However, on his 7th mission the Americans encountered German planes while escorting a bomber. Yeager shot down one German plane and returned safely. On his next mission in 1943, his plane got shot down over enemy territory and he had to jump out. At this time in age, there were no ejection seats, which is why he was forced to jump. The next three weeks were horrible for Chuck. After he jumped, all he had was 2 stale candy bars and a bottle of water. He saw a French woodcutter and jumped him for his axe. Instead of getting mad, the Frenchman got help for Chuck. Within a couple of hours, Chuck had the help of the French Maquis, a French resistance group. The group led them to the Pyrenees Mountains with one other shot down pilot, where they told them that they were on their own. They hiked the mountains for days, thinking that they were going nowhere. One day, they found a cabin and rested. While they were at the cabin , the other pilot put his socks over bushes to dry. Later a German patrol officer discovered the socks and, opened fire in the cabin without even investigating. The other pilot got his leg blown completely off. Chuck decided to carry him for three days before they finally got into neutral Spain. There, Chuck spent another three weeks in a luxury hotel, paid for by the army, while the government negotiated for his release. When he finally returned to base, he received bad news. He was not going to be able to go back to fight, because if he got shot down again the Germans would torture him to find out where the Maquis were. Chuck appealed to General Dwight Eisenhower and Eisenhower let him stay in. .
After his appeal, Chuck's career took off. He went back in the Corps and after a couple of missions we was back to dogfighting. One time there were 200 Germans attacking roughly 40 Americans. On that day, Chuck shot down five Germans on his own, becoming an Ace Shooter. All German planes were shot down and only half of the American planes were shot down.
