After recovering from his accident, Wintle was seconded to a military academy in France where he was a guest lecturer thanks to his fluency in French. It was in France that he became close friends with several French Air Force officers. Like Wintle, they could see the storm clouds gathering over Europe, and Wintle made a pact with them that should France fall, they would fly their squadrons to England with Wintle’s help.

When war broke out in 1939, Wintle was transferred to military intelligence in London. He was, again, furious about this. As far as he was concerned, he belonged in a combat role, despite being forty years old, half blind and without the full use of his leg. His superiors thought otherwise.

When France fell in 1940, Wintle was determined to keep his promise to his French Air Force friends. He rang through to a nearby airfield, telling them to get a plane ready for him for an immediate flight to Bordeaux. Unfortunately, he used the name of an officer, Air Commodore Boyle, who was actually at the base at the time. Boyle confronted Wintle when he arrived at the airfield. Determined to fly to France, Wintle drew a gun on Boyle and threatened to shoot him, telling the stunned officer that 'people like you should be shot.' He was overpowered and sent to the Tower of London. He was later formally reprimanded for drawing his gun on Boyle and sent to join his old regiment in Syria.

After a brief stint gathering intelligence in the Middle East, it was decided Wintle should be sent to Vichy France to gather intelligence on the treatment of British prisoners of war. Disguised as a teacher, Wintle attempted to make contact with the French Resistance. Unfortunately, his contact turned out to be a traitor who betrayed him.

Arrested as a spy, Wintle was incredibly lucky not to be shot. Instead, he was sent to a Vichy prison, where he informed his guards that, as an English officer, it was his sworn duty to escape. His guards didn’t take him seriously and were quite surprised when he did just that. Unfortunately, he was recaptured after checking into a local hotel because he was in desperate need of a bath.

Back in prison, Wintle languished for a year, bored out of his mind. Eventually, he told his guards that he was going on hunger strike, telling the prison commandant, Maurice Molia, that he wouldn’t eat again until the commandant and his men had smartened themselves up and submitted themselves to regular inspections because they were currently not fit to guard an English officer. An incredulous Molia refused, and so a two-week-long battle of wills began.

Over the next thirteen days, Molia did everything he could to get Wintle to eat, including having his own personal chef cook him a tempting banquet. When all attempts failed, Molia gave in. He told his men to smarten themselves up as requested and allowed Wintle to carry out his inspections. Satisfied, Wintle began eating again. Soon back to full strength, he used his inspections to scout out the prison and surrounding area. He had soon devised another escape plan. Using a bed spring from his bed, he managed to saw through the bars of his cell and jump out of the window, landing on a cart he had observed going in and out of the prison. He made his way to Spain – a neutral country throughout World War II – and from there he returned to England.

Wintle saw out the rest of the war behind a desk in London. His fighting days were finally over, and at the war’s end he retired from the army on a full pension due to disability. He had married his wife Dora in 1944, and the two settled down to what Dora presumed would be a quiet life in Kent. Colonel AD Wintle had other ideas.