Commander Tony Shaw - Telegraph Suddenly Shaw was called to draw on his rudimentary French to make contact with the Resistance. He tried his luck with a peasant woman, and soon all three men were being sheltered. They remained hidden until the American Army overran Grignan. After 36 hours of partying, which ended with a lunch attended by four French civilians, two American army officers, "Konrad," "Kurt" and Shaw, he was taken to Allied headquarters at St Tropez. Shaw rejoined his ship, Attacker, in Alexandria in time to celebrate his 21st birthday with his squadron. He was appointed MBE for his two escapes and for reducing the Wehrmacht's fighting power by two men. Months later, when he was serving in the British Pacific Fleet in the war against Japan, he was gratified to receive a letter from the two Germans, which noted that they were working as prisoners of war on a farm in Arizona. Anthony Ian Rawlinson Shaw was born on September 5 1923 at Balfour, British Columbia, on an arm of Lake Kootenay, and brought up on the lake at Riondel, where his father was manager of a silver mine and general store. His family returned to England after the mine closed during the Depression, and Tony was educated at Christ's Hospital in Surrey. Aged 18 he joined the Navy as a naval airman 2nd class, and after basic naval training at HMS St Vincent, Gosport, learned to fly in at Grosse Ile, Michigan. By early 1943 he had returned to Britain, having qualified in deck-landings at sea and having flown the Spitfire - "a beautiful aircraft" which gave him "an indescribable feeling of elation." His first operational squadron was 879 NAS, flying in support of the Allied landings on Sicily and at Salerno on the Italian mainland. As well as having a fighter-bomber role, 879 specialised in photographic and tactical reconnaissance and in Army co-operation, noting the accuracy of Allied artillery. In April 1945 Shaw's squadron re-embarked in the escort carrier Attacker and saw action over the Malay Peninsula before VJ-Day. Post-war Shaw spent two years as a King's Messenger, but he was recalled to the Navy to help train a new generation of pilots for the Fleet Air Arm. He became an Empire Test Pilot and flew 65 different aircraft , totalling 4,568 flying hours, including 610 deck landings. His last appointment was as Defence Adviser in Sierra Leone, which his wife, Sally, had first visited when she had been landed there in 1942 after being shipwrecked by the torpedoing of the Duchess of Atholl by a German U-boat. Tony Shaw settled in Fife in 1989. In 2005 he published an elegant and humorous account of his career, The Upside of Trouble. He married, first, in 1951, Sally Philip. He married, secondly, in 1992, Elisabeth Shimmons (née Vickers), who survives him with two sons. Both "Konrad" and "Kurt," whose names Shaw never revealed for fear that they would face punishment for deserting, are still alive. Cdr Tony Shaw, born September 5 1923, died November 21 2012