Lost Airmen: The Epic Rescue of WWII U.S. Bomber Crews Stranded Behind Enemy Lines

by Charles E. Stanley Jr.

Overview

Late in 1944, thirteen U.S. B-24 bomber crews bailed from their cabins over the Yugoslavian wilderness. Bloodied and disoriented after a harrowing strike against the Third Reich, the pilots took refugee with the Partisan underground. But the Americans were far from safety.

Holed up in a village barely able to feed its citizens, encircled by Nazis, and left abandoned after a team of British secret agents failed to secure their escape, the airmen were left with little choice. It was either flee or be killed.

In The Lost Airmen, Charles Stanely Jr. unveils the shocking true story of his father, Charles Stanely-and the eighteen brave soldiers he journeyed with for the first time. Drawing on over twenty years of research, dozens of interviews, and previously unpublished letters, diaries, and memoirs written by the airmen, Stanley recounts the deadly journey across the blizzard-swept Dinaric Alps during the worst winter of the Twentieth Century-and the heroic men who fought impossible odds to keep their brothers in arms alive.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781684514052
Publisher:	Skyhorse Publishing
Publication date:	05/16/2023
Series:	World War II Collection
Pages:	320
Sales rank:	442,639
Product dimensions:	5.90(w) x 8.90(h) x 1.10(d)

About the Author

Charles E. Stanley Jr., the son of one of the eighteen Lost Airmen, is an internationally recognized expert in the field of U.S. airmen downed in WWII. A graduate of the University of South Carolina and the State University of New York, Stanley is a member of the Society for Military History.

Table of Contents

Chapter 1 The Making of a Pilot 1

Chapter 2 Shot Down Twice 19

Chapter 3 Churchill's Choice 39

Chapter 4 Following Tito's Footsteps 59

Chapter 5 Bombs Bursting in Air 75

Chapter 6 Stranded in Sanski Most 87

Chapter 7 Herky's Boys Get Downed 103

Chapter 8 The Weakest Link Breaks 111

Chapter 9 Point of No Return 121

Chapter 10 Flying on Borrowed Time 135

Chapter 11 The ICARUS Mission Arrives 145

Chapter 12 A Conspiracy of Circumstances 155

Chapter 13 The Flying Shithouse and the Ghost Ship 171

Chapter 14 An Unmerry Christmas 187

Chapter 15 The Tourist Takes Charge 201

Chapter 16 At the Mercy of Friends 215

Chapter 17 Pulling Rank 229

Chapter 18 On the Home Front 243

Chapter 19 Bitter Logic 249

Chapter 20 Far from Over 267

Chapter 21 A Terrible Blindness 281

Epilogue: Coming Home 299

Afterword 311

Acknowledgments 315

Appendix-Air Crew Rosters 317

Select Bibliography 323

Notes 335

Index 351