MEDFORD, Ore. — Harold Hayes, an Army medic and the last survivor of a group of medics and nurses who spent nine weeks evading capture in Nazi-occupied Albania during World War II, has died. He was 94.

All 30 men and women in the group eventually made it out, but it was kept secret to protect partisan fighters who helped them. Hayes’ daughter, Margaret Bleakley, said he died Jan. 22 in a hospital in Medford, Ore.

Hayes was among 13 medics, 13 nurses and four crew members to board a cargo plane in Nov. 8, 1943, in Sicily expecting a two-hour flight to help wounded troops in Italy.

“It sure wasn’t something any of us expected,” said Hayes in a 2013 interview with the Medford Mail Tribune. Bad weather caused the plane to go off course, and it was attacked by German fighters before ducking into the clouds, finally running low on fuel and landing 25 miles inland.

“The pilot made a skillful landing,” Hayes said. “But it came to an abrupt stop when the wheels bogged down in the mud. It turned up on its nose and fell back again.”

A crew chief was the only casualty, unable to walk with a knee injury, and the others carried him for much of their 600-mile trek out. Along the way they suffered dysentery, lack of food, and the dangers of German patrols. They were listed as missing and letters went to their families.

In late November, British intelligence learned the American plane had crashed and those aboard were alive. Rescue plans were developed.

On Jan. 9, 1943, 10 nurses and 17 medics and crew members boarded a British launch and crossed to Italy. Three nurses who remained behind in the German-occupied city of Berat made it across in March 1944, riding mules to the coast and then a torpedo boat across the Adriatic. The escape was classified for years.