Publisher Description
The astonishing, never-before-told story of the greatest rescue mission of World War II—when the OSS set out to recover more than 500 airmen trapped behind enemy lines…
During a bombing campaign, hundreds of American airmen were shot down in Nazi-occupied Yugoslavia. Local Serbian villagers risked their own lives to give refuge to the soldiers, and for months the airmen lived in hiding, waiting for rescue.
In 1944, Operation Halyard was born. The risks were incredible. The starving Americans in Yugoslavia had to construct a landing strip—without tools, without alerting the Germans, and without endangering the villagers. And the rescue planes had to make it through enemy airspace and back—without getting shot down themselves.
Classified for over half a century for political reasons, the full account of this unforgettable story of loyalty, self-sacrifice, and bravery is now being told for the first time. The Forgotten 500 is the breathtaking, behind-the-scenes look at the greatest escape of World War II.
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“”The Forgotten 500″ is a remarkable story of a little known event during World War II when literally hundreds of Allied airmen (mostly American) were trapped behind enemy lines in the rugged hills of Yugoslavia. More than a tale of courage and a nearly impossible rescue that the United States somehow pulled off, the books goes into detail about the social, political, and religious landscape of the Balkans. The OSS, the precursor of the modern day CIA, played no small role in this event and it was interesting to read how this organization came about during the Second World War. Learning about the conflicts between Yugoslavian military leaders Tito and Draza Milhailovich and all the hazy and cloudy political shapeshifting was a real eye-opener for me. This book has it all — the daring airmen, British spies and moles, Communists and Nazis, the OSS, the State Department, Presidents Eisenhower and Truman and so much more. For anyone interested in American history, especially the stories that are rarely told, this is the perfect book.”
—
Larry (4 out of 5 stars)
