destination.
I did, however think it was too much coincidence that Max could conveniently fly the Lysander - not a very common aircraft - sufficiently well to hop onto one at such short notice - for his first trip as well as his second attempt.
My bad.
I did get the timeline wrong.
It is 1944 and yes, the Allies would had air superiority in Western Europe by then especially after Normandy.
Was it after July 1944 when France was liberated already?
He could had safely flown to France.
Or if it was after October 1944, the southern region of France that was unoccupied by the Germans and under Vichy government were no longer Vichy, they were all under the new de Gaulle government.
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