Sparks reached Gibraltar with Hasler but returned separately after the officer was flown home first. British authorities therefore had no immediate witness able to corroborate the Marine's account and sent him onward under arrest. He escaped his escorts to visit a family that had been told he was missing, then slipped away again when another office threatened detention. Of two accounts of his eventual recognition, the more plausible one credits a Women's Royal Naval Service personnel officer at Combined Operations headquarters with connecting him to the secret unit.
Chapter · 41:39-45:21
Bill Sparks survives the raid and the bureaucracy
Sparks escaped through France and Spain, then twice slipped British custody because the rapid return of Hasler left officials unable to verify his extraordinary story.